St. Maries River Railroad—The “last best place”

When the Milwaukee Road abandoned its main line to the Pacific Ocean in 1980, only a few locations had a enough traffic to warrant continued rail operations. One of those was St. Maries, Idaho, where the sprawling Potlatch mill was generating dozens of carloads of finished lumber each week and receiving one hundred or more carloads of logs during the logging season. From the ashes of the Milwaukee Road rose the St. Maries River Railroad, operating the on the former Milwaukee main line to an interchange with Union Pacific at Plummer, Idaho, and up the St. Maries River to the log reload at Clarkia and, at the time, a Burlington Northern interchange at Bovill, Idaho.

Operating out of the former Milwaukee Road depot in downtown St. Maries and almost exclusively with former Milwaukee Road locomotives, cars, and crew members, the St. Maries River Railroad was like a time warp. At the urging of Paul Didelius, good friend and photography mentor, I first visited St. Maries in 2002. I returned for a week every year except for one through 2008. Every bit as good as the railroading are the friendships I made with the railroad’s most ardent photographers—Marc Entze, Jim Davis, Camron Settlemier, and Rob Leachman.

As of 2021, the railroad still runs to the Union Pacific interchange in Plummer, but operations on the branch to Clarkia ceased in 2009. Without the log trains on the line up its namesake river, the railroad just wasn’t the same. I haven’t been back, but for those halcyon years in the first decade of the twenty-first century, St. Maries was, for me at least, the last best place to see railroading the way it used to be.

The St. Maries River Railroad's inbound Clarkia logger crosses its namesake at Alder Creek, Idaho, in July 2004 with a trainload of logs from the Clarkia reload bound for the Potlatch mill in St. Maries.

Caboose bring up the rear of the St. Maries River Railroad's inbound Clarkia logger crossing its namesake at Alder Creek, Idaho, with a trainload of logs from the Clarkia reload.

The St. Maries River Railroad's outbound Plummer Turn crosses a causeway at the southern edge of Benewah Lake with finished lumber for the Union Pacific interchange in Plummer. The train is on the former Milwaukee Road mainline just west of St. Maries, Idaho, on a bright July day in 2004.

The St. Maries River Railroad's inbound Plummer Turn crosses the low trestle over Benewah Lake on the former Milwaukee Road main line just west of St. Maries, Idaho, as evening shadows creep across the mountains in July 2004.

The St. Maries River Railroad's inbound Clarkia logger is deep in the canyon of its namesake in July 2004, bringing a trainload of logs from the Clarkia reload to the Potlatch mill in St. Maries.

A front-end loader places a bundle of logs into a bin along the St. Joe River at the log yard in St. Maries, Idaho. Once the bin is a full, a worker will tie the logs with steel cable and then drop them into the river. When enough logs are assembled to build a raft, a tug will take them across Benewah Lake to a mill in Coeur d'Alene.

A Potlatch worker ties a bundle of logs with steel cable in St. Maries, Idaho.

Bundled logs splash into the St. Joe River at the log yard in St. Maries, Idaho, in July 2004. At the time, Potlatch was still building log rafts in St. Maries to float across Benewah Lake to a mill in Coeur d'Alene.

On a hot July afternoon in 2005, the St. Maries River Railroad's outbound Clarkia Logger rolls past basalt cliffs along its namesake near milepost 17 of the branch line running south from St. Maries, Idaho.

The St. Maries River Railroad's inbound Clarkia Logger brings a trainload of logs down its namesake near milepost 17. The single boxcar behind the two ex-Milwaukee Road GP9s is a load of garnet from the plant in Emerald Creek, Idaho.

The St. Joe River casts a nearly perfect reflection of a St. Maries River Railroad SW1200 on a warm July morning in St. Maries, Idaho, in 2005.

An empty log truck waits at the crossing in St. Maries, Idaho, while a St. Maries River Railroad SW1200 switches cars in the yard for an outbound Plummer Turn in July 2005.

In July 2005, St. Maries River Railroad's outbound Clarkia Logger passes basalt cliffs near milepost 14 of the branch line extending south from St. Maries, Idaho, up the railroad's namesake river.

Former Milwaukee Road log cars roll up the St. Maries River in Idaho's panhandle on a July afternoon in 2005.

St. Maries River Railroad conductor Pat Hough waives from his caboose as the Clarkia Logger arrives in its namesake town to pickup a trainload of northern Idaho timber in July 2005.

St. Maries River Railroad conductor Pat Hough guides the coupling of his caboose to the outbound Clarkia Logger. The train has just swapped its empty log cars for loads at the reload facility in Clarkia, Idaho, and is preparing to make the return trip to St. Maries on a bright July afternoon in 2005.

The St. Maries River glistens in the late afternoon sun as the St. Maries River Railroad's inbound Clarkia Logger rolls toward St. Maries, Idaho, in July 2005.

Brake shoes smoke as the St. Maries River Railroad's inbound Clarkia Logger rolls down its namesake Idaho stream on a July afternoon in 2005. The railroad operating nearly four hundred former Milwaukee Road log cars, all with friction bearing trucks.

St. Maries River Railroad conductor Pat Hough watches the tracks recede from the backdoor of his caboose on the inbound Clarkia Logger in July 2005.

St. Maries River Railroad conductor Pat Hough oversees the progress of the inbound Clarkia Logger from the cupola of his caboose as the train nears St. Maries at the end of a long day in July 2005.

The St. Maries River Railroad's outbound Clarkia Logger crosses the railroad's namesake river between Emerald Creek and Clarkia, Idaho, in July 2007.

The St. Maries River Railroad's inbound Clarkia Logger threads the canyon of the St. Maries River with fifty loads of Idaho timber on a July afternoon in 2007.

Loaded log truck in St. Maries, Idaho, in July 2007.

The St. Maries River Railroad's office in the former Milwaukee Road depot in St. Maries, Idaho. The railroad's two ex-Milwaukee Road SW12000 diesel switchers rest outside the three-stall engine house in the background.

Carved wood sign for the St. Maries River Railroad on the depot in St. Maries, Idaho.

The St. Maries River Railroad's inbound Clarkia logger pulls into the former Milwaukee Road yard in St. Maries, Idaho, at the end of a long day in July 2007.

The St. Maries River Railroad's inbound Clarkia Logger passes the depot in St. Maries, Idaho, at the end of its run on a July evening in 2007.

Loads of logs roll past the depot in St. Maries, Idaho.

Two teenagers start across the tracks in downtown St. Maries, Idaho, as the caboose of the St. Maries River Railroad's inbound Clarkia Logger passes. The girls are heading for the town's popular waterpark on the St. Joe River on this warm July evening in 2007.

The three-man crew of the St. Maries River Railroad's Clarkia Logger walks back to the depot in St. Maries, Idaho, after tying up their locomotives at the engine shop. Conductor Pat, brakeman Scooter, and engineer Keith all hired out with the Milwaukee Road in the 1970s.

The St. Maries River Railroad's outbound Plummer Turn rolls along Benewah Lake just west of St. Maries, Idaho, in July 2007, with a long train of finished lumber for the Union Pacific interchange in Plummer.

Still waters at the edge of Benewah Lake reflect the late afternoon July sun as the St. Maries River Railroad's inbound Plummer Turn returns from the Union Pacific interchange at Plummer, Idaho, with empty boxcars and flatcars for the Potlatch Mill in St. Maries.

Looking down the St. Maries River Railroad's former Milwaukee Road main line across Benewah Lake in northern Idaho as the sun sets on a July day in 2007.

St. Maries River Railroad's outbound Plummer Turn crosses the high steel of Peedee Trestle on the former Milwaukee Road main line in northern Idaho. The train is hauling finished lumber from the Potlatch mill in St. Maries to the Union Pacific interchange in Plummer.

St. Maries River Railroad's outbound Clarkia Logger rolls through peak fall foliage at Mashburn, Idaho, in October 2008.

It's a pristine fall day along the St. Maries River at Washburn, Idaho, in October 2008 as the St. Maries River Railroad's outbound Clarkia Logger rolls up the river with empties for the reload at Clarkia.

St. Maries River Railroad conductor Pat Hough watches from his caboose as the Clarkia Logger arrives in its namesake Idaho town in October 2008.

The St. Maries River Railroad's inbound Clarkia Logger rolls down the St. Maries River at Mashburn, Idaho, with a trainload of logs for the Potlatch mill in St. Maries on a colorful October afternoon in 2008.

The St. Maries River Railroad's former Burlington Northern caboose brings up the rear of a trainload of logs at Mashburn, Idaho, in October 2008.

Overview of the Potlatch mill in St. Maries, Idaho, in October 2008.

Union Pacific's Plummer Local switches the interchange with the St. Maries River Railroad in Plummer, Idaho, on bright October day in 2008.

The St. Maries River Railroad's outbound Plummer Turn is just east of its namesake Idaho town with a long train of finished lumber for the Union Pacific interchange in October 2008.

The St. Maries River Railroad's inbound Plummer Turn has just departed the Union Pacific interchange at Plummer, Idaho, with empty flatcars for the Potlatch Mill in St. Maries. The train is running on the former Milwaukee Road main line; visible below is the grade of Union Pacific's abandoned line to Wallace, Idaho, now a bike trail.

St. Maries River Railroad's inbound Plummer Turn dashes through colorful trees just west of St. Maries, Idaho, on an overcast fall afternoon in October 2008.

At the end of an October day in 2008, power from the St. Maries River Railroad's Plummer Turn pulls into the three-track shop in St. Maries, Idaho.

St. Maries River Railroad's entire roster of five locomotives—three GP9s and two SW1200s, all former Milwaukee Road—rest in the railroad's three-track shop in St. Maries, Idaho, at the end of an October day in 2008.

On a bright October day in 2008, the St. Maries River Railroad's outbound Clarkia Turn heads up the river with empty log cars.

The sun sets early in October in the high country of Idaho's panhandle. With the trees at peak color, the shadows creeping in, and the St. Maries River Railroad's inbound Clarkia logger approaching, we head for Mashburn—the last place on the line to find any sunlight— and hope the train will beat the shadows.

Caboose 997 brings up the rear of the St. Maries River Railroad's inbound Clarkia Logger with more than fifty loads of Idaho timber at Mashburn, just before the sun sets on a perfect October day in 2008. This would be the last train I would see on the railroad's branchline up its namesake river. The Potlatch mill in St. Maries got a new manager, who opted to bring logs to the mill by truck instead of by rail, and the line was abandoned in 2009. The railroad still switches the mill in St. Maries and hauls finished lumber to the Union Pacific interchange in Plummer, but without the log trains, it just isn't the same.