Taken by Storm

By Marylyn Cork

My siblings and I grew up near Round Lake State Park, east of Priest River. Three or four of us—along with our mother and grandmother, who were chaperones, I assume, planted seedling trees at the site, which was then a park in the making. I was probably in the eighth grade. Our schoolmates joined us in the planting, and so did children from a couple of other elementary schools nearby, in the days when independent school districts were located every several miles apart.

We children were helping Idaho transform a mosquito-infested mud-hole into a site of beauty. A photo of us putting those little evergreen trees into the ground can still be seen on an interpretive signboard at the park. The year was about 1950. It was a glorious day, but damp. Wondrously, the rain held off but it had fallen copiously before and after.