History

The Weyerhaeuser company bought vast tracts of north central Idaho in the early 1900’s in order to log the Western  White Pine so abundant in this area. They formed the Potlatch Timber Company to own and process this timber and Potlatch in turn formed the Washington Idaho & Montana Railway to haul the timber to the mill in Potlatch, ID and as a secondary purpose, to provide mail and passenger service to the newly sprouted towns serving the timber industry. The train also hauled the finished lumber on to Palouse, WA where several other railheads could haul to connecting lines across the country. The WI&M purchased this car new from the American Car & Foundry Company of St Charles, MO in September, 1909. They purchased another car, passenger only (car 308) shortly after and car 306 served as the smoking car and hauled freight and mail. When passenger volume began to decline, the railroad retired 308 but kept 306. Eventually passenger service declined to the point that a gas powered bus that ran on the tracks (nicknamed the “Bug”) took over all passenger service and 306 sat in the yard as a back up. Finally, around 1955, car 306 was removed from the tracks and used a crew shelter. At this point the history of 306 goes a little fuzzy. Some of the railroaders remember the car being cut in half and then burnt. This obviously must have been a different car or we wouldn’t have anything to restore. What we do know is that one of our neighbors bought the car sometime in the late 1950’s or early 1960’s and used it to store feed for cattle. This went on until the early 1970’s when another neighbor pulled the car up near his home and built a barn over it. From that point it housed a few ranch hands and eventually about 10 cats. Despite a “mild” cat odor, not to mention the wheelbarrow loads of high grade fertilizer (aka cat droppings), we jumped at the chance when offered the opportunity to own the car. After a few dead ends, we found a reliable house mover and in December 2019, we began inching 306 out of the barn that had protected it for 45+ years. We moved it to its present site in February 2020 and began restoration work in earnest in March 2020. Our first guests stayed in the finished home the last weekend of August 2020.