Renfrew, Idaho — Railroad Name That Stayed Near Santa

Renfrew sits less than a mile southeast of Santa in eastern Benewah County, deep in the timber country east of St. Maries.

The Milwaukee Road once gave tiny places in these forests a formal role. Railroad records identify nearby Renfrew Creek as a station point on the St. Maries-to-Bovill line, part of the infrastructure that moved people and timber through country where roads were far less capable than they are today.

The railroad eventually lost that role, but the Renfrew name stayed attached to the locality.

Modern Renfrew is very small and closely tied to Santa. That is precisely what makes the old station geography interesting: transportation systems can disappear almost completely while the names they pinned to the landscape remain in everyday use generations later.