Boating on the lake has a long history. More than 50 steamships were used in the commentarial trade and took passengers down to Harrison for vacation. Steamships were a popular form of transportation from the 1880s to the 1930s. More steamboats operated on Lake Coeur d'Alene than on any lake west of the Great Lakes. Today, several of those early boats can be found on the lake's bottom. Other modes of transportation made them obsolete.

The Model T Ford was not the first car made by Ford; that was Quadricycle, completed in June 1896. Ford was involved with two company failures before his success with the Model T. He persevered and produced models A, B, C, K, N, R, S, and T Fords. It was the Model T Ford that made him famous. Its low price and dependability made it the most popular car in America. It was nicknamed the "Tin Lizzie," named after domestic servants referred to as Lizzie's. The Model T became the family servant on the farm. It was used to power the windmills, run the washing machine, split firewood, and plow the field; it was off to Church on Sunday. Monday, it would be used to take livestock to market. It became a modern necessity on the farm. Her local paper interviewed one lady in Nebraska because she bought a new Ford. The reporter asked why she spent the money on a Model T instead of remodeling the farmhouse. The reporter reminded her that she could have gotten rid of the outhouse and had a flush toilet and a bathtub in the house for what she paid for the Model T. She replied, " You can't go to town in a bathtub. Another publication referred to the Model T as "the car that changed the world." Over 15 million Model Ts were produced between 1909 and 1927. The Model T Ford is still on the top-ten list of most cars sold of all time. This car opened the world of adventure and travel for most Americans. Before the Model T, people lived and died within 50 miles of their birth. Now they could travel 100 miles or more in a single day. After WW1, many GIs took their honeymoon in a model T. The new outdoor sport Auto Camping was taking the nation by storm. No longer did you need to rely on train schedules and the limits of the rail system. By 1922 the New York Times estimated 15 million automobile campers on the road. Field & Stream introduced a new section in their magazine that referred to Auto Camping America's latest sport. The model T Ford's impact on American culture cannot be overstated. It changed the way Americans lived. You will experience the automobile as it was over 100 years ago as you tour Coeur d'Alene and learn the town's early history.

The first internal combustion boat was made some 135 years ago According to the stories, the builder ran into trouble when he wanted to test the motorboat. A group of irate locals stopped him from launching the boat because they'd heard rumors that the boat was powered by explosions. (They did not understand the internal combustion engine) They feared it would be deadly to let him test the boat. In 1903 Dorothy Levitt set the first-ever speed record of 19.3 mph.

The Picnic Launch
Recreational boating in the early 1900s was primarily confined to sailing and large steam yachts manned by professional crews. By 1905 gasoline-powered boat boats were becoming popular. Yacht clubs members still expressed little enthusiasm for this new trend. The owners of lake cabins that had rowed boats on the lake looked fondly at the new gasoline-driven craft. The leisure class embraced the new gasoline picnic launches, replacing the rowboat at the summer home. The new boats were used to cruse to some remote spot and enjoy a picnic lunch on the lake. Hence the name picnic launch. The boats traveled leisurely, about five to seven mph, much faster than rowing. They could carry a family and friends around the lake in relative comfort. These boats grew in popularity until faster boats were developed. Today the 1909 "Golden Calf," a picnic launch, is the oldest boat operating on the lake. It is powered by a "1909 Motor Go" engine.