Mourning the death of the Cajun Café

I came across the derelict structure a short few years ago when I was driving my van crammed with furniture and boxes on my move back home to Montana. The building obviously had been long abandoned. A corner of the roof threatened to collapse. Windows were broken and a door hung loose. A warped and peeling sign across the front announced that this heap of debris had once been the Cajun Café. A homemade “For Sale” sign stood staked in the yard. “You’re a long way from Louisiana,” I thought.

I was driving that scenic section of U.S. Highway 2 in the north country, half-way between Bonners Ferry...