Appendix H - Historical Archaeological and ... - CBP.gov

Other regional railroads that crossed through eastern Washington and North Idaho included the
Spokane International in 1906 and the Idaho & Washington Northern Railroad. Branch lines
from the main railroads also spread across the region, joining towns and stimulating industrial
growth (Fahey, 1986:195-196; Fahey, 1965:209-218).
Rail transport remained important from the World War I through the end of World War II, when
improvements to the highway systems undermined the profitability of the lines. As automobile
travel increased throughout the 1900s, Federal, State, and local governments worked to improve
the network of roads nationwide. Significant Federal funding first became available with
passage of the Federal Road Act of 1916 and both State and Federal legislation over the next few
decades provided further support for new highway construction (Dilger, 2003:12-13).
Agriculture
Congress passed the Donation Land Claim Act of 1850, which made very generous land grants
to established residents of the territory. In most of the Northern Border PEIS project area these
claims were limited in number and were often made by former HBC employees. The Donation
law expired in 1855. In parts of North Idaho, two other land laws, the Timber and Stone Act and
the Forest Homestead Act, were also widely used to make claims in heavily timbered areas.
Settlers also purchased property from the railroads, which advertised and sold portions of their
land grants, or in later years from lumber companies that offered cheap, cut-over lands
(McLaughlin, 1994:64).
The range of crops grown varied with the environment, which was extremely diverse throughout
the PEIS project area. One historian has likened the agricultural regions of the Northwest to
“islands separated from one another by forests, mountains and vast prairies of sagebrush and
native grasses” (Schwantes1989:167). One of these islands of agriculture was in forested areas
of eastern Washington and North Idaho, where stump ranch pioneers tried to convert cut-over
lands into fields and pastures. In semi-arid parts of the interior, much of the land was initially
used for grazing of cattle and sheep, while dryland farming techniques enabled some successful
grain production (Schwantes, 1989:167-168).
The emergence of irrigation transformed other parts of the semi-arid interior. Apples, cherries
and other fruit trees thrived on irrigated lands in the Okanogan and Wenatchee Valleys. Later,
the construction of the Grand Coulee Dam led to the development of the Columbia Basin Project,
an ambitious effort to irrigate more than half a million arid acres for alfalfa, sugar beets, potatoes
and a variety of other crops. Near the Idaho border, the Rathdrum Prairie was also irrigated for
agricultural production, although financed by several private ventures (Schwantes, 1989:167-
171, 349; Meinig, 1969:479-480; Schwantes et al., 1988:90, 157, 160; Renk, 2002).
Industry and Manufacturing
Timber was often the first “cash crop” for early settlers who cut railroad ties, shingle bolts and
fence posts on their own claims. Like many other Northwest industries, the first sawmill in the
region was operated by the HBC, but as more Americans arrived, small water-powered mills
sprang up in virtually every settlement to mill lumber for buildings. The timber industry
experienced a severe downturn during the 1893 depression but rebounded after 1900 when
several giant lumber companies moved into the region, looking for new opportunities as
Northern Border Activities H-112 July 2012