St. Maries, Idaho — Railroad Followed the Trees

St. Maries sits where the St. Maries River joins the St. Joe, a location that made moving timber considerably easier than hauling it over mountains.

Northern Idaho's white pine was valuable, enormous and inconveniently located. Rivers helped move logs. Railroads pushed farther into the forests.

The Milwaukee Road reached St. Maries in 1909 as part of its transcontinental system, and another line extended toward Potlatch timber country. Sawmills expanded as the city became part of an industrial network reaching deep into the woods.

St. Maries survived the contraction of that economy better than many company towns because it accumulated other functions. It became the Benewah County seat, with schools, government, businesses and recreation supporting life beyond logging.

The railroad survived too, though not in the form its builders expected.

After the Milwaukee Road collapsed, local trackage became part of the St. Maries River Railroad, which continued hauling forest products over lines once used by transcontinental trains.

The big railroad left. The timber trains did not.