The Valley That Wanted the Railroad Bad Enough to Move It
Calispel 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.
A large delegation of property owners from the Calispel valley and other points on the west side of the Pend d’Oreille river will visit Spirit Lake next Sunday. They will meet with the general officials of the Idaho & Washington Northern Railroad, and try to induce the Messrs. Blackwell to change the line of that road from this city north, so that it will run through the Calispel valley, on the west side of the river, instead of on the east side, as proposed at the present time.
The committee is prepared to offer inducements of a substantial character in order to secure the new road. In addition they claim that the cost of constructing the line on the west side will be much cheaper than on the opposite side of the river, and that the company could save a large sum of money by so doing. In addition they will present figures showing that the large amount of tonnage from the valley will greatly exceed that on the east side of the river.
The Calispel valley people are enthusiastic over the prospects of having the line through their section, and claim that it will practically double the value of their lands and products.
“They claim that it will practically double the value of their lands and products.”
The Calispel Valley fight was an early lesson in how transportation routes decide which towns grow and which are left waiting. Newport still lives with the legacies of rail alignments and the politics of luring infrastructure.
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