Harrison, Idaho — Town That Moved Uphill and Turned a Railroad Into a Bike Trail

Harrison developed near the mouth of the Coeur d'Alene River during northern Idaho's mining and timber boom. Steamboats and railroads made the waterfront valuable for moving people, ore and wood.

Then the water rose.

Post Falls Dam raised Lake Coeur d'Alene, inundating low ground and forcing parts of Harrison uphill. A major mill fire in 1917 later damaged the timber economy that had helped sustain the town.

The railroad eventually disappeared too—but left behind one of Harrison's modern advantages.

The former rail corridor became part of the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes, a paved route stretching more than seventy miles across northern Idaho. The pavement also serves an environmental purpose: it caps contaminated material associated with mining waste transported from the Silver Valley.

Cyclists now travel where ore trains once ran. The lake that pushed Harrison uphill became part of the scenery drawing them there.

For a town that lost its original shoreline, mill and railroad, Harrison has been remarkably good at finding second uses for things.