History Snapshot: Palouse

Unlike the ghost towns of Elberton and Ainsworth which faded into history, Palouse is very much alive today. With around a thousand inhabitants, a vibrant downtown business district, and even active train service, Palouse continues to serve as a center for the surrounding agricultural community as it has for over 130 years.

Downtown Palouse.

The town of Palouse was established in 1875. While sawmills and the lumber industry were important early on, the start of rail service in 1888 helped it quickly grow to be the farming and trade center for the area. In time, three railroads crowded into this relatively small town: the Northern Pacific Railway, the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company, and the Washington, Idaho & Montana Railway.

Northern Pacific Railway (NP)

The first railroad to reach Palouse was built by the Spokane & Palouse (S&P), a subsidiary of the Northern Pacific that was incorporated to build a line south from the NP mainline to access the Palouse region in eastern Washington Territory. The goal was to capture the agricultural bounty of the region and prevent it from being shipped to market via the competing Oregon Railway & Navigation Company (OR&N) lines.

In 1886 the S&P had built to a spot just few miles west of the existing town of Farmington and established a new town site called Belmont. Survey work recommenced in early 1887 to continue the line south of Belmont that would pass through the existing towns of Garfield, Palouse, Pullman, Colton and Uniontown, and terminate at the town of Genesee just across the border in Idaho Territory.

As I mentioned in the post about Elberton, there was heated competition between the OR&N and the S&P at this time. Toward the end of May an injunction against the S&P temporarily halted construction. Restless construction workers, never a good thing, caused a riot in Palouse at one point that resulted in one death. Tracklaying fortunately resumed by mid-summer and the rails reached Palouse before the end of 1887, although regular train service was delayed until July 1888 after the line was completed all the way to Genesee.

Sidings built by the NP are still in use today. This view is looking toward the Northwest, showing the main track in the background crossing the Palouse River and heading north toward the Laird junction with WI&M and SI&E.

Washington, Idaho & Montana Railway (WI&M)

The Washington, Idaho & Montana Railway was created in 1905 by the Potlatch Lumber Company, which itself had been created only two years earlier with the purpose of logging over 100,000 acres of timber in northern Idaho. Construction began in 1905 at an interchange point with the NP called Laird (or Lairds) on the northwest side of Palouse. This 45-mile railway into the mountains transported cut logs to an enormous new mill opened in 1906 along the north fork of the Palouse river just east of the Washington-Idaho border, and then transported the finished lumber products from the Potlatch mill to the city of Palouse for hand off to the NP.

WI&M tracks today going right down the middle of Whitman street.

Spokane & Inland Empire Railroad (S&IE)

The Spokane & Inland Empire Railroad began to plan a line south from Spokane in early 1905, and by mid-year had decided on a two branch approach, with the eastern branch passing through Palouse. Construction on the branch began in early 1906 and one of the key barriers to construction was access into Palouse, in no small part due to the limited space available with two other railroads already present. The S&IE decided on a 500-foot tunnel to gain entry to the town, but once it was determined the rock was not strong enough to support a tunnel, a 740-foot long cut, up to 50 feet below the existing surface, was created instead. A 774-foot long retaining wall alongside the WI&M tracks also had to be built to protect the tracks while also creating sufficient space above for the SI&E to build a station. Service to Palouse began in June 1907; service beyond Palouse to a terminus at Moscow, Idaho would start in September 1908.

This photo shows the S&IE road cut, the retaining wall that was built along the WI&M tracks, and a surviving trestle support in the lower left of the picture that supported the SI&E tracks as they continued south over the WI&M tracks and across the Palouse river. The bridge over the road cut is Church Street, also known as State Route 272.

A view of the WI&M tracks along the retaining wall.

Today, the Northern Pacific and WI&M tracks through Palouse are still active, including some sidings, but are now owned by the State of Washington. Service along the rails is provided by a private company, the Washington & Idaho Railway. The SI&E tracks are gone except for a few hundred yards still in use on the south side of town.

There are multiple grain elevators alongside the tracks that are still in use today.

W&IR 316 sitting idle near a Palouse Grain Growers elevator.

Some online resources for further reading in case you’re interested in learning more:

• For help in visualizing how these three railroads all came together in this small town, check out this 1910 plat map from the WSU Libraries Digital Collections which does a great job of illustrating all of the tracks and railroad related buildings. All three railroads are labeled on this map using their abbreviations. Interestingly, the map does not show the connection between the WI&M and the NP. Today, the junction is just north of the NP bridge over the Palouse, between Whitman and Illinois street. I'm not sure if that is where the junction was in 1910, or if it perhaps was further north. The area known as Laird is in the upper left-hand corner of the map, where the WI&M railroad buildings are.
• The Washington, Idaho & Montana Railway History Preservation Group
• The Potlatch Historical Society also has some interesting background on the WI&M
• The Washington & Idaho Railway website includes some great photos of contemporary trains.

What a beautiful covered hopper! Nothing can enhance a rail photo quite like a piece of Burlington Northern rolling stock.