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Research dossier · General Reference

Washington, Idaho and Montana Railway

railway in Washington and Idaho

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 3, 2026
Entity authorityQ29641800 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Washington, Idaho and Montana Railway is a short-line railroad in the northwest United States, described as "a single-track standard gauge steam railroad" that runs between Bovill, Idaho and Palouse, Washington. Construction began 121 years ago in May 1905 by the Potlatch Lumber Company as a logging railroad, but it also carried other freight, passengers, and mail. By the end of that year, twenty miles (32 km) of track had been laid, and by the end of 1906, the track reached Bovill.

Although the railway was to extend into Montana, these plans were abandoned, for two main reasons. The first was a 1910 forest fire along the North Fork of the Clearwater River, which destroyed valuable timber and the second was an agreement between Chicago, Milwaukee & Puget Sound railway (which operated into Montana) and the Washington, Idaho & Montana railway for joint use of tracks at Bovill and a division of rates.

Engine 1 of the railroad and a railroad depot is preserved in the Commercial Historic District of Potlatch, Idaho, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. One of the line's original passenger cars, combine car 306, which served the railroad from 1909 until being sold and converted into an outbuilding on a farm in the 1950s, was restored in 2020 and now serves as an Airbnb near Deary, Idaho.

In February 2026, service on the railroad resumed for the first time since 2018.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Washington, Idaho and Montana Railway” as railway in Washington and Idaho. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1905, 1906, 1910, 1909—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Washington, Idaho and Montana can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as railway in Washington and Idaho. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q29641800. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1905, 1906, 1910 and 1909.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Washington, Idaho and Montana Railway”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Washington, Idaho and Montana Railway primary sources, Washington, Idaho and Montana Railway archive and Washington research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Washington, Idaho and Montana Railway”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Washington, Idaho and Montana Railway” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.