Though a sign on Washington State Route 129 points you in the right direction, driving the nearly 12 miles along Cloverland Road to arrive at the Cloverland Garage in Asotin County can make you feel like you're, well, chasing ghosts.
I drive past acre after acre of farmland, yet see no tractors, trucks or people working — just the land. No one is behind me, and I don't see a single car traveling in the opposite direction.
Surely this can't be right, I think.
Imagine my surprise, then, when I finally arrive at the garage and see signs of life.
A group of children are playing near the tiny Pioneer Baptist Church, a short walk from the historic garage building. As I walk toward the garage to take photos, a man who lives across the road says goodbye to his dogs before getting into his truck and driving away. He waves to me while passing, likely trying both to be friendly and to make sure I'm not up to something.
The garage is the last remnant of the town's beginnings more than a century ago.
Cloverland was platted March 11, 1902, by the Asotin Land and Irrigation Company's president, George H. Kester, and secretary Jackson O'Keefe. Prior to Cloverland though, the area was simply known as Lake when settlers selected homesites there in the mid-1880s.
In Cloverland's first year, between 600 and 700 acres were purchased and used for apple orchards.
"Something like twenty houses have gone up, with one store and hall and a splendid school house in addition," describes a 1906 account in An Illustrated History of Southeastern Washington including Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin Counties, published by the Western Historical Publishing Company.
The garage was originally built by brothers Benjamin and Henry Howard, who called it Howard's Hall. A glance at a 1986 National Register of Historic Places application for the garage reveals its varied history.
The building hosted a few dances in January 1903 before being sold and turned into a general store called Florance and Company. Its owner, Edward Florance, and his family lived in the second-story apartment above.
The building soon became the town's post office, and in 1904, the area's first telephone service shared the space. The next year, James Florance teamed up with Jack Morrow to establish Florance and Morrow, a general mercantile.
Soon after, in 1906, An Illustrated History of Southeastern Washington predicted "considerable future advancement" for the Cloverland area based on its "great activity" and "enterprises."
In 1910, William Gute bought the store. Like Edward Florance, Gute and his family lived upstairs. Although competition between the town's two stores cut into his profits, Gute sponsored dances, live music and community parties in the space, which became known as Gute's Hall.
Established: 1902
Decline: Peaked in 1910, but still home to a handful of residents
Location: Asotin County, Washington
Distance from Spokane: 128 miles; 2.5 hours
Original Structures remaining: Cloverland Garage
On the garage's historic registry application, prepared by then-property owner Juanita Walter Therrell, it's estimated that Cloverland's population peaked in 1910, when the census showed 400 residents.
"The settlement era was coming to an end; the thousands and thousands of fruit trees had hit bedrock destroying the dream of [Asotin County secretary] Jackson O'Keefe," the application states. "Only the settlers able to purchase larger amounts of land were able to sustain a living."
Still, there was life left in Cloverland thanks to the arrival of the automobile. Resident Fred Walter had earned a diploma from the Hillcrest Automobile Driving School in San Diego, "certifying that he was capable of operating and caring for any automobile."
In 1918, Walter bought Gute's Hall and transformed it into Cloverland Garage, where he offered a gas pump and ordered and serviced vehicles for people. When business at the garage had slowed, the second-story apartment was used for five winters in the 1930s to house mothers and their school-age children who otherwise wouldn't have been able to reach the area's school in the snow.
Almost a century later, the garage is still cared for. Nearly all the windows remain intact, and a peek inside a front window reveals a clean, simple room with empty shelves and a long counter that stretches from one end of the room to the other.
Cloverland may not be the promising town it was over a century ago, but the Cloverland Garage, as ever, remains part of this tiny rural community. ♦
