Highball 661 West: Paradise Paved

This is from an editorial piece I wrote in November, 2009, in my capacity as editor of "White Pine Route Quarterly" a publication of the Washington, Idaho & Montana Ry. History Preservation Group.

“They paved paradise, and put in a parking lot.” These lyrics from the classic Joni Mitchell tune “Big Yellow Taxi” came to mind as I drove home from a mid-September railfan excursion to North Idaho. For railroad enthusiasts, this sentiment usually applies when a favorite rail line has been abandoned. Of course, railroad abandonment has been going on nationwide over the last half century, so you’d think we’d have gotten used to it by now. Hardly.

Paradise Paved Over - Former Milwaukee Road Elk River Branch near Bovill, ID

The cover story for my trip to North Idaho was to meet with Don Somers and discuss some HPG business. Our real motive, however, was to photograph the log trains that the St. Maries River RR has operated for many years between the log yard at Clarkia, ID and the Potlatch Corp. mill at St. Maries. The STMA’s log traffic on this northern remnant of the former Milwaukee Road Elk River Branch represented the last vestige of common carrier railroad logging in North Idaho, if not in the entire nation.

I’d heard rumors that this traffic might end soon, possibly late this year, so Don and I hoped to see a train on that line before it was too late. But, even before I left home, we learned it was already too late. A news report, and corroboration from local STMA fans, indicated that Potlatch Corp. closed the Clarkia log yard on August 25^th. The mill remains open, but logs are now delivered directly from the harvesting areas by truck. The STMA continues to run trains of finished lumber 2-3 days a week from St. Maries to the UP interchange at Plummer Jct., but there will be no more “road trains” south to Clarkia. Ever, according to STMA management.

Despite this bad news, I went anyway, and together with Don and Jack Coyner, drove the length of the Clarkia branch to see what was left to see. Not much. We did see evidence of a “cleanup” train that ran earlier in the week, and I understand that the final cleanup train ran the week after our trip. Bad timing all around on our part! We understand that the tracks between Clarkia and Bovill will soon be removed completely, while the future of the rest of the line looks pretty bleak.

Fortunately, this trip was not all doom and gloom. One item that caught my attention was that the former WI&M depot site at Palouse, WA has been made over into an RV park. Under different circumstances, this could also be a big disappointment. However, the depot has been gone for many years, and only a patch of weeds has occupied the space since then, so an RV park is quite an improvement. If I ever own an RV, I will certainly reserve a site right on top of the actual depot location when I visit Palouse.

Another positive point I took home from my trip is that I was able to photograph trains from four different railroads still serving the region: a Palouse River & Coulee City RR train parked on the ex-UP line at Hooper, WA; a W&I RR train parked at Palouse (Both the W&I and PCC are currently running trains at night due to daytime track maintenance. Both will likely resume normal hours when winter sets in.); a STMA switch engine at St. Maries assembling the next day’s train to Plummer Jct.; and a UP train switching the Stimson mill and STMA interchange at Plummer before heading north to Spokane. Railroading in the Palouse may not be what it once was, but it ain’t dead yet!

Palouse River & Coulee City RR train parked on the ex-UP line at Hooper, ID

Washtinton & Idaho RR train parked at Palouse, WA

STMA crew assembling the next day’s train at St. Maries, ID

Not all doom and gloom: Union Pacific at Plummer Jct, ID

Thinking about the Clarkia line again, I did see a train on those tracks once, back in 1996. It was my first visit to the area after several years living in Michigan, and I was intent on reacquainting myself with the WI&M. While following Highway 3 south toward Bovill, I saw the headlight of a northbound STMA train approaching Fernwood. I stopped for a moment, shot a short video of the passing train, and then drove back to the Fernwood depot to photograph the train as it rumbled past. Then, stupidly, I continued south on the highway toward Bovill, even though I knew there were no trains running there. I can still hear the voice in my head telling me that it would be OK to let this one go; I could always come back and chase another of these log trains on a later trip.