Fourteen Sections of Timber and Twenty Miles of Track
The Panhandle Lumber Co. laid plans for a logging railroad up the Diamond Lake road from the wye west of Newport — six miles this summer, twenty in the end, and maybe a permanent line clear through to Spokane.
Jas. McInnis and Harry Wiley, of the Panhandle Lumber Co., accompanied by Engineer Mayhew, of the Idaho Washington Northern, are at present engaged in going over the timber holdings of the Panhandle in Township 31-45, north and west of Newport.
The Panhandle owns in the neighborhood of fourteen sections of timber lands in this township, north of the Great Northern right-of-way. To take off this timber a railroad is planned to leave the main line of the I. W. N. at the wye west of town, and running up the gulch on the Diamond Lake road. About six miles of road will be built this summer, and ultimately about twenty miles of logging road will be required to reach all of the timber lands of the company. The road will extend as far west as Diamond Lake, and there is a possibility that the road to the lake may be made a permanent railroad, as in addition to the timber holdings there is a fine body of agricultural and hay lands in the neighborhood of and west of the lake, which would provide a permanent tonnage, and a large area of land that can be irrigated from Diamond and other lakes and brought to a high state of production.
It is estimated that it will take three to four years to log off the Panhandle timber in this township, and during that time a large number of men will be employed. Besides the benefit accruing to Newport from the opening of this territory, the logging and railroad building operations will serve to stimulate business. Work on the building of the road will be started about June 1.
Besides the Panhandle timber that will be reached by this road, a short extension would make available the holdings of the Washington Mill Co., Consolidated Lumber Co., Spokane Lumber Co., the timber of the ranchers and some that is still held by the Northern Pacific.
The building of this road may be only the beginning of railroad operations in the country west of Newport, and may lead to a realization of the hope of settlers of a road from Newport to Spokane, which would reach the chain of beautiful lakes that dot that section.
“It is estimated that it will take three to four years to log off the Panhandle timber in this township, and during that time a large number of men will be employed.”
The Panhandle's spur was never built as a permanent line to Spokane, but the timber came off regardless — the fourteen sections north of the Great Northern grade were cut over across three or four winters of hard, dangerous work. The Diamond Lake road the surveyors followed is still the route out of Newport toward the lake, and the lake country they hoped to irrigate and sell as farmland is now mostly second-growth forest and summer cabins.
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