The growing sport fishing on Lake Pend Oreille encouraged the development of several resorts in the years following the end of World War II. Fred Kennedy saw the potential for Lake Pend Oreille while still in the air force. “I asked a lot of people what they were going to do after the war and everybody said, ‘Go hunting and fishing.’ So I thought that would be the thing to go into.” He built the first marina on the lake.
Harlan and Margaret Walker opened Talache Lodge with Wayne and Ruth Anderson and other partners in the spring of 1948. Local people enjoyed boating out for a Sunday dinner, while wealthy families came from all over the country to vacation there. “Our people were not like guests in most places; they were like our friends. . . .More people came through our kitchen door than ever came through the front door,” remembered the Walkers.
The clientele occasionally included a well-known name. Walker recalled, “Bing Crosby came in through our kitchen door one time and served breakfast to some of our guests — and they didn’t even recognize him.”
