How railroads transformed Idaho

With the arrival of the railroad in southeastern Idaho, the territory began a period of rapid change. The first rail line completed was the Utah & Northern Railway that stretched from Utah to the placer gold mines at Grasshopper Creek in modern-day Montana. However, Union Pacific was already planning another line that would cross the Snake River Plain and connect Union Pacific’s transcontinental line to Oregon.

The question of where the two lines would meet took considerable time to answer. Originally, the U&N was planned to run north to Soda Springs, then west to the Portneuf Canyon. Union Pacific planned to build a new line, the Oregon Short Line (OSL), from Granger, Wyoming to Soda Springs, which would make Soda Springs the natural junction point. However, when the U&N route to Soda Springs was surveyed, it was found to be too difficult. The decision was then made to run the U&N line north through Red Rock Pass then north to McCammon. The OSL would still run through Soda Springs but continue on its own until it too arrived at McCammon.

This change meant the junction of the two lines was also moved. Logically, the next location planned for the junction was at McCammon. With plenty of water, available land, and what seemed like the most natural point of connection, the decision was a simple one.

However, that location quickly fell out of favor. The land where the railroad company wanted to build the junction was owned by Henry O. Harkness, a local businessman, rancher, and toll-road operator. Harkness balked at allowing the railroad to build the junction where his property stood. He was unsure of his title to the land and asked an exorbitant price that the railroad refused to pay.

Union Pacific again shifted its plans. The U&N and OSL lines would indeed meet near McCammon, but McCammon would not be the junction of the two lines with the accompanying depot and workshops. However, a new problem arose from this decision. The U&N was a narrow-gauge railway with the rails laid three feet apart. However, the OSL was standard gauge, with its rails spaced 4’ 8.5” apart. Without a junction where the freight could be transferred from one gauge to the other, there was a need to find a way to move the trains to a point where that transfer could occur.

The solution to the problem was elegant. Rather than build the road with two rails, the engineers designed it to have three rails. One rail would serve both narrow gauge and standard gauge's left wheels while the other two rails were spaced the appropriate distance to handle the different sizes of rolling stock (see photo to right).

Union Pacific then needed to solve the problem of where to put the junction. In the valley north of McCammon, the two lines would split apart with the new OSL road heading west toward American Falls. The problem was compounded for the railroad because the valley, where the city of Pocatello stands today, was part of the Fort Hall Indian Reservation. It would literally take an act of Congress to acquire the necessary land for a junction.

The railroad negotiated under the Fort Bridger Treaty for a 100-foot wide right of way for the railroad through the reservation. However, where the Pocatello Junction was to be placed, they wanted 300 feet of right of way and 40 acres to build a station. On July 23, 1882, Congress ratified the treaty, allowing for the construction of Pocatello Junction with appropriate payment to the Tribes from the railroad. 

With that problem resolved, the OSL railroad was quickly built west. By 1882, the tracks reached Shoshone. In 1884, the railroad crossed the Snake River bridge at Huntington, Oregon.

This railroad connection across southern Idaho radically transformed Idaho Territory. Previously, all freight was moved through the region on large lumbering freight wagons. With their limited speed and limited tonnage, they were expensive and slow to react to market pressures for specific goods. In contrast, the railroad now had trains crossing the Snake River Plain daily. This created a boom in the widespread communities now connected by the Oregon Short Line.

One important city was left out, though. While Boise was the territorial capital, it was not on the Oregon Short Line. Land speculators attempted to pull one over on the railroad by buying the land with the most natural approaches to Boise. Their hope was that they could demand sky-high prices that the railroad would have no choice but to pay. The railroad called their bluff and built to the south of Boise. The nearest station to Boise was built at Kuna. Boise had to wait until September 5, 1887, for its first train to arrive. Even then the wooden depot was built on the south bench overlooking the city, forcing people to take horses and wagons to get up the steep hill to the depot. It was not until August 17, 1893, that a depot was built on Front Street, bringing rail service to the city itself.

While far less a dramatic history, the Northern Pacific Railway connected the northern section of Idaho Territory to rail service in 1883. As with the OSL, the NPR transformed the lives of Idahoans, many of whom had never even seen a train. Passenger and freight could travel vast distances in a fraction of the time that it took horses and wagons to travel the same stretch.

However, the railroads did nothing to connect Northern Idaho with Southern Idaho. The rugged terrain of Central Idaho would not see railroad service until much later and no railroad would directly connect the panhandle with the Snake River Plain. Similarly, while the railroads' arrival meant prosperity for the towns and cities along their tracks, the towns, mining regions, and cities not on the lines were often difficult to get to. Idaho could not afford to wait for the railroad companies to connect the distant regions of Idaho. For that it would require highways.