Book Club and the Historic Foote Homestead

For our informal book club, a dear friend and I recently read a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novel titled Angle of Repose, written by Wallace Stegner. As the book is approximately 580 pages, I felt triumphant after finishing it.  The novel follows the life of Mary Burling Ward, from her youth to her old age, as she travels from the East, westward, to California, Colorado, South Dakota, Idaho, and Mexico.  While the book is a work of fiction, Mary Burling Ward's character is based on the life of a real woman named Mary Hollock Foote, an author and illustrator known for her depiction of Old West mining communities in her work.

As Foote lived right outside of Boise, Idaho in the 1880's, I was especially interested in the Idaho portion of the book.  Foote's husband, Arthur, a civil and mining engineer, was extremely important to the start of irrigation in the Boise area and the family lived near the current location of Lucky Peak Dam. While the Foote house does not remain standing, parts of the foundation are still visible. Jason, my siblings, and I took a field trip to view the location ourselves.

Later that weekend, Jason and I stopped to enjoy some coffee in the afternoon sunlight, and I reminisced about the book and my love of Idaho and the characters that have lived here.  Over the speakers, the song Wagon-Wheel played softly and it enhanced the mood and completed the experience.

        Husband and his Coffee

Wagon Wheel, sung by the Old Crow Medicine Show