Tours and Excursions

Community Art Gallery

Central Idaho Cultural Center

Smokejumper Base

Valley County Museum

McCall Fish Hatchery

Fish Net Pens

Idaho Power Hydro Plant

Community Art Gallery

McCall's first community art gallery is open at 1001 State Street across from McCall Memorial Hospital. The gallery is located in the new Central Idaho Cultural Center, which is being developed on a five-acre historic site. The center also houses the first historic exhibits of the new center and offices of the McCall Area Chamber of Commerce. The gallery boasts 450 square feet of interior space - a long awaited opportunity for area residents and visitors to honor the community's large population of outstanding visual artists. Changing exhibitions throughout the year are judged by well-known area artists and arts professionals. Artists from the many mountain towns surrounding McCall are always invited to submit work for consideration. The gallery is a project of the McCall Arts & Humanities Council, which manages the exhibition program as well as has its offices there.

The gallery is open 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. The Community Art Gallery space was formerly a car garage for vehicles of the Southern Idaho Timber Protection Association. Thanks to an energetic philanthropic effort involving volunteer contractors and tradesmen, building supply companies, and many McCall businesses, as well as a grant from the Utah-based Dumke Foundation, the garage was transformed into an attractive gallery setting. Most of the work on display is offered for sale. The McCall Arts & Humanities Council is a nonprofit community organization formed to nourish and support the artistic life and humanities resources of the McCall area. The council engages in numerous projects to serve and grow McCall's cultural community. For more information, visit the gallery at 1001 State Street or call the arts council at 634-7136.

Central Idaho Cultural Center

The former Southern Idaho Timber Protective Association site in McCall is developing into a unique community facility called the Central Idaho Cultural Center. With the cooperation and volunteer efforts of many McCall people, civic organizations, businesses and the help of funding agencies through out the state, improvements are progressing.

The center is located on five acres of city-owned land on State Street across from McCall Memorial Hospital. The log structures, timber machinery displays and historic documents pertaining to early forestry, are now gathering in this central location. The buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places, and were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps. The five acres of forested land has broad lawns fronting on West Lake Street between downtown McCall and Shore Lodge.

The McCall Rotary Club has restored the massive Murray-Corliss steam engine and wheel which at one time operated at the McCall sawmill on Payette Lake. Volunteer master gardeners have replanted and tend the State House gardens and flower beds. Plans for the arboretum, sponsored by the Idaho Department of Lands, installation of a fire tower, parking lot and public restrooms are progressing. The former fire station building now houses the offices of the McCall Area Chamber of Commerce and the McCall Arts and Humanities Council, along with the business office for the Center.

For current information on exhibits and to arrange tours of the State House and surrounding grounds, call 634-4497.

McCall Smokejumper Base

Every summer McCall welcomes back almost 70 smokejumpers - a group of highly experienced men and women firefighters who parachute from airplanes to fight wildfires in remote and rugged terrain. McCall is the home of one of only four smokejumper bases in the West. The base, completed in 1988 at a cost of $2.9 million, is located along Mission Street on the west side of the McCall Municipal Airport.

The base is a starting point where smokejumpers respond in a few minutes notice to fires set by lightning or man. If they do their job well, a potentially disastrous blaze can be nipped while still harmless. A national smokejumper program began as an experiment in 1939 and developed into a regular operation in 1944. Five smokejumpers began operating from McCall in 1943. McCall smokejumpers also provide support to firefighting efforts in the western United States and Alaska.

A tour of the facility lets the public get a smokejumper's view of the base. Visitors can see the "ready" room, where jumpers await their turn to be sent into fires, a training center, parachute loft and rigging area. The facility also includes a dispatch office, retardant loading base, meeting rooms and aircraft parking and taxiways. To arrange a tour of the facility, call the Payette National Forest at 634-0390.

Valley County Museum

Visitors to Long Valley can take a trip back in time with a visit to the Valley County Museum, located at the former town site of Roseberry. To reach the museum, turn off of Idaho 55 on East Roseberry Road in Donnelly. The museum is owned and operated by the Long Valley Preservation Society, which was organized as a nonprofit corporation in 1972. The museum consists of several original buildings dating back to the turn of the century that once made up the town of Roseberry.

The original Methodist Church of Roseberry was acquired by the society in 1973 to become a history museum for the Long Valley area. In 1976, the restored church opened as a museum. Several weddings still take place every year in the old church. The museum also includes the Larkin Home, which was moved back to its original location in the Roseberry site in 1990. Restoration work is still progressing on the 1903 home, and eventually it will be furnished to a 1916 decor.

Three buildings were moved to the museum in 1995, including the original Roseberry store and gas station. It is being restored and will be used as a research center. Two private residences, long ago moved to be closer to Idaho 55, were also transported back to Roseberry last year. They include the Grover Miller home and the Barrenger House, a four-square home. Both are being restored.

Visitors can also witness some construction in progress. Framework for an exhibit barn is currently in place. Some of the artifacts on exhibit include items used by the early Finnish settlers in the area, logging and carpentry tools and an old threshing machine. A boat and other artifacts used in the MGM film production of "Northwest Passage" filmed in McCall in 1938-39 are also exhibited.

McCall Fish Hatchery

Since 1980, the McCall Summer Chinook Fish Hatchery has worked to restore salmon populations in the South Fork of the Salmon River. The hatchery is located on Mather Road along the North Fork of the Payette River in McCall. It features a visitor center with pictorial and written descriptions of the hatchery system and programs. Sign boards throughout the plant point out places of interest.

The hatchery is a popular place for group tours, especially students during the school year. Tours can be arranged by calling 634-2690. The hatchery is open to self-guided tours from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week. During July and August, the hatchery operates a satellite facility to trap returning adult chinook salmon on the South Fork of the Salmon River about 24 miles east of Cascade.

The $5.1 million facility was the first hatchery built under the Lower Snake River Compensation Plan. The plan was passed by Congress to try to restore runs of the ocean-going fish that were depleted when hydroelectric dams were built along the Columbia River. Those dams blocked the natural migratory routes of the salmon to the sea and back again.

Designed to accommodate one million chinook salmon, the hatchery also houses cutthroat and rainbow trout that are released in high mountain lakes, spanning an area north to Lewiston, south of Boise, east to Stanley and west to the Oregon-Idaho border. Along with the high mountain lake program, the hatchery also redistributes catchable rainbow trout throughout the summer to many of the area rivers and lakes.

Fish Net Pens

If you can't remember the last time you saw thousands of trout in one place, the fish rearing net pens on Payette Lake are a must see. The net pens, which are open to the public during daylight hours, are located on East Lake Street next to the Sports Marina. Every spring, each of the two net pens are filled with thousands of young trout whose sole purpose in life is to eat and grow. The local chapter of Trout Unlimited provides gumball machines filled with food for visitors to feed to the fish.

The fish are fed throughout the summer and then released into Payette Lake in the fall. The pens, and the dock leading to them, were constructed in 1991 using funds provided by the Payette National Forest, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, Trout Unlimited and local businesses under the collective name Payette Lakes Net Pen Association. Trout Unlimited has since accepted responsibility for maintaining the docks and the nets.

The F&G provides the fingerlings, along with biological care while the fish grow. The aim of the project is to improve the quality of trout fishing in Payette Lake, as well as creating a point of interest to the public.

Idaho Power Hydro Plant

The magic of water being converted into electricity can be viewed daily at the Idaho Power Co. hydroelectric plant at Cascade Dam in Cascade. The $24 million plant put out its first kilowatt of energy in 1983. The plant's twin turbines can produce up to 12.8 megawatts of electricity. The plant is located at the base of Cascade Dam and uses water sent through the dam to spin the turbines that generate the power.

The plant is located one quarter mile from Idaho 55 at the Crown Point turnoff. Tours are given between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. Monday through Friday. For larger groups, call to make arrangements at 382-3372 or write to Idaho Power Co., Box 610, Cascade, ID 83611.