Built about 1903, the Ansorge Hotel has become a major landmark in the little village of Curlew. It was, for a small town, an elegant and well equipped hotel. The hotel remains clad in the mock stone stamped steel siding which it wore when built. It was likely the site of the first telephone in Curlew and contained the only long distance phone in town until well into the 1950s.
The area around Curlew was settled solely as a result of gold strikes, primarily in the area of Republic, that is to the south. The riches quickly petered out, however, and by the time the railroad arrived in Curlew in 1902, the boom was over. The Ansorge, though, soldiered on, with William Ansorge expanding into various other businesses, including a bakery, a butcher shop, stable, feed store and a barber shop which operated in the hotel lobby.
With the expected economic boom in the area never materializing, the hotel hasn't been economically viable for quite some time. As a result, the hotel has been reborn as a museum. Both the exterior and interior are very much as they were when built, including interior furnishings and fixtures. Open weekends through the summer, visitors may tour the entire hotel, ambling from room to room at a leisurely small town pace.
Out front of the Husky Car and Truck Museum one will find a Model T pickup, hoisted high atop their sign, a visual indicator of what the museum has in store for visitors. A guess would be that the Model T is in sufficiently poor overall condition that, rather than restore it for the museum, they decided to just turn it into a sign decoration.
Open from late June through Labor Day each year, they open only on Saturday and Sunday from 11 AM to 5 PM. With a good sized collection, the museum even has some rarities, such as a 1925 Howard Cooper and a 1926 Yellow Knight.
Alas, we passes through Curlew just a couple of days before they were scheduled to open, so were unable to view the collection. A couple of views of the collection are available at the
Ferry County Website.
Below is a news article from the Omak Chronicle apprising readers in 2013 that it was almost time to take a road trip up to Curlew to check out their museums. Curlew is a
really small town, so the fact that it has
two museums in truly an accomplishment.
Ferry County museums open
The Chronicle | October 4, 2013
CURLEW — Two local museums — the Ansorge Hotel Museum and the Husky Car and Truck Museum — will open their doors for the season this weekend. Hours for the Ansorge are 1-4 p.m. Saturdays from May 25 to Aug. 24. It also will be open from 1-4 p.m. June 2 during the community’s Barrel Derby Day festival.
The hotel was built by Bill and Betty Ansorge in 1903, when the Great Northern Railroad came to town. It sat adjacent to the tracks, which were removed in 2006. The extended Ansorge family owned the hotel until the 1960s, when it was sold. The new owners, who paid $6,000 for the building, operated it until 1976, said Janet Stephens of the Kettle River History Club. It was donated to the club that year.
Stephens said the hotel’s big attraction is its original contents, from furniture and linens to dishware and clothing. The original check-in counter and kitchen remain. The former game room has been turned into a display room containing items from the old Curlew Store, a bottle collection and other items. Among the items on display are and old fainting couch and 1925 organ.
Upstairs, the nine rental rooms contain brass beds and other furnishings. Some rooms have been redone a little, but with period pieces.
History club volunteers are doing some interior spruce-ups, including painting, and are researching the history of many artifacts, Stephens said. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. One of the hotel’s guests was Henry Ford, who signed the register in 1917 while in the area visiting relatives.
The first floor is disabled-accessible. Admission is by donation. Special tours may be arranged.
The history club’s two volumes of historical books may be purchased at the museum or ordered at area stories or the Husky Car and Truck Museum. The books cover the area from Bodie, Toroda Creek and Curlew to Danville, Malo and Curlew Lake.
The Husky Car and Truck Museum and Steam-powered Sawmill Exhibit, 17812 state Highway 21, will be open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays from May 25 through Labor Day weekend.
The museum’s collection includes a 1925 Howard Cooper – one of four built – and a 1926 Yellow Knight, one of three known to exist, and a 1929 International flatbed truck, 1931 Indiana truck, 1948 Diamond T farm truck and a pre-World War II Moto Guzzi. The reconstructed Lembcke sawmill also is on display, along with antique farm machinery and a blacksmith shop. Admission is by donation. Special tours may be arranged.
Read on at the Omak Chronicle