Camas Prairie Railroad

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Camas Prairie Railroad

Reporting marks	CPR
Locale	Lewiston, Idaho to Ayer JCT(Riparia), Washington Lewiston, Idaho to Stites, Idaho Spaulding, Idaho to Grangville, Idaho Orofino, Idaho to Headquarters, Idaho
Dates of operation	1889–1998
Track gauge	4 ft 8½ in (1435 mm) (standard gauge)
Headquarters	Lewiston, Idaho

Camas Prairie Railroad was a short line railroad in northern Idaho owned and operated by Northern Pacific Railway and Union Pacific Railroad. The Camas Prairie Railroad was known as the "railroad on stilts" due to the many trestles. In one five mile stretch, there are more than a dozen trestles. The CPR was a remnant of the great railroad wars in the 19th and 20th century, when the Harriman and the Hill were fighting over this whole inland area to see who could get the most rails into the Pacific Northwest. They called it “the war” and the Camas Prairie Railroad was the result of that war and in many ways the end of the war. In the end, the railroads cooperated to build the Camas Prairie Railroad. The Camas Prairie railroad was built to tap the rolling, fertile hills of the Palouse prairie, as well as the more southerly Camas Prairie and the forested hills and canyonlands of the area's rivers.