I-90 follows a VERY rugged routing through the State of Idaho, replacing US 10 as it threaded its way through the Rocky Mountains west of Lookout Pass. Along the eastern part of its route in Idaho, US 10 passed through several little mining towns nestled snugly into wide spots of the otherwise narrow, deep and steep walled valleys of the South Fork of the Coeur D'Alene River as it climbed eastward towards the pass. The most noteworthy of these little towns is Wallace, ID.
In the early days of the Interstate system, I-90 was proposed to bypass US 10 through this little community ('old' US 10 is the dashed line through the center of town, it *may* be marked as 'ID 4' now). However, the townsfolks here rebelled, because the origional plans were for the freeway to follow the SOUTH bank of the river, eliminating about 40% of the town's downtown buildings in the process. This local opposition held up the completeion of I-90 for several decades (there is also a short section of I-90 just east of Coeur D'Alene, ID that was only recently completed) while IdDOT worked out a compromise with the locals. By the mid 1980s, The state agreed to reroute I-90 to the NORTH bank of the river, sparing the town, but requiring MASSIVE amounts of rock 'side' cutting to clear a corridor in the steep walled valley (those are 40' (12.2 meter) elevation contour lines) wide enough for the highway. I-90 is also partially elevated here, built OVER the railroad that is still active in Wallace. This section of I-90 was completed and opened in the very early 1990s. (I am not sure what the little 'loop' on the south side of I-90 by the word 'Wallace' is for.)
The 'Jeopardy' answer/question '(A) You know you are in Wallace, ID when you go by one on I-90' '(Q) What is a traffic signal?' (I am not sure if this is the exact correct wording of this one) from the late 1980s is still fresh in my mind, as well as a national network TV news piece on the local traffic situation and freeway construction.
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