Starting from humble beginnings with local musicians and some of their out-of-town friends in the late 70s, the Festival has become a favorite site for national and international musical groups, both for its friendly atmosphere and especially for the high caliber of music now being attracted to the McCall music scene.

Back in those early times, there were some accomplished musicians in the McCall area, but with limited venues for performing. Mostly they gathered together and jammed, sharing tunes and good times. Two such people were Patrick Harren, McCall's ‘resident Irishman,’ and Jim Cockey, who expanded his violin repertoire by learning a lot of the Irish and old-time fiddle tunes. Both were founding members of the McCall Folklore Society, along with many other local musicians who simply wanted to bring high-quality folk music to the area. Folklore organized itself for the purpose of presenting concerts, the first of which were mostly locals and people from Boise and the Moscow area.

Jim and Julie Cockey, Patrick Harren, David Simmonds, Ron (Bear) Seiler, Kathy (Goldie) Golden, Peggy Conway and Blaine ‘Be-Bo’ Murray, and Susie Hurd were at those meetings and became the first board members. Ken Kuhn also provided a lot of support and a place to meet, (at the Conservatory). Jim and Julie did the paper work to get us registered with the Idaho Secretary of State as a non-profit. Articles of
Incorporation and a Mission Statement were written and submitted.

Many of the original Folklore people were part of the ‘Music Circus,’ early California transplant musicians that wintered at the schoolhouse on Farm to Market Road, and their musical connections came from as far as Missouri and Maine, Utah , and Seattle, Washington . ‘Music Circus’ and their friends. Music was at the core of their social life.

Everyone knew this or that hot group that could stop by McCall to do a concert on their way to somewhere else. Jam scenes were all over the place. They began to invite people from Boise, such as the Morse Creek String Band, and Cockey and others formed a local band called the Long String Valley Band to play a yearly concert in McCall. This initiated the festival. Another motivating factor was that local musicians wanted to have the opportunity to play with professionals.

The first festivals took place at the Alpine Theater, and the first year featured only local musicians. The second year the first outside group was for the Deseret String Band from Utah.

‘That is what causes the confusion about how many years we have been running the festival,’ said Seiler. ‘Some folks start their count the first year before we actually hired someone to come from outside of the area.’

There were workshops during the day and a square dance/BBQ on Sundays every year. It was a much bigger production in a lot of ways, but the format was similar to today's format. The big debate has been and will always be what type of music should be produced and put on the stage. There were always two camps, one that was more into pure traditional American folk/Irish music, and folks who wanted to sponsor a very broad
range of music, e.g., salsa, African, etc. What you see today on stage is a reflection of that debate.

A few years later, along came Lawrence Smart, a guitar and mandolin builder, who met regionally and nationally-known musicians at trade shows, whom he invited to come and play. Thus the festival went from a one-day affair to two days, and the visiting musicians did workshops and jammed with the locals.

Festival organizers, however, always made it a policy to not grow beyond the ability of the local volunteers to handle. They started out at the Alpine Playhouse for the one-day shows, and then moved to the University of Idaho Field Campus site where the festival went to a three-day format, with the first night being for the locals to show their stuff, playing for free so that the proceeds could support the other groups on Friday and Saturday nights. The result became the annual Summer Music Festival.

Smaller concerts were also booked at other times of the year, to bring single and smaller group performers to town to entertain us during the off-seasons. Folklore has never intended for these concerts to produce a profit, but more in keeping with our love for live music, we often take a small loss in order to hear our favorite touring musicians.

Area Facts:

About McCall, Donnelly, Cascade & Roseberry:

McCall is a resort city located in Valley County, Idaho. Named after its founder, Tom McCall, it is situated on the southern shore of Payette Lake and near the center of the Payette National Forest. McCall is one hundred miles north of Boise, accessed via the Payette River Scenic Byway (state highway #55). According to 2005 census estimates, McCall had an estimated population of 2,415.

Traditionally a logging community whose last sawmill closed in 1977, McCall is now an all-season tourist destination for outdoor recreation. The resort town is known for its Winter Carnival, extended winters, and the highest average snowfall in the state. Nicknamed ‘Ski Town U.S.A.’, McCall is the home to many past winter Olympic athletes.

McCall History:

Native Americans were the first inhabitants of the land in and around McCall. Three tribes, the Tukuaduka Shoshone, a sub-band of the Shoshone known as the ‘Sheepeaters,’ and the Nez Perce, inhabited the land primarily in the summer and migrated during the harsh winter months.

In the early 1800s, the nomadic French Canadian fur trapper, François Payette, roamed the area alongside other mountain men like Jim Bridger, Peter Skene Ogden and Jedediah Smith.

During the 1860's, miners temporarily named the settlement ‘Lake City’, but only alluvial gold was discovered and they moved fifty miles north to the town of Warren.

The settlement of McCall was established by Thomas and Louisa McCall circa 1889-1891. For a cabin and assumed rights to the 160 acres (0.65 km²) of land, they traded a team of horses with Sam Dever, who held the squatter rights. Tom, his wife, four sons and a daughter lived in the cabin located on the shore of the lake near present day Hotel McCall. He established a school, hotel, saloon and post office, naming himself as postmaster. McCall purchased a sawmill from the Warren Dredging company and later sold it to the Hoff & Brown Lumber Company, which would become the driving economic force until its closure in 1977.

During this time Anneas ‘Jews Harp Jack’ Wyatte provided the first recreational sailboat rides around the lake for tourists and advertised in the Idaho Statesman a ‘30 foot sailing yacht for the use of parties who might visit the lake’. The Statesman referred to McCall as a ‘pleasure resort’.

Tourism continued in the early 1900s. In June 1902, the Boydstun Hotel in nearby Lardo opened as a ‘place to stay and camp on Payette Lake’. In 1906, Charlie Nelson opened a tented camping area known as Sylvan Beach Resort along the west side of Payette Lake. In 1907, Lardo Inn opened for business. The arrival of the Oregon Short Line railroad (later named the Idaho Northern and Pacific Railroad) in 1914 secured McCall as a viable community and tourist destination. Three years later McCall was incorporated as a village. In the 1920s, the state land board started leasing home sites along the lake.

The now famous winter carnival started in 1923-24. Reports vary between hundreds to thousands of tourists visiting the festivities.

The beauty of McCall and Payette Lake drew attention from Hollywood in 1938 when it was selected as the filming location for the Academy Award-nominated Northwest Passage, starring Spencer Tracy, Robert Young, and Walter Brennan. The film, released in 1940, was about the French and Indian War of 1755-63.

In 1943, the U.S. Forest Service opened the McCall smokejumper base. It is one of only eight smokejumper training bases in the nation. The site includes a smokejumper training unit, paraloft, dispatch office, and the McCall air tanker base.

The iconic Shore Lodge opened July 3rd, 1948, along Shellworth Beach on Payette Lake. The lodge became McCall's centerpiece for the next 51 years. Shore Lodge management and shareholders intentionally created a resort style lodge that was a cozy and intimate place for locals and tourists, contrasting with the glamour and glitz of the other famous Idaho lodge in Sun Valley. The former Shore Lodge is now officially known as Whitetail.

In 1965, a 1,000 acre (4 km²) peninsula 2 miles (3.2 km) outside of McCall became the Ponderosa State Park. The park is home to some of the largest old growth trees in the western U.S.

Donnelly is a city in rural Valley County, Idaho. The population was 138 at the 2000 census. Donnelly is on the east shore of Lake Cascade (Cascade Reservoir) between the two major cities in the county. McCall is 13 miles north, and Cascade is 16 miles to the south via the state highway (#55). The new Tamarack Resort is across the reservoir to the southwest.

Donnelly & Roseberry's History:

Some of the early settlers came to this part of the valley in 1886. Many more came in 1887 and 1888 and settled the eastern slope of the Goldfork Area. The valley floor and west of the river weren't settled until 1900-1904.

Early settlers held land by ‘squatter's rights’. The land wasn't surveyed until after 1890. Later, the ‘squatters’ secured land under the Homestead Act. The Act required that certain improvements be put on the land and lived in as a permanent residence for a period of time.

All supplies were brought in from Boise, Emmett, Weiser and Salubria Valleys by six-horse freight teams. A trip up from Boise to Roseberry with team and wagon took a week, longer in bad weather.

The first store was established in Roseberry by J.W. Pottenger and W.B. Boydstun in 1892. The first Post Office in this area of the valley was established in 1892 with Lewis Roseberry as the first Postmaster. The town named for him is still known as Roseberry, though most of the buildings have been moved away or torn down.

Cabins in the area were made of logs with a small amount of lumber brought from a sawmill on Clear Creek about 30 miles to the south. The first sawmill in this area was built by J.W. Pottenger and Mrs. Sult in 1892. It was located on Gold Fork Creek and was run by Mr. Sult.

Upper Long Valley was used as a summer campground by the Nez Perce, Bannock and Shoshone Indians. Until 1915 they continued to camp along Willow Creek as they made their yearly trip to and from salmon fishing on the South Fork of the Salmon River.

Cattlemen from the lower valleys used Long Valley as summer pasture in the early days and resented the homesteaders coming. The homesteaders resented the cattle trespassing their fences and fields. The old timers still tell tales of the cattle wars that resulted.

In the winter of 1888-1889 early settlers did not realize how deep the snow would get or how long it would stay. The preceding winter was mild with little snow. Pasture was available for cattle and horses all winter. The newcomers thought they had found a paradise. The next winter the snow fell steady and deep. Without enough hay or feed, the settlers attempted to drive the cattle over the mountains through six feet of snow. Many cattle were lost. Some ‘squatters’ left for milder climates. Those who stayed had learned to make hay while the sun shone. At that time, the whole valley floor waved with tall, lush bunch grass which was there for the harvest.

Roseberry became a thriving town and was the largest town in the valley until the railroad came in 1914. It was a ‘dry’ town because the deed for the town site included a clause that no liquor could be sold on the property.

Among the thriving businesses were: a hotel, bank, drug store, flour mill, ‘Advocate’ newspaper, harness shop, general merchandise store, hardware store, restaurant, soda fountain, creamery, brick kiln, two-room school and a church.

Another Post Office was established at Spink, three miles north of Roseberry about 1900. Mrs. Lydia Spink was the Postmaster there and operated it until about 1914 when the railroad came.

It seemed to be a policy of the railroad company to miss the village areas. Hence after 1914 Roseberry declined and Donnelly sprang into being as did Cascade. The town was named after a Mr. Donnelly who was a prominent railroad man at the time.

Cascade is a rural city in the west central part of Idaho, at an elevation of 4780 feet (1457 m), along the North Fork of the Payette River. It is the seat of Valley County and had a population of 997 at the 2000 census.

Cascade is on the southeast shore of Lake Cascade (formerly Cascade Reservoir, but officially changed to ‘Lake’ to circumnavigate the negative connotations of ‘reservoir’), formed by the Cascade Dam, built by the Bureau of Reclamation. Construction was started in 1942, halted by the war, and completed in 1948.

Cascade was the home of a sizable Boise Cascade sawmill which closed in May 2001.

The recreational city of McCall is 30 miles north, and the village of Donnelly is a little over midway, via state highway #55. The new Tamarack Resort is across the reservoir to the northwest.

Cascade's History:

Back in 1860, John Welch settled in the area that is now Cascade and established a station for freight on its way from Oregon to the mining camps in Idaho City, north of Boise. A couple of decades later, more settlers arrived and began transporting the region’s fish and produce to Boise Valley for sale. In 1912, the town of Cascade was named for the dramatic falls that existed on the North Fork of the Payette River near town. A dam was built in 1948, however, and Cascade Reservoir covered up the falls; nevertheless, the town’s name stuck.

Cascade has served as the county seat for Valley County since 1917. Today, its primary economies are agriculture, logging, and ranching—as well as tourism from those visiting to enjoy Cascade’s natural beauty and year-round recreational opportunities.

Valley County is located in the west central part of  Idaho. The county was established in 1917, named after the Long Valley of the North Fork of the Payette River, which extends nearly 30 miles from Payette Lake at McCall south to Cascade. The valley was formerly a summer pasture for Boise Valley livestock. Since the construction of the Cascade Dam in 1948, much of the valley has been covered by the Cascade Reservoir (Lake Cascade). As of the 2000 Census, the county had a population of 7,651 (2005 estimate: 8,332).

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