Culdesac, Idaho — Railroad Had to Turn Around to Keep Going

Culdesac's name sounds like a suburban joke. It came from railroad engineering.

Getting trains from the low Clearwater country onto the Camas Prairie required climbing terrain locomotives could not attack directly.

So engineers made the track loop.

The Camas Prairie Railroad twisted through Lapwai Canyon using curves, tunnels and trestles to gain elevation gradually. Near Culdesac, the route doubled back on itself as part of that climb.

Northern Pacific and Union Pacific even cooperated on the line because building two competing railroads through such difficult country made little economic sense.

Grain and timber justified the effort.

Highways later took much of the traffic, but the grades and trestles remain part of the landscape.

A cul-de-sac usually means the road stops. Here, turning back was how the railroad kept going.