A little about Shadow Hollow’s main lodge:
The Shadow Hollow Wilderness Preserve is located in Good Grief, Idaho (an unincorporated section of the city of Bonners Ferry - population 2,543 per the 2010 census). Its name derives from a prominent building which was formerly a community school house, but is more recently a popular restaurant/saloon. Good Grief was "saluted" in the early 1970s television show Hee Haw as having "a population of three with two dogs and one old grouch.”
The main lodge was built in the late 1980’s. Designed by the renowned architectural firm McLaughlin & Associates (Ketchum, Idaho) and constructed under the direction of Jim McLaughlin, the project required nearly two years to complete.
The logs chosen for this unique construction were massive Canadian tamarack (larch), selected from standing dead timber resulting from a forest fire in the early 1900’s. The imposing timbers average 20-inches in diameter, the result of 300 years of growth. The stonework is equally breath-taking. As an example, the largest stone of the massive masonry work atop the front door weighs several tons.
The project soon caught national attention, as evidenced by Marlene Werner’s 1988 New York Times article, “No Cabin Fever in This Log Home.” She detailed the lodge’s construction as featuring, “7 bedrooms, 10 bathrooms, 7,000 square feet of windows, 7 miles of radiant-heat coils in the floors, 1,000 square yards of concrete with 25 tons of steel reinforcing bars, 6 chimneys, 9 fireplaces and was built utilizing over 800 tons of stone. The construction took over 18 months, with as many as 44 craftsman working at the same time. This massive undertaking required 1.1 million pounds of 20-inch lathe-turned larch logs, or about 1,200 trees.”
Despite the massive elements of its construction, the Shadow Hollow main lodge has a stunning open and airy feel. Its 40-by-50-foot great-room features a 40-foot ceiling and a large indoor greenhouse. A sea of windows presents the splendor of the valley in all of its seasonal variety as you relax among the comforts of the lodge.
Since the estate underwent new ownership in 2017, Shadow Hollow has benefited from a large renovation and expansion project scheduled for completion by the fall of 2022.