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Nestled just fifteen miles over the Idaho state border in a dense embrace of evergreens lies the Silver Valley mining town of Wallace, ID. Population under 1,000 yet declared by its mayor to be the Center of the Universe (as it can’t be proven otherwise), Wallace marks a small, charismatic treasure in the Gem State.
But a ’90s movie bursting with pyroclastic clouds, lava, and acid lakes gave this little town a special boom. Roger Donaldson’s Dante’s Peak (1997) took Wallace and placed the community at the explosive center of a volcanic Hollywood disaster.
Visiting Wallace, ID
Wallace is about twenty minutes from Montana, between Shoshone County and the popular Idaho tourist city of Coeur d’Alene. Accessible via Interstate 90, Wallace is an easy, no-fuss quick stop for film enthusiasts like me and those with dwindling gas tanks—also like me.
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Wallace occupies the lushly forested Idaho Panhandle, a region comprising the state’s ten northernmost counties. Visitors appreciate the town’s warm, somewhat secluded atmosphere—despite its adjacency to a freeway, it remains self-contained and untouched—quaint downtown buildings (all on the National Register of Historic Places) and charming insulated feel.
The Setting(s) of a Disaster Movie
Universal Pictures’ Dante’s Peak, starring Pierce Brosnan (James Bond) and Linda Hamilton (Sarah Connor of the Terminator series), wielded Wallace as the “perfect location” for a Pacific Northwestern disaster movie. Wallace’s surrounding conifer-carpeted hills and mountains lend it a rugged loveliness, enhanced further onscreen by the digital volcano that VFX artists inserted into the film.
While visiting, I compared shots from Dante’s Peak, the name of both the film and its fictional setting, to its real-life location. Wallace’s diminutive size made for uncomplicated recognition of places like the Rossi Insurance Building, a blue-turreted brick establishment, and the green awning-sporting Historic Smokehouse Barbecue and Saloon. Ash clouds wipe out both these places and more when the film’s Mt. St. Helens-patterned stratovolcano belches forth its superheated insides.
Additional filming locations to visit include Dobson Pass in Shoshone County, a road the movie’s two children drive along to rescue their grandmother, Ruth, and the place where Grandma Ruth lives, Mirror Lake, which is about an hour and fifteen minutes from Wallace in Bonner County, ID.
The Old River Road Bridge in Enaville, ID, twenty-odd minutes away, will find you tracing the same steps Harry Dalton (Pierce Brosnan) and Dante’s Peak mayor Rachel Wando (Linda Hamilton) took in the film. And the Silver Bridge in Kingston, ID, makes for a picture-perfect place for you, too, to get swept away in a flood in your car after telling Pierce Brosnan a volcano isn’t really going to blow.
Why not set up base camp in Wallace while you sketch these other locations into your itinerary? Fueled by the Brooks Hotel’s huckleberry pancakes, there’s nothing you can’t do!
The People of Wallace
Part of Wallace’s charm is its anachronistic nature. In the nearly thirty years since Dante’s Peak was filmed and released, neither Wallace nor its residents have changed much. The same buildings stand sentinel in the same streets; the population slowly dwindles, then climbs some, but never in a particularly significant way; worn brick and faded, old-fashioned signs adorn locally loved storefronts.
The people themselves also have a distinction to them. Over 90% of Wallace is white, and many employees work in the mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction industries, maintaining the town’s rich mining history. Wallace isn’t terribly diverse—less than three percent of its residents are foreign-born—but these statistics only reinforce the town’s time warp factor.
As the rest of America diversifies racially, ethnically, and, in some cases, politically, Wallace remains a conservative, homogenous town in a deeply red state. But don’t worry; Wallace has many friendly locals and a peaceful atmosphere that can make anyone feel welcome.
In 1996, Wallace’s residents couldn’t contain their excitement at Hollywood’s arrival in their town and proudly revealed how low-key and old-timey they were. One young woman commented, “I think [Dante’s Peak is] exciting. We live a humdrum life.” Another shared, “Wallace was built on mining, prostitution, and gambling, and we’re not ashamed of it.” Yet another said, “People say Wallace is a hundred years behind the times, but they don’t realize we like it that way.”
Being “behind the times” (as the town undoubtedly still is in some ways) might seem negative nowadays, but it’s precisely what Roger Donaldson liked about Wallace decades ago and what I love about it now. Wallace’s relaxed, carefree, yet hardworking locals don’t just make for convincing small-town movie extras; they’re also representative of some of America’s finest qualities: family values, tradition, simplicity, and neighborly love.
Retreat to Wallace to forget your breakneck modern troubles, unplug, and tune in to the natural beauties around you; your mind and spirit will thank you for the reprieve!
Why Wallace Endures
No number of facts or data sheets can pinpoint exactly why Wallace, ID, remains such a gentle, unruffled little town. Time alters many things, but Wallace just isn’t one of them. Its laidback “behind the times” stillness becomes more blissful and desirable every year.
Why is this? It could be because Wallace, with its antiquated downtown and encompassing forest, serves as a refuge for weary souls from the brutalist architecture, technological epidemic, and rush-rush, bumper-to-bumper chaos that frames contemporary living.
Unlike other tourist spots, Wallace doesn’t feel like a trap but an escape. It’s a treat—a mountain getaway—a place to recalibrate and peer into the lives of people who don’t entangle themselves as much in modernity’s drama because they’re busy doing more important things, like living the life that’s right in front of them.
And that is why Wallace, ID, is not only a must-see for fellow disaster film buffs (I know you’re out there somewhere!) but a necessity for beleaguered souls. Come to Wallace full—of angst, sorrow, overwhelm—and it will empty you, then refill you in the loveliest ways.
If You Go:
Ready to whisk off to Wallace? Pack your essentials, book your flight to the Spokane, WA International Airport (GEG), or the Missoula Montana Airport (MSO), then map out fun activities like:
● Hiking/biking the Pulaski Tunnel and Hiawatha Trails
● Visiting the Oasis Bordello Museum (don’t have too much fun in there!)
● Skiing/snowboarding at the Lookout Pass Ski & Recreation Area
● Chowing down on huckleberry treats
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Author Bio: Alyssa Charpentier is a pop culture essayist, adventurer, and the author of the Myrk Maiden Trilogy, a YA dark fantasy series. She enjoys immersing herself in the Pacific/Inland Northwest (collectively, “home”), Southern California, where she currently resides, and filming locations for her favorite movies.
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