Elk River, Idaho — Logging Town Famous for a Tree Nobody Cut

Elk River grew because the Potlatch Lumber Company wanted the trees surrounding it.

A company town and mill developed at the end of a railroad branch from St. Maries. Workers processed enormous quantities of timber while logging operations pushed into the Clearwater forests.

The mill eventually closed, the railroad disappeared and Elk River had to find reasons to exist after the industrial system that created it contracted.

The forest supplied those too: hunting, fishing, camping, snowmobiling and access to public land.

Then there is the Giant Cedar.

The ancient western red cedar outside town survived while generations of other trees were logged around it. Age estimates vary, but the scale is measured in millennia rather than centuries.

That gives Elk River a wonderfully inverted legacy. A town built by cutting trees became known for the one everybody left standing.