More on Ben Burr, the Mullan Road and Moran Prairie

I thought I would include a few more photos from recent walks around Moran Prairie. See the earlier post on the Spokane & Inland Empire Railroad for more context. 

I realized in that previous post I mentioned the Mullan Road but then didn't provide any more information. It was a military road constructed between 1859 and 1862 which connected Fort Walla Walla on the Columbia River in what is now Washington to Fort Benton on the Missouri River in what is now Montana, a distance of 611 miles. This was the first road across the Rocky Mountains in the Pacific Northwest. And 'road' at this time in history really meant a pathway, clearly marked, with trees removed and adequate stream and and river crossings in place. It was used as a military road for only a few years but continued to be used by civilians for many additional years until more modern roads and railroads were built. Some sections of the Mullan Road have been preserved and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, other sections have been replaced by modern roads such as I-90, and many other sections have just faded away due to 150 years of farming and other land uses.

The Mullan Road passage through Moran Prairie provided the easiest and most direct route between a crossing of Latah Creek and a crossing of the Spokane River at a point known as Plante's Ferry. The exact placement of the road through Moran Prairie is unsure but it probably went right down the middle, as there is a natural low area between higher land on the east and the west. There are two Mullan Road historic markers (which today are themselves historic given their age) that were placed on the prairie in 1922; one of these is just about 300 feet southeast of Moran Station.

The 1908 barn on the YMCA property with a view of Mt. Spokane in the background. Picture is taken from the Ben Burr Pathway. The Mullan Road likely passed through here.

The Ben Burr Pathway where it passes through a railroad cut, about 8–10 feet deep.

Another view of the 1908 barn with Browne's Mountain the background and a pile of cobbles built up next to the pathway, likely the displacement from the cut. The Mullan Road ran somewhere between where I am standing and the mountain, probably down the middle of the valley between me and the barn, which is a natural drainage that flows north toward the Spokane River.

A Mullan Road marker placed in 1922 along the Palouse Highway just south of 57th Street. A year ago this was nearly hidden from view by overgrown bushes on the side of the road, but due to construction of a new gas station and convenience store, the land was cleared and a new sidewalk was installed that respectfully curves around the back side of the marker. The plaque indicates the road was built 1858–1862 but historians know that construction actually started on July 1, 1859. It would be nice if we could fix something like this, but as the marker itself is now historic, that error will be preserved indefinitely.

I walked over to Ben Burr Park (now that I know where it is) and was greeted by this very cool looking two-dimensional locomotive sculpture. It's a bit odd that they chose a steam locomotive given that the S&IE was an electric line. Perhaps the artist wasn't sure how to create an electric motor car? Everyone is an art critic.

A detail of the plaque indicates that Ben Burr 'represented' the Great Northern, but that doesn't seem right to me as he was retired at this time and therefore he was representing the people of Spokane and trying to convince his former employer to give the railroad right-of-way to the public. The plaque also mentions the land the park is on was right-of-way that belonged to the Great Northern, but I can't find any evidence of that. The park is four blocks east of the railroad's right-of-way. And looking at a 1912 plat map this land was privately owned by an individual. I looked at other historical maps and found no structures on what is now the park all the way up to the 1980s so it was likely in agricultural use. The City of Spokane purchased this 8.5 acre plot of land in 1991 and the park was opened in 1999. Perhaps I should have a career in correcting informational signage?

Another welcome sign on the corner of the park. I found no inaccuracies on this sign.

This is a detail of a 1952 USGS map that I looked at when tracing the history of the Ben Burr Park property, and I realized this might provide helpful context for the above photos. The rail line runs right down the middle and 1952 was the its last year of operation. The top arrow indicates where Ben Burr Park is located today to the east of Havana Street. The next arrow down shows the road cut. Just to the east of that, right next to the 2400' contour line, are the barn and another shed structure also built in 1908. Today's Ben Burr Pathway is the section of right-of-way between the second and third arrows. The third arrow shows where Moran Station was/is. The original passenger shelter was (and the modern bus shelter is) to the west of the track. This map shows the siding, the first time I've come across it, which I now see is to the east of the track. The last arrow in the lower-left indicates what was a surprise for me—I didn't realize my neighborhood used to have a landing strip! This helps explain why I've never come across any historic structures or older trees in the neighborhood except along Freya Street.

Initial sketch and thoughts on the new PE&A

The weather in Spokane County has been truly fantastic for over a week now with mild temperatures and sunny skies most days. I've been out for a walk every day and have even seen a few people out working in their yards, which makes me want to get outside too and start work on the new railroad. I've also spent some time looking through photos I've taken of numerous garden railroads I've visited over the past few years. And I've started looking through past garden railroading publications to help generate ideas.

New home for the PE&A. Most of the ground is clear but snow and ice still stubbornly hang on, despite over a week of above freezing temperatures.

I've compiled a long (and growing) list of things I'd like to add to the railroad and will eventually need to prioritize. But right now I'm less concerned about all the details and more focused on coming up with a basic structure and overall design. To help with that I'm trying to define some guiding principles, for example:

• Focus on building loops initially, but keep the idea of operations in mind as I may want a point-to-point railroad in the future. Plan for future additions of industries as I'm building.
• I want to be able to run at least two trains simultaneously on separate loops, a large outer loop main line with wide curves and even grade that will accommodate most any train (even steam, if I ever get into that), and one or more inner loops with tight curves and variable grades
• Plan for battery operation only, but do include a small powered loop for use with my PCC or other track powered vehicles
• Avoid tunnels except when needed, and keep them short. Use more structures and plants to hide trains instead. Keep in mind that trains should briefly disappear, not briefly appear.
• Keep turnouts accessible—put them up front whenever possible, and avoid any switches or anything else that could cause conflict along the back fence
• Continue to target 1:29 but be open to variable scale. Build what looks right for a given location, and don’t overthink it. Remember the ten foot rule and don't worry about details that are distant or out of sight.

With these ideas and others in mind I want to start sketching the layout. And to do that I need to start with a good base map. I don't have any drafting or mapping software so this was done the old fashioned way with graph paper and a measuring tape. Below are some pictures of that process and some photos of the yard this week.

Initial measurements in the southeast corner of the yard (south is up). The railroad will start in the area surrounding the train shed and over time may branch out to the west and other areas around the back yard.

Initial scale drawing based on measurements showing the fences, retaining walls and the shed.

Next I added in the things I need to work around—the existing trees and the irrigation system outlets. Three of the trees (1, 2 and 4) are mature and are staying in place; at ground level they are just trunks so there is still lots of room for the railroad. Number 3 is some type of deciduous shrub which I will likely take out.

My initial sketch for what might work in this area. I can guarantee this will change over time. The outer loop is in green, the inner loop is in red, and an access spur in blue will allow trains to move from the train shed down to the loops. This first draft has only five turnouts (labeled T1 through T5) that allow trains to move between tracks. All of them are within easy reach in area B. Area A will be the featured focus area as it will be the most visible part of the railroad. Area C might be a nice location for a town, but a poor location for anything operations related as it won't be easily accessible. Area D will also be a highly visible focus area. Future growth will be in area E and to the west.

A view of area A. Right now I'm thinking I might bring in 5–10 cubic yards of fill to create a hill here, and possible remove part of the retaining wall in front to allow the hill to come down to ground level. I would need to relocate two irrigation system outlets.

View of area D. What will be here in the future?

North of the train area, the snow is finally melting off my Palouse prairie restoration project and you can once again see all the plant tags. It looks like there is a drainage issue here, but I think that's just because the ground below is likely still frozen.

Some of the native plants are ready for spring to start today. This Phacelia heterophylla is already showing new growth!

A Railroad Across Moran Prairie: The Spokane & Inland Empire Railroad

At the time we bought our mid-1980s era house last year I didn’t know anything about the history of the neighborhood, nor had I even heard of Moran Prairie. I was aware that the Spokane & Inland Empire (S&IE) Railroad had once passed through this area, but I didn’t know that the Mullan Road had been built through here as well over fifty years earlier. For a brief overview of the history of Moran Prairie see this article on HistoryLink.org. For this post I’m going to focus specifically on the railroad that once ran across the prairie.

Ben Burr Road runs along the former railroad right-of-way south from Moran Prairie toward the Palouse. Today the road ends just before where the first large bridge once stood.

The predecessor to the S&IE was a streetcar company that built lines in Spokane in the early 1890s. After being reorganized in 1903 and updating old streetcar routes to standard gauge, an interurban route was extended from Spokane to downtown Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Based on their success operating an electric interurban, the S&IE decided to push south into the Palouse with an electric line, and selected a route southeast from Spokane across Moran Prairie. The steep grade to get from downtown Spokane up to the prairie was challenging for steam powered trains but was easily handled by electric motors.

Grading through Moran Prairie was done in late 1905 which required some cuts and fills. South of Moran Prairie the railroad required significant trestle and bridge work to access the Palouse, which would eventually lead to the demise of this route. Track was laid in early 1906, and the first S&IE train ran on June 30, 1906 as far as Valleyford, about 17 miles from Spokane. About 40 miles south of Spokane, the S&IE split into two lines, one headed to Colfax which opened to service in August, 1907, and the other to Moscow, Idaho, which opened about a year later in September, 1908. There were plans to join the two branches by forming a loop through Pullman, and building a line from Moscow further south to Lewiston, Idaho, but there was never enough profit incentive to do that. No line extensions occurred after 1908.

Diagram showing the completed railroad and proposed extensions, none of which were built. This isn’t a true map and doesn’t show all the stations along the line but Moran does show up.

I like this hand drawn map, even if the scale and dimensions are a bit off, because it shows Elberton!

This detail from a map published in 1923 is in poor condition but it does show all of the designated stations along the line.

The S&IE was purchased by James J. Hill in 1909 as a feeder line for the Great Northern (GN) Railway. The S&IE continued to operate independently until merging into the GN in 1929. By the late 1940s the timber trestles and bridges south of Moran Prairie needed to be renewed, but due to the prohibitive cost, the GN signed a trackage right agreement with the Union Pacific for access to Spokane along their route slight further east. The day the agreement went into effect in 1952 the GN abandoned the first 23 miles of the track south from Spokane ending 46 years of train service to Moran Prairie.

The Ben Burr Pathway sits atop the old railroad bed, shown here going through a shallow cut.

South of Spokane, much of the railroad’s former right-of-way is still visible throughout the Palouse and it can easily be traced on Google Maps. There are plenty of cuts, fills and some remnants of structures along the route, like the ones I pointed out in my blog post about the city of Palouse. In Spokane, it’s a bit more difficult to see the former route due to development over the years as segments of the line moved into private ownership. But fortunately some segments remain public right-of-way, albeit with incursions in some places by private property owners. Two of the public segments are accessible, paved trails today, and two others are city streets.

The name Ben Burr pops up along the former route multiple times. After retiring in 1953 as chief civil engineer for the Spokane Division of the Great Northern, Ben Burr worked to get the S&IE right-of-way into public hands. And in honor for his work we now have (from north to south) Ben Burr Trail, Ben Burr Boulevard, Ben Burr Pathway and Ben Burr Road formed from segments of the former S&IE. The latter two are on Moran Prairie.

Most of Moran Prairie has been developed into housing subdivisions. But remnants of the agricultural past still exist like this 30-acre tract along the Ben Burr Pathway. This barn was built in 1908, just a couple years after the S&IE built through the prairie.

Where Ben Burr Pathway and Ben Burr Road meet today at South 57th Street was once the S&IE’s Moran Station at milepost 7.68 from Spokane, which included a small frame shelter shed (just six by eight feet) where passengers could wait for a train. There was also a 1,100 foot siding here and a short 550 foot spur for the Spokane Fruit Growers Company. In 2019 the Spokane Transit Authority opened the Moran Station Park & Ride at the same location—I think the new passenger shelter is likely within 100 feet of where the S&IE's shelter shed once stood. So today you can once again see people waiting for a ride into town, on a bus now, almost 116 years after the first interurban arrived at Moran Station.

The two-bay bus stop at the Moran Station Park & Ride. I suppose this small shelter isn’t any more or less glamorous than Moran Station’s wood frame shelter shed would have been. Note the barn in the background.

A post script: By coincidence, the same day I took the photos above of the barn on Moran Prairie it was announced that this 30 acre plot of land had been purchased by the YMCA for the development of a facility, so that barn will be coming down after more than a century of service. I guess that means I need to go take some more photos before it is gone. A silver lining, I suppose, is that the YMCA plans to develop only half of the 30 acres (the far side of the photo), while the other half along the Ben Burr Pathway will be held as a land conservation easement with public access trails connecting with the pathway.

And a second post script: I saw reference to a Ben Burr Park but I couldn't find it on Google Maps so I wasn't sure where it was, or whether perhaps the reference was just to the Ben Burr Trail which connects two city parks. But then I checked the City of Spokane Parks & Recreation database and found that Ben Burr Park does exist and has been around since 1999. It's not along the former right-of-way but very close, about four blocks to the east and just south of 44th Street. I've submitted a request to Google Maps to get it added so if you're ever looking for it in the future you can find it!

 

Sources for more information:

Clive Carter, Inland Empire Electric Line: Spokane to Coeur d’Alene and the Palouse, 2009

Stephen B. Emerson, “Spokane Neighborhoods: Moran and Glenrose Prairies — Thumbnail History,” HistoryLink.org essay 9036, posted Sept. 5, 2009

Tracy L. Rebstock, “Ben Burr Trail,” Spokane Historical, accessed February 3, 2022

Nicholas Deshais, “Getting There: The Curious Case of Ben Burr,” The Spokesman-Review, Jan. 8, 2019

Mitch Ryals, “Ride Ben Burr,” Inlander, Sept. 22, 2016

The PE&A is back

Welcome back! There were two recent things that prompted me to resurrect the PE&A blog this week. First, the days are getting longer and while it is clearly still winter (it is snowing as I write this) I can tell that spring is quickly approaching and it will soon be time to start working outside on the garden and the railroad. Second, a blog I've enjoyed following (My Sewing Machine Obsession) was suddenly brought back to life after a nearly two-year hiatus, a reminder that I should be doing the same.

The new train/garden shed for the PE&A

So what has been up on the PE&A in the 18 months since the last post? In January, 2021, before the garden train season had even started, we made the decision to move to Spokane. So rather than my usual spring cleaning I instead spent the early spring disassembling the railroad. I may have taken a few pictures of that activity but I didn't post any as it was too sad to see everything come apart.

We moved into our new house on Moran Prairie, just south of Spokane, in April. Building a new garden railroad was not a priority so I set it aside thinking I might get to it by late summer or early fall, but by then there were still so many other outdoor tasks at hand that the railroad never came to the top of the list. The new house in on a large lot that was almost entirely turf when we moved in, and my top priorities were to reduce the amount of turf (and water usage), put in native plants and trees in the ground for shade, and come up with an overall management plan. And figure how to get a 1980s-era irrigation system working, a first for me.

I had no idea that we would have the hottest summer since weather records began in Spokane in 1881. It was a struggle to just keep things alive, and some patches of lawn were completely killed off as it was so hot that the turf didn't even have a chance to go dormant. The dahlias, which I watered every day, looked near death for the first half of the summer. Even mature, well established trees around our neighborhood, species that were considered appropriate for this environment, are now dead.

The long term outlook from the NOAA Climate Prediction Center is for a warmer and drier summer than average this year, but I expect it won't be as horrible as last year. Here's hoping for regression toward the mean! I will move forward with planning and planting with the assumption that my new plants will at least have a fighting chance this year.

Here are a few pictures of the new PE&A location I took earlier today. The snow you see fell almost four weeks ago—it started as 16" of fluffy white powder and has gradually compacted and melted down to a 1-2" sheet of ice, strong enough that I don't break through when I walk on it. Looking out the window right now, everything has been covered over in a new layer of white, peppered with foot prints from California quail.

The corner of the yard behind the train/garden shed. All of this area will be occupied by the PE&A

View of the area behind the shed. My plan is to have an access door in the shed by the corner nearest the camera to allow trains to roll out on to an elevated trestle which will drop down to ground level along the fence.

This view shows an elevated planting bed that is thrust out into the yard. This will likely be the key featured area for the PE&A as it's what visitors will see first.

Along the east fence is where I will be creating my own piece of the Palouse prairie including native grasses, forbs and probably a few small shrubs. I removed around 1000 square feet of turf here. The tags are where I've planted forbs so I don't lose track of them.

And in this area of the yard I'm creating a native forest. I've planted a couple dozen shrubs and trees so far. I removed around 1500 square feet of turf to put these in.

For the next six to eight weeks I'll focus on my vision for the new PE&A, figure out where and what I want to start with, then break the work up into phases for this year and beyond. I'm now going through old photos and back issues of magazines to help spur my imagination as I brainstorm about what I would like to see in the new PE&A. For my next blog post I'll share some of my ideas.