Company Town - Potlatch Idaho - Idaho Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

Potlatch was founded in 1905 as a company town by the Potlach Corporation. The townsite was chosen because of proximity to Potlatch Corporation's large holdings of western white pine on the Palouse river. Potlatch was chosen as the mill site. When the mill was built, it was one of the largest sawmills in the US and was the largest white pine sawmill in the world. The Potlatch Corporation built 250 buildings in the town for the workers and their families, including a department store, opera house, apartment buildings, train station and depot. Many of the houses were designed and built by the Potlatch Corporation, then later sold as kit homes with assembly instructions.

Potlatch also was once the hub for one of the largest private lumber rail networks built in the United States. Most of its rail stations or depots were named after the Ivy League schools, such as Harvard and Princeton.

In 1981 the mill was shut down, shortly after the town was sold to the residents. Source: Wikipedia

Marker Name: Company Town Marker Type: Roadside Marker Text: Built as a model town . Potlatch was owned by Weyerheauser's Potlatch Lumber Company. Spokane architect C. Ferris White designed the new community in 1905. Worker' housing stood close to the mill. Managers' homes were built away from the plants noise and smoke. The railroad depot separated town from industry. All company owned, Potlatch was complete with churches, school, gym, hospital, opera house and company store. County: Latah City: Potlatch Date Dedicated: Unknown Group Responsible for Placement: Idaho Dept of Transpertation Marker Number: 505 Web link(s) for additional information: Potlatch.com

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Date Logged Log User Rating   08/19/2017 saopaulo1 visited it