2,200 Men, a Steel Bridge and a Tunnel: The Railroad Eats the Valley
The 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.
Construction work on the Idaho & Washington Northern Metaline extension from Newport is now progressing rapidly, and it is estimated that at least 75 per cent of the grading of the line to Ione is completed. All told, 2,200 men are employed on the contract work of the Grant Smith Co. and the track laying and ballasting gangs of the railroad.
The piece of laying steel across the big bridge just north of town was completed early this week, and the tracklayers are now near the big cut on the Mauzea. The tracklaying outfit will not be used until the shoo-fly or temporary tracks are laid, as the curves on them are too sharp to permit of the use of the machine.
General Manager Blackwell said this morning that while the work of tracklaying is being slightly hampered, they expect to have track laid into Dalkena by June 15. The first section of the track will then be ballasted and tracklaying will be resumed July 1, to continue without interruption until completion. Several of the big sub-contractors have about completed their work down the river, and the tunnel at Blueslide is progressing so rapidly that no delay is anticipated at that point.
“All told, 2,200 men are employed on the contract work of the Grant Smith Co. and the track laying and ballasting gangs of the railroad.”
A railroad crew of 2,200 men was, for a season, the largest industry in the Pend Oreille valley — bigger than any mill or mine the paper covered that week. The grade, the cut and the Blueslide tunnel are still cut into the hillsides; the line they carried is gone. Boom economies have not changed their shape: they arrive with a payroll and leave with the rails.
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