Photo Op from 1950's to 1970's

Edgar Stephenson never knew the “photo op” he  would create in Boundary County.

Stephenson, one of the county’s  first professional photographers, passed away 25 years ago  and left a treasure trove of family, children, anniversary and wedding photos of county residents from the early 1950s to the late 1970s. 

Greg Springet, who bought the Stephenson’s home  in the late 1980s, discovered some of the photos.  Stephenson had his studio in his home and stored the photographs he took over the years in the basement. 

“When I bought the house, it still had Edgar and Florence’s belongings and even food in the freezer,” said Springett.  “It looked like someone just up and left.”

Springett discovered photos in the Stephenson’s basement after the Stephensons’ children had cleaned out all the other belongings.  Stephenson’s basement had  a dark room and several boxes of photographs and negatives of all kinds of people and events.  The envelopes were marked Valley Studio, and all the photos were arranged neatly in alphabetical order in envelopes.

“Don Lindsay also found some boxes of photos of the county at the Boundary County Landfill and he salvaged those,” said Springett.  “Edgar had a way of capturing portraits of people and places around the county.”

Springett found a high school photo of Harv Pedey and decided to give him a call.  Together the two decided that a good way to get the photos out to the public was to set them up at the All Class Reunion.  

“I thought it would be a great opportunity to get these pictures to the people they belonged to,” said Springett.

After the All School Reunion there were still photos not claimed so Pedey thought The Boundary County Fair would be another good opportunity to reach a lot of members of the community. 

“Hopefully all the photos are gone when the fair is over,” said Pedey.

Katherine and Dennis McLiesh looked through the photos at last weeks fair, and found photos of friends and family they gathered them and will send them to family.

“One of our good friends, who used to live in Bonners Ferry, had a family portrait taken of them. The couple and their 3-year old daughter were in the photo,” said Katherine McLiesh.  “The portrait of the family had been taken just weeks before the little girl passed away, and I am sure they will treasure this photo when they see it.”

Katherine McLiesh also has a cousin with Alzheimer’s disease, who has trouble remembering her children all grown up as they are now.  McLiesh found pictures of her cousin’s children from high school that she thought may bring back some spark of recognition to her cousin’s memory.

The photos and negatives from Stephenson’s gallery are being stored in the lower level of Boundary County Courthouse.  These photos are available to take should family members or friends recognize some of the people and know how to get the photos where they belong.