Historic Wallace, Idaho: Silver Valley's Living History Town

The Whole Town Is a Museum

Wallace is the only town in the United States listed in its entirety on the National Register of Historic Places. Every building downtown is part of the registered district, which is why the streetscape feels so consistent. The town survived a massive 1890s fire, the 1910 Big Burn, and the highway expansion of I-90 (which now passes overhead on a flyover so the historic grid could stay intact). Walk it on foot.

Wallace also claims, tongue firmly in cheek, the title of Center of the Universe. There is a manhole cover marker downtown commemorating the designation, which a former mayor declared in 2004 on the (also tongue-in-cheek) reasoning that nothing has been disproven there yet. It is the kind of town that has fun with itself.

Museums

Three museums anchor the downtown rotation. The Northern Pacific Railroad Depot Museum occupies a 1901 chateau-style depot that was famously moved ninety tons across the river to save it from I-90 construction. Inside, you find the railroad story of the region, with exhibits open from Memorial Day through Labor Day.

The Wallace District Mining Museum holds artifacts from the broader Coeur d'Alene Mining District, the most productive silver district in U.S. history. The museum has been featured twice on the Travel Channel's Mystery at the Museum. Upstairs from a former 1895 building, the Oasis Bordello Museum preserves a brothel that operated until 1988. The preservation is unforced: the rooms look exactly as they did on the day the business closed.

Eat and Drink

Wallace's walkable downtown has breweries, antique shops, boutiques, the historic Wallace Inn, and the 1313 Club, a longstanding bar and grill in a building that has been pouring drinks for well over a century. Plan a half-day or full day in town, and bring an appetite. For dinner, drive the thirty minutes back to Watson's and eat at Red's Tavern on the lakefront deck. Garden-to-table, our 1906 lodge tavern feels right after a day in Wallace.

The Wallace Chamber maintains the official town site at wallaceid.fun with current event listings and downtown business directories.

Wallace also makes a strong half-day for travelers planning a Hiawatha ride. Lookout Pass is twelve miles east of town at I-90 Exit 0, which puts you within twenty minutes of the Hiawatha trailhead. Plan a morning ride on the Hiawatha, shower at Lookout, and drive into Wallace for an afternoon mine tour and an early dinner before the drive back to Watson's. The whole loop fits in a long day, and the mining tour and the rail-trail share enough historical connective tissue (this whole region was built on rails and silver) that the day reads as a single experience rather than two separate stops.