Wallace, Idaho: The Tiny Town With an Interstate Under Its Feet

If your ideal weekend involves a scenic drive, a decent burger, and a town with one gloriously weird secret, point your car toward Wallace, Idaho. It sits just off I-90 in the Silver Valley, about 75 miles east of Spokane, and it feels like the sort of place you’d invent for a road-trip movie.

Park downtown on Bank Street or Pine Street; the angled spaces are free, and you can leave the car there all afternoon. Start with a stroll along the compact historic district, where brick storefronts, old neon, and mining-era buildings make even a coffee run feel like a set visit. Then walk to the famous Center of the Universe manhole cover. Yes, really. Wallace declared itself the Center of the Universe in 2004, and the official explanation is essentially that nobody has disproved it.

For lunch, go to the 1313 Club and order a burger with fries. It’s the right kind of road-food stop: unfussy, filling, and more interested in feeding you than staging a photoshoot for social media. If you want something sweet afterward, look for huckleberry ice cream around town. Idaho takes its huckleberries seriously, almost to the point of needing a small intervention.

The best drive is east on I-90 toward Lookout Pass. The highway climbs through thick forest and big mountain scenery, and the old railroad history becomes part of the landscape. If you want to stretch your legs, the Pulaski Tunnel Trail follows the route of a 1910 firefighter escape and gives you a surprisingly dramatic walk without requiring an expedition wardrobe. Wear shoes that can handle mud, especially after rain.

Here’s the surprise: I-90 doesn’t merely pass Wallace. It runs through a giant tunnel beneath downtown. The interstate was buried so the historic district could survive, which means you can stand on a quiet old street while thousands of cars rumble underneath you. It’s wonderfully strange, completely practical, and exactly the kind of detail that makes a weekend road trip stick in your memory.