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, the preserved machinery on display at the front of the nursery could easily all be from the very beginning of the nursery in 1907-08. This, a tumble bucket, operated as a scraper, in a manner similar to that of its predecessor, the Fresno. Both were used for ground levelling, road building, irrigation ditch construction and more. This example was likely used for a variety of projects in the nursery. The tumble bucket was an improvement over the Fresno, requiring less effort from the operator. Either horse or tractor drawn, the bucket was designed to rotate on an axle, being locked in one position, with the blade digging into the ground, to fill the bucket. When full, the bucket was then locked in a different position with the blade above the ground and the material in the bucket transported to the site at which it was to be dumped. There, the bucket latch would be released and the bucket would make one full rotation while being pulled forward, thereby emptying itself, ready for another cycle.