A desert oasis
New coffeehouse in Jordan Valley helps travelers cope with endless drive to Reno

By Susan Whaley
The Idaho Statesman

Susan Whaley/The Idaho Statesman

Built in 1872, the little rock house, Jordan Valley's oldest permanent home, has been in the Skinner family for 85 years. It now welcomes townspeople and highway travelers with coffee, ice cream and treats.

Susan Whaley/The Idaho Statesman

Rick, left, Dave, center, and Steve Skinner take a break in the coffee house they've created in the home where many family members have lived through the years.

Susan Whaley/The Idaho Statesman

The restrooms feature special decor, including this tile mural created for the women's room by Ken Chandler of the Masonry Center in Boise.

A new coffeehouse in Jordan Valley, Ore., is a welcome outpost on one of the most endless stretches of highway in the region.

Treasure Valley residents can find a good cup of joe at Skinner's Rockhouse to prepare for -- or recover from -- that lo-o-ong, bo-o-ring drive to Reno, Nev., on U.S. 95.

Open since August, the Rockhouse is the brainchild of Dave and Steve Skinner, brothers in a large family with a 137-year history in Jordan Valley.

The business pays homage to both the family and community.

Step inside, and you're standing in Jordan Valley's oldest permanent home. It was built in 1872, less than a decade after gold was first discovered in nearby Jordan Creek.

Look at the photographs hanging on the walls, and you'll catch glimpses of the Skinner family history -- which begins with great-grandfather Silas in 1863 -- in the town near the Idaho-Oregon border.

"It's a great little community, and we have quite a history here," said another brother, Rick Skinner, 52, the lanky guy with the big grin standing behind the counter.

A Jordan Valley resident for 28 years, Rick is a mining engineer-turned-coffee stylist who relishes his new role as manager of the place.

"I love it and enjoy people. It's really great to talk with travelers from all over."

His mining career ended when the nearby Delamar Mine in the Owyhee Mountains started closing down in 1998. Lay-offs at the mine also meant that the house no longer was marketable as a rental, and it began to deteriorate.

With Rick's help, Dave and Steve, both of Boise, started last fall to fix up the little rock house that's been in the family since 1915. The three brothers and their two other siblings bought the rock house along with the rest of their grandparents' ranch in 1990.

Dave and Steve's goal was to create a business that would attract people the first time, then keep them coming back again and again.

"You've got to try to create a place people won't forget," said Dave.

They've succeeded, partly because the Rockhouse is so unexpected in this dusty little town deep in the heart of cattle country. And partly because of the restrooms -- the brothers installed two of the best restrooms this side of Reno.

"My wife, Patty, convinced us that travelers love to find beautiful restrooms when they stop, especially the ladies," Dave said with a smile.

The restrooms have Italian and Mexican tiles on the floors and walls. The women's room features gorgeous tile art murals, created by Ken Chandler of the Masonry Center in Boise, that reflect the Owyhee Mountains and the area's Basque heritage. The men's room is paneled with old wood salvaged from an outbuilding.

The restrooms are so great, in fact, that they're part of the advertising.

"Skinner's Rockhouse -- espresso, homemade ice cream and unforgettable restrooms."

The decor in the main rooms consists of soft yellow and warm blue-green-gray paint on the home's original walls, white trim around the windows and doors, original wood floors and a collection of old tables and chairs scavenged from sheds and attics on the ranch.

On the front of the house the men took off the collapsing front porch and rebuilt it using recycled timbers and bricks. It now extends about 12 feet, to make room for sipping al fresco.

There, visitors can enjoy the lovely front-yard landscape created by the Skinners' cousin, Ramon Ysursa of Boise, and watch the traffic go by.

The Rockhouse sits along the highway on the south edge of town. Marsing is about 40 miles to the north, and McDermitt on the Nevada state line is an endless 100 miles to the south.

It's not the middle of nowhere, but Jordan Valley is far enough from other towns to make stopping seem like a good idea.

"We get a lot of truck drivers in here," Rick said.

Truckers sipping hand-crafted espresso in the middle of cow country?

The Skinners admit it's a bit unusual.

"Most little towns don't get a little shop like this," Dave said.

But it's a hit so far. Both locals and passers-by have dropped by for coffee roasted by Dawson Taylor of Boise, a scoop of Delsa's ice cream, a Brueggers bagel or or one of Nancy's Gourmet Cookies. Kids come in after school to study while enjoying an Italian soda.

"This community around here has really supported us," Rick said.

So has the solid little house built of native sandstone quarried outside of town.

The brothers' late father, Gard Skinner Sr., and his two brothers lived there as kids. His sister, Rae, whose picture hangs in the Rockhouse, was born in the house in 1922.

A few years later, the family moved into the big white ranchhouse next door. The brothers' grandmother, Violet -- called "Gaga" by her grandchildren -- taught school for 40 years in the one-room schoolhouse that still sits, abandoned, under a tree on the outskirts of Jordan Valley.

"She was a real matriarch of the community and our family," Dave said.

He fondly memorialized his first car -- his grandmother's 1953 Chevy -- in the Rockhouse logo, complete with a license plate that says "Gaga."

It's impossible to miss the deep affection the outgoing brothers with the mile-a-minute patter have for one another, the property and the family that has inhabited the area for 137 years.

They said their father, who died in 1998, had always wanted to have a little family business in Jordan Valley.

"We tried to create a place that would honor our father, preserve some historical heritage in Jordan Valley and provide a unique place for both the locals and wayward travelers coming off the desert," Dave said.