Artisan Trails of Idaho and Southeastern Washington

MOSCOW, Ida.—Two Degrees Northwest announces a new online and print edition of the Artisan Trail Guide of North Central Idaho & Southeastern Washington.

The Artisan Trail Guide is designed to lead both residents and visitors to the unique people, places and products that distinguish the greater inland northwest region.

The goal of Two Degrees Northwest (2DNW) is to improve economic vitality in the 11 counties of Idaho and Washington situated between the 45th and 47th parallels north, by showcasing art, food and heritage businesses. This region stretches from Harrison and the Plummer/Worley area of Idaho south along US 95 to Riggins.

From east to west, it includes towns such as Dayton, Pomeroy, Uniontown, Colfax, and Palouse in southeastern Washington, and extends to Wieppe/Pierce and Elk City near the Montana border.

Lorie Higgins, University of Idaho Extension Specialist and project director for 2DNW, says that the idea for the Trail Guide came from her experience at the 2005 Idaho Governor’s Conference on Recreation and Tourism. There, she learned of North Carolina’s HandMade in America, a strategy that helps small communities identify and market their unique heritage and products.

“A group of us came away from the conference thinking this novel approach could work to highlight our region’s assets,” says Higgins. “What I’ve learned about how place-based strategies can enhance developing rural areas has only strengthened my commitment to this project.”

By 2012, Higgins and her team had launched a range of efforts to support artisan businesses, including art business classes, a gallery featuring 60 local artists, and publication of the first 2DNW artisan guide.

Jennie Dickinson, Executive Director to the Port of Columbia in Dayton, Washington says that supporting small businesses is a large part of the Port’s mission. “Nine new artisan ag businesses have located in our Blue Mountain Station project in the past five years,” says Dickinson. “The Artisan Trails project celebrates these businesses by literally putting them on the map.”

“To explore the culinary, artistic, and historic assets through the region is to study the lifeways and expressive culture of people bound by geography and inspired by a sense of place;” says Steven Hatcher, Folk & Traditional Arts Director for Idaho Commission on the Arts. “It is a travel guide, but also a way to understand place-based systems of knowledge and tradition.”

The Artisan Trail Guide is available online through an interactive website, http://www.2dnw.org, and will be distributed to Chamber of Commerce offices, motels, information kiosks, and locations included in the guide. Print-on-demand copies for purchase will be available to anyone and is scheduled to be released in March 2020.

2DNW is a collaborative project of the Clearwater Resource Conservation & Development Council, Clearwater County Economic Development, and University of Idaho Extension. For more information about the Artisan Trail Guide, write to hello@2dnw.org.

The 2DNW Artisan Trail Guide is designed to enhance and support regional job creation and economic development related to the arts, locally grown and prepared foods, heritage, contemporary craft and other micro-enterprises in an eleven-county area of north-central Idaho and southeastern Washington—between 45º & 47º latitudes.