Rathdrum/Westwood Historical Society
The Rathdrum / Westwood Historical Society was incorporated by dedicated volunteers in 1999, and registered as a 501(c)(3) non-profit to preserve the history of Rathdrum, Idaho.
The R/WHS stepped in and purchased the Kootenai County Jail building from the city in 2006 to save it from impending demolition. Through generous donations of time and resources, the building was restored in 2010, and opened to the public as a museum in 2012.
Mission
Our mission is to gather and catalog information and items relevant to early Rathdrum history, and share that information with the public through tours and exhibits. We share artifacts and information regarding the origins of Rathdrum as a village as early as 1861, and focus specifically on the period between 1892 and 1908, when Rathdrum was the Kootenai County seat.
As a society, we aspire to preserve the heritage of Rathdrum through public education and engagement, artifact archival, historic research, and preservation of the historic building for future generations.