Avery, Marble Creek & Hobo Cedar Grove

Avery, Idaho, was a division point for Milwaukee RR.

On our way out from Red Ives, Cheryl, Donovan and I stopped in Avery, Idaho for ice. Now having only 53 permanent residents, Avery was from 1909 until 1980 a division point for the Milwaukee Road Railroad.  The only way in and the only way out for the residents was by train (or a trail) -- but that was alright because nearly everyone worked for the railroad and had family passes. The Milwaukee Road is no more, so now a road runs through this hamlet in a narrow canyon on the St. Joe River.

An old Milwaukee Road dining car is a local attraction.

Dining Car

Dining car kitchen

I'm working on a novel set in the Marble Creek Basin during World War I when the U.S. Army took control of the lumber industry to insure there would be wood for ships and aeroplanes; and the federal and state governments suppressed the activities of the I.W.W. (Wobblies) to unionize loggers. So, we stopped at the Forest Service Marble Creek Interpretive Center where Marble Creek enters the St. Joe River. It had been closed for the season last fall when Jay and I first drove into the basin. What a wonderful exhibit of old photos and history.

Painting on saw blade of steam donkey and old-time logging.

Then we headed up Marble Creek.  I wanted to share with Cheryl and Donovan what Jay and I had seen the previous autumn.

Marble Creek, one of the great early white pine timber sources
from about 1900 through the 1930s. Logs were driven down it
to the St. Joe River in the spring.

Eventually, the Forest Service road took us to Hobo Cedar Grove. These red cedars are about 500 years old.  It was white pine the loggers wanted, not cedar.  Even the forest fires that swept through didn't damage these wonderful trees on 240 acres.

Donovan and big cedar.

Off the beaten path, we were the only visitors for most of our trek along the trail.

Ferns grow profusely among the cedar.

Cheryl and me.