Started in 1907 by Elers Koch, then supervisor of the Lolo and Bitterroot National Forests, Savenac Nursery was named for the one time owner of the land, a German settler named Savennach. Savennach abandoned the homestead, for reasons unknown, and Koch saw it as an excellent location for a tree nursery, on a major road with railroads nearby, with ample flat land and access to water for irrigation.
In 1910 the nursery, was destroyed by the
The Great Fire of 1910, which burned not only the nursery, but many other towns in Idaho and Montana, also claiming a total of 85 lives, 78 of them firefighters unable to escape the fast moving fire. Rebuilding began that winter, with the nursery being completely rebuilt and repopulated with the structures and buildings necessary for its operation. In 1932 a complete renovation of the nursery began, seeing the replacement of all existing buildings and a great many other structures. All of this construction took place using CCC labor, taking place between 1932 and 1948.
As best we can tell, some of the preserved machinery on display at the front of the nursery could easily be from the very beginning of the nursery in 1907-08. This, a McCormick Drill, is actually a repurposed 5 foot grain drill and looks more like a 1920s vintage drill. It would have been used in the nursery to plant tree seeds taken from cones. It probably didn't require much in the way of changes to turn it into a tree seeder. Branded with the McCormick name, if very early it would have been built by McCormick Deering; if later it would have been manufactured by International Harvester. No longer useable, it is missing quite a few parts and pieces.