Clarkia, Idaho — Two Forests, Millions of Years Apart

Clarkia is a timber community sitting above evidence of another forest separated from the modern one by millions of years.

Logging shaped the settlement in the St. Maries River country, where surrounding trees supplied work, transportation traffic and an industrial reason for people to live nearby.

The Clarkia fossil beds preserve leaves deposited in an ancient lake with unusual detail, including microscopic structures and organic material valuable to scientists studying ancient plants and climate.

One forest helped create modern Clarkia. Another, buried on a geological timescale, gave the same small community a place in scientific literature.