Organization

Idaho & Washington Northern Railroad

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Nov 16, 1907Newport Gets a Railroad Office—and a Deadline for FreightThe Idaho & Washington Northern set freight dates, opened a local office, and promised mail and passenger service—while a right-of-way suit headed to court.Newport, WA
Dec 12, 1907The Railroad Platting a Town: Fifty Acres Become Fourteen BlocksThe Blackwell road surveys the Jaynes tract west of Newport into city lots, moves its headquarters into a new Spirit Lake depot, and promises two trains a day to Spokane by New Year's.Newport, WA
Mar 5, 1908Newport’s Railroad Future Takes Shape in a $150,000 YardThe Idaho & Washington Northern Railroad unveils plans for terminal yards, depots, switches and a loop through old and new Newport—and west-side farmers lobby for the line down the Calispel valley.Newport, WA
Mar 19, 1908The Valley That Wanted the Railroad Bad Enough to Move ItCalispel Valley landowners planned to meet Idaho & Washington Northern officials at Spirit Lake to argue that the new line should run up the west side of the Pend d’Oreille, not the east.Newport, WA
Apr 2, 1908Newport Bets on the RailroadThe Idaho & Washington Northern will break ground on a brick passenger station next week, with a freight depot and $75,000 in yard improvements close behind.Newport, WA
Apr 9, 1908The Ione Is Coming: Newport Builds the River's Largest Excursion SteamerMaterial arrives for a 135-foot, 400-passenger steamer as Pend d'Oreille River travel booms and promoters dream of tourists.Newport, WA
Apr 30, 1908The Rails Come to Newport: Yards, Depots, and a Town Betting Its Future on the I. & W. N.Railroad brass walk the ground for new yards, surveyors push down-river, a depot rises, and the town council is asked for a franchise — as high water stalls the Great Northern bridge at Albeni Falls.Newport, WA
May 7, 1908A Midnight Council Fight Over Rails, Rubbish and ResidencyNewport's council spent a long May evening weighing a railroad franchise, ordering alleys cleaned, and questioning whether one of its own members actually lived in town.Newport, WA
May 7, 1908The Councilman Who Lived Across the State LineA lawyer’s residency challenge nearly voided a railroad franchise—and forced Councilman Eckerson to offer his resignation.Newport, WA
May 7, 1908The Riverfront Gets Rearranged for the RailroadHouses are moved, cedar poles shifted, and the Idaho & Washington Northern prepares to start its loop through Newport’s old riverfront.Newport, WA
May 14, 1908A Railroad Wants Newport's Streets Forever — and One Lawyer Says the Constitution Forbids ItAlva S. Sherlock warns that the Idaho & Washington Northern is asking the town council for a perpetual, irrevocable franchise over 400 feet of Newport's streets — a grant that would outlive the corporation itself, and the state constitution's ban on irrevocable privilege.Newport, WA
May 21, 1908Newport's Railroad Franchise Went Through in a Single NightIn May 1908, the Commercial Club packed the council meeting and Newport's leaders voted without dissent to hand the Idaho & Washington Northern its franchise, betting the town's future on rail and industry.Newport, WA
May 28, 1908Three Trains a Day: Newport's Railroad Boom ArrivesThe Idaho & Washington Northern's new equipment, a nearly finished depot, and Sunday river excursions promise to bring tourists and growth to the Pend d'Oreille valley.Newport, WA
Jun 11, 1908The Railroad Wanted the Streets. The Nagles Wanted Compensation.Newport's council granted the Idaho & Washington Northern a franchise through Second and Third streets while Philip and Mary Nagle warned it would damage their property. A letter from M. M. Sammons also pressed the railroad to donate ten acres for a public park.Newport, WA
Jul 2, 1908Valley Ranchers Organize to Dike the Pend Oreille: A $40,000 Flood Control District ProposedAbout 25 landowners met at Gifford's ranch to sign a petition for a diking district covering nearly 10,000 acres, aiming to protect their fields from the river's annual overflow.Cusick, WA
Jul 2, 1908Ranchers Compete for Railroad: West Side Landowners Offer Free Right-of-WayAt a packed meeting at the Locke schoolhouse, 25 property owners strategized to bring the Idaho & Washington Northern Railroad to their side of the river, offering free timberland right-of-way and cheap meadow prices.Newport, WA
Aug 20, 1908The Mayor Won't Sign, the Railroad Can't Build, and a Saloonkeeper Sues the TownNewport's council spends a long evening tangled in street vacations for the Idaho & Washington Northern, unsafe crossings, a disputed plat of survey monuments — and trades a lawsuit for a liquor license.Newport, WA
Sep 24, 1908West Bank Wins the RailroadIdaho & Washington Northern picks the west side of the Pend Oreille for its Metaline extension, promising Ione by late next year and a boom for the Calispel valley.Newport, WA
Oct 1, 1908The Railroad That Was Promised Finally Gets Its Money$2.5 million in bonds are sold for the Idaho & Washington Northern extension to Metaline, and right-of-way agents find landowners ready to welcome a line expected to reach Ione by late 1909.Newport, WA
Nov 12, 1908The Railroad Comes Down the River: Metaline Line to Run by SummerWith the financing closed and the election safely out of the way, the Idaho & Washington Northern will start building south from Newport this month — and Newport merchants are already counting the payroll.Newport, WA
Dec 3, 1908Five Hundred Men and a Steam Shovel: Newport Becomes a Railroad TownThe Idaho & Washington Northern finally signs Grant Smith Co. to grade the line up the Pend Oreille to Ione — and Newport bets its winter, its wages and its warehouses on the boom.Newport, WA
Dec 10, 1908A Panic Year Boom: Newport Built Through Hard TimesDespite a national financial panic, Newport added 87 homes, six concrete business blocks, new depots, churches, and a reshaped downtown—proud evidence of a town betting on itself.Washington Avenue, Newport, WA
Dec 24, 1908Copper, Silver, and a Close Call: Newport's Mining District Heats UpPromising strikes at the Bornite and Last Chance mines draw new capital and extra shifts—but a hoist accident leaves one miner badly hurt.Newport, WA
Feb 25, 1909The Railroad Cut Through His Property; He Wants $10,000Philip Nagle sued the Idaho & Washington Northern, claiming a new track and excavation isolated his Newport land and ignored his property rights.Newport, WA
May 13, 1909Newport's Rail Boom Pushes Down the Pend OreilleCrews prepare to lay steel in the Newport yards and let contracts for a high bridge at Box Canyon as the Idaho & Washington Northern drives toward Metaline.Newport, WA
May 13, 1909A Fortune Arrives Too Late for Tunnel ForemanN. Wickstrom, a careful and sober tunnel foreman, was crushed by falling rock at Blueslide — on the same day a letter told him a long-awaited court judgment had come through.Blueslide, WA
May 27, 1909An Eight-Foot Seam of Coal Turns Up on a Pend Oreille County RanchThe 'coal strike' on the Dieder place near Dalkena is bigger than first reported — eight feet wide instead of three — and Newport is already dreaming of a mine, a spur, cheaper fuel and a new town tributary to its own.Dalkena, WA
Jun 3, 19092,200 Men, a Steel Bridge and a Tunnel: The Railroad Eats the ValleyThe Idaho & Washington Northern's Metaline extension is three-quarters graded out of Ione, the bridge north of Newport is spanned, and tracklayers expect to reach Dalkena by mid-June.Newport, WA
Jul 22, 1909Surveyors Hunt a Mountain Pass for Newport’s Railroad FutureGreat Northern surveyors reportedly found a low-grade route through the mountains, fueling hopes of a Newport–Chewelah cutoff and a rail boom across the Pend Oreille country.Newport, WA
Jul 29, 1909Hand-Dug Tunnel Opens the Way for Newport's Northern RailroadThree hundred men, two shifts, and hand drilling only: the Idaho & Washington Northern blasts through Blueslide and sets its sights on Ione.Blueslide, WA
Aug 26, 1909The Train Reaches Usk, and the Steamboat FollowsOn September 4, 1909, the Idaho & Washington Northern begins double daily passenger service to Usk, where a new dock will connect trains with riverboats for Ione.Usk, WA
Oct 7, 1909A Two-Year Railroad Fight Ends with a $6,000 CheckAfter two years in court, H. M. Lund's property dispute with the Idaho & Washington Northern ends in a buyout; his hardware store will move to Washington Avenue and the old building will come down.Newport, WA
Oct 7, 1909Steel on the Grade: Railroad Nears Ione, Newport Mail Speeds UpThe Idaho & Washington Northern pushes to within ten miles of Ione, moves its steamboat terminus to Jared's, and the Great Northern's fast mail cuts hours off Newport's eastern post.Ione, WA
Oct 28, 1909New Trains, New Track — and Three Railroads Circling Priest LakeThe Bonners Ferry local comes back, the Idaho & Washington Northern creeps toward Ione, and the Miner's editor sniffs hot air in a Spokane paper's talk of a Priest Lake line.Newport, WA
Nov 25, 1909A Hobo's Waving Coat, and Three Slides That Shut the Line North of NewportA landslide near Scotia derails a Great Northern freight — saved from worse by a tramp flagging the crew with his coat — while two more slides in the Morrissey cut strand the night passenger and keep Newport passengers in local hotels until morning.Newport, WA
Jul 28, 1910The Railroad That Became a LeveeProperty owners along the Calispel petition to join Diking District No. 2, where a rail embankment and a concrete culvert will hold back the Pend Oreille and reclaim a swath of farmland.Newport, WA