By Ben Olson
Reader Staff
In the world of journalism, there’s nothing better than a follow-up story.
Quite often, our coverage of particular issues doesn’t begin and end with a single article. Instead, there can sometimes be dozens of stories spread out over time that contribute to a rounder, more complete picture of an event or issue that has evolved over time (has anyone ever read the word “parking” in the Reader?).
Every week, I comb through the old newspaper archives looking for humorous stories from our past. Sometimes I find gold; other times it’s just a pretty rock, but they’re all entertaining and paint a picture of what life was like in North Idaho more than a century ago.
In the July 9 edition of the Reader, I wrote of the Tubbs family from Sandpoint in the “Old School Bonner County News Stories” column. The family of four embarked on a 1,500-mile walk from here to St. Paul, Minn., in July 1913, pushing a 75-pound barrel filled with food and camping supplies mounted on a bicycle wheel. The family claimed they would walk during the day and camp wherever night found them. The trip was apparently a scheme to improve the health of A.L. Tubbs, and the family left Sandpoint on the evening of July 8, 1913.
I chose this story for the column in our July 9 edition, which generated a few emails from readers wondering what ever happened to the Tubbs family. Did they make it to St. Paul? Did they have any misadventures along the way? Did Mr. Tubbs’ health improve?
Always keen for a good follow-up, I dove back into the newspaper archive to learn the fate of the Tubbs family.
Unfortunately, I found no follow-up articles on whether the family made it.
Digging deeper, I spent the better part of an evening trying to learn the fate of this plucky family 113 years after their mission.
I first found a notation in the “Here and around about” society section of the Pend Oreille Review from July 14, 1916, which stated, “E. Tubbs of Weyauwega, California, was the guest of his brother A.L. Tubbs of this city the past week, departing Wednesday for the east,” so it appeared that Mr. Tubbs and family made it back to Sandpoint after their voyage. But why no mention of their walking trip?
Another article in the Northern Idaho News dated Jan. 26, 1915 listed Tubbs as the founder of a committee to establish a dog race in Sandpoint, but again no mention of his long walk.
Finally, I found a brief notation in the Oct. 3, 1913 Northern Idaho News that shed some light on Tubbs’ pedestrian journey:
“Popular Mechanics for October has a picture and sketch of A.L. Tubbs and his wife with their barrel and dog as they looked in July when they left Sandpoint on a proposed trip on foot to St. Paul. They got only as far as Glacier park, but the advertising they received at the time extended much further than that.”
Sure enough, when searching the Popular Mechanics archives, I found the photo printed on this page with a brief story about their journey. It appears the Tubbs family walked as far as Glacier National Park in Montana before turning back for Sandpoint.
We still have no idea what caused them to return before their goal, or what inspired their voyage in the first place (other than a remedy for Mr. Tubbs’ health), but I like the fact that specifics are not readily available for this nearly forgotten journey of a Sandpoint family. Sometimes, in the course of a lifetime, we just do weird stuff and there’s no answer that makes sense, even 113 years later.
I like to think of A.L. Tubbs on one of those hot summer days in 1913, pushing his bundle of gear in the barrel on a bicycle wheel, wife and children by his side, dog at his heels; a simple man from a small place in America, walking to see what he could see.
Here’s hoping he found it.
Dig into North Idaho history yourself by accessing the old newspaper archives at ebonner.historyarchives.online. It’s free and always entertaining. Thanks to the East Bonner County Library District for providing us with this resource.
