Link to historical imagery

Anyone who reads this blog knows I stay pretty connected to the past. In fact, I should probably list that fascination along with my other obsessions of gardening, photography, hiking, horses and getting to know people.

Learning about the past is like a enjoying a 12-course meal. Sample a little. Take some time to digest it and think about it. Move on to the next course. Total enjoyment throughout. The only difference I see is that a 12-course meal leads to undesirable weight-gain and an eventual desire to just go sleep it off.

You'll never catch me sleeping off any morsal or even a full smorgasboard of history. I can devour it any old time and feel all the healthier because of it.

With that in mind, I'm going to point you toward a link I've just discovered after looking at my www.mariannelove.com guestbook this morning. Jonna Hall of Boise wrote me a note and told me about the updated version of a website touting "all things Ross Hall." I've read in several articles lately that Idaho did not need an Ansel Adams.

We have Ross Hall.

When the town gets to bragging about all it has to offer, Ross Hall's photos always appear on the menu. As, they well should. This friendly, debonair photographer, who was raised on a Texas ranch and eventually found North Idaho, carried his camera gear everywhere for decades, and we are all so fortunate for those efforts.

Ross Hall photos chronicle wartime in North Idaho, great fishing derbies on Lake Pend Oreille, the splendor of high mountain peaks, early skiing at Schweitzer, back-woods logging operations and, of course, the many people who contributed their individual contributions to our historical pot.

One does not need to describe the quality of these photos. In fact, words will not do that.

Ross Hall definitely proved the forever statement that a picture is worth a thousand words. A trip to www.rosshallcollection.com will verify and validate my assertion. I cannot imagine anyone ever looking at a Ross Hall photo without coming away in jaw-dropping awe.

This morning, I have had a few minutes to quickly navigate this website, and Jonna was nice enough to tell me that a story I'd written about Mr. Hall a few years ago is among the collection of articles on the site. I'm honored.

Ross's son Dann is one of my classmates from the 1965 SHS graduating class. Dann has spent years, cataloging the thousands of negatives in the Ross Hall collection, which dates back to the 1930s. Now Dann runs the Hallans Gallery in downtown Sandpoint, and whenever my friend Alice Coldsnow and I take people on downtown tours, the gallery is a must-stop.

Dann does not need to talk much. He usually shares a few anecdotes about his famous photographer dad, and if he's lucky, someone might be listening. Not that they're rude. They're just so enthralled with viewing the magnificent and tastefully mounted black-and-white photos that it's hard to multi-task with a second sense.

The website also offers some frosting on the cake. It's linked up with Sandpoint Magazine, which is linked up with www.sandpointonline, so it's definitely an esthetic one-stop shopping place to go if you want to learn about Sandpoint and its history.

As my words add up to one thousand, I'll cut it off here and simply send you to the site. Like the guy from Men's Warehouse who utters his time-honored boast about the quality of his suits, I'll boast that you can expect high quality and great enjoyment from this site, which you need to bookmark: I guarantee it!

www.rosshallcollection.com