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Tubbs Hill is a piece of land that resides in the town of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. It is located in the downtown area and is situated next to the resort and park. This hill consists of 120 acres of woods, trails, and lake views.

History
In the year of 1882 a man named Tony Tubbs immigrated from Germany to the Coeur d’Alene area. Tony was a land speculator and in 1883 he bought a large part of the land that would come to be known as Tubbs Hill for a dollar amount of $345. The year following the purchase Tony filed a plat breaking up the land into 11 lots. The problem with this was that in filing Tony made sure that the plat ignored elevation levels which made the land appear to be flat. Back then it was not uncommon to buy land before seeing it and many people who moved to the area had no idea what their money was going towards. This was what Tony counted on. He targeted out of state folk and sold different parts throughout the years. By the early 1900s Tony Tubbs moved away from Coeur d’Alene, but his name lived on. Because of the way he had gone about selling the land, it never got developed and therefore stayed for the most part wild. The man who was a swindler became an accidental preservationist and is now commemorated in name forever because of it. According to the Spokane Historical, Tubbs Hill did have a few good sales. “Washington Water Power Co purchased the south shore and east half of the hill in the early 1900s to create a water system for the city. The first major structure built on the hill was a large concrete reservoir for lake water in 1903.” This was followed by a second necessary reservoir in 1949 to accommodate the growing population of the area. A few years later after Tony Tubbs left town a man by the name of Austin Corbin decided he wanted to have a house on Tubbs Hill. Austin was the son of the wealthiest man in Spokane, Daniel C. Corbin, who had facilitated the transportation of ores from mines in the surrounding areas by building railroads. Because of the money his family had and the ingenuity he inherited, Austin built a home on a place that no one ever had. In this era road access was a necessity to build a home, but Austin decided water transport could be used to build the home entirely. While this was an amazing feat, it did not last. Austin ended up abandoning the house and transferred the property to someone else. The house was vandalized and by 1930 only the chimney was left standing. To this day the concrete slab where the chimney was still exists above the cove that is at the Southwest end of Tubbs. Over the following years the different lots of Tubbs were sold, traded, and foreclosed on. By the 1920s the Coeur d’Alene Mill Co. owned all the waterfront blocks. They had a sawmill on what is now McEuen Park (in front of Tubbs) and were able to store the logs on the south hillside in the water. Unfortunately for them, The Great Depression hit hard and they had to file for bankruptcy by the late 1920s. The lumber industry in the area took a nosedive that didn’t recover until World War II. “In 1936 the city purchased the mill property for use as a public park and a building site for municipal water and electric power plants. The objective was to put two large diesel engines at the base of the hill to provide power for the local area. This plan put Washington Water Power Co into an uproar, as they were the current utility providers for the area. After denial of federal funding and a few lawsuits against the city, Washington Water Power Co got their way and no power plant was to be built.” During the 1920s volunteers had built a grandstand on the Southeast side of Tubbs to better view sailboat races that took place in the summer months. In later years (the 1960s) people would become more interested in high speed hydroplane races on the lake. The sailboat races were a calmer affair that was pleasant to watch on a warm summer day. The remains of this grandstand can be seen in the form of five concrete blocks on the corner of the hill. In 1958 the city hosted a hydroplane race called The Diamond Cup. This was a big deal and they estimated that over 35,000 people came for the race and of those about 400 spent the night on Tubbs. Because of this the fire department had to put out multiple fires on the hill. Outside of being on a boat, Tubbs Hill was the best place for witnessing these races. This of course led to thousands of people littering and trampling vegetation all at once. Despite the negatives of these races, they persisted on over the years because of how much tourism was generated. In the year of 1961 a bunch of liquored up men got rowdy and started a riot. This then became an occurring event that went hand in hand with the races for many years. By the year of 1966 the riots became too much for the sponsors to handle because of all the damages and the whole event was shut down for good. There have been attempts made to bring back the races, but the committee of Tubbs Hill Inc. were able to stave it off and they have not returned. Tubbs Hill itself took over 40 years to obtain wholly. This was done through 4 separate purchases and a lot of town meetings, arguments, and advocacy for the land. The first 33 acres were purchased in 1936 through voter approval for a $19,00 bond. This area included what is now known as McEuen Park and a bit of the waterfront property. 40 years later in 1969 the second part of Tubbs was obtained in the amount of 34 acres. This was a massive win for the people and at this time the hill was officially dedicate to the public forever. In the following years of 1974 and 1977 more land was purchased in the amounts of 34 acres each. This completed the land as a whole that we call Tubbs Hill.

Literature
The Treasure Called Tubbs Hill is a book written by Scott Reed.The book includes the plants and birds, maps, pictures, and an in-depth history of Tubbs Hill.