Wallace, Idaho: The Town Under the Interstate

Wallace, Idaho, is the kind of town you notice because the interstate is running directly above it. Not beside it. Above it. I-90 was built on a viaduct through downtown, which means you can park beneath the freeway, look up at six lanes of traffic, and wonder who approved this wonderfully bonkers arrangement.

Take Exit 61 and follow the signs into town. Park in the free public spaces along Bank Street or in the downtown lots near Sixth Street; you will not need the car again until you leave. Wallace’s historic center is only a few blocks long, with brick storefronts, old mining buildings, and enough saloons to suggest that the nineteenth century had a serious hydration problem.

Start at the White Front Cafe on Bank Street. Order the biscuits and gravy if you arrived hungry, or the huckleberry pancakes if you want breakfast to taste like Idaho. It is casual, unfussy, and the sort of place where coffee appears before you have fully sat down. Bring cash just in case, because small-town cafes still occasionally behave like small-town cafes, and honestly, good for them.

After breakfast, walk the restored downtown and poke into the mining museum. You do not need to be a mining-history enthusiast. The old equipment is enormous, grimy, and fascinating in the way only machines built to burrow through mountains can be. The town also has a quirky claim to fame: Wallace declared itself the Center of the Universe. There is a manhole cover marking the spot, because apparently cosmic geography can be both profound and municipal.

For the afternoon, drive east on the old highway toward Lookout Pass, stopping wherever the forest opens up. In summer, bring a picnic and look for short walks near the pass. In fall, the hills turn gold and copper, and the traffic on the interstate becomes background noise instead of the main attraction.

Spend the night if you can. Wallace is much better after the day-trippers leave, when the neon signs come on and the elevated freeway hums overhead like a very large, very committed ceiling fan.