About Potlatch, Idaho
Potlatch Lumber Company
Potlatch Lumber Yard - 1930
Aerial View of the Potlatch Plant - 1935
Overview of Potlatch - 2018
Potlatch, Idaho is a small town located in north-central Idaho, surrounded by the Palouse fields and pine forests. It was founded in 1906 by Potlatch Forest Inc., and was the home of the world's largest white pine sawmill for a time. Potlatch was a "company town," meaning it was founded and owned by one company, who operated almost all functions of the community - from housing, to schools, social activities, and the mercantile where families purchased their daily goods. To rent housing within the Potlatch city limits, one must be an employee of the Potlatch Lumber Company, and they even determined what housing you qualified for, based on your employment and social demographic. Potlatch remained a company town until the lumber mill permanently closed in 1981.
The Palouse
Potlatch was founded as a company town to draw potential employees to an otherwise sparsely populated region of Idaho, but many other small, rural communities also sprang up in the area. This region is called the "Palouse," and spans over the Idaho/Washington border to include towns such as Moscow, Pullman, Palouse, Princeton, and Potlatch's next door neighbor, Onaway. These towns were primarily made up of farmers, the universities in Moscow and Pullman, and other lumber workers, but interaction between these towns and Potlatch was consistent and often necessary. In this project, you will hear portions of stories from not only Potlatch residents, but also those who lived in these other communities with connections to the company town.
Joseph Holland - Bovill
Listen to Joseph Holland's perspective on the mixed feelings toward Potlatch as a company town, using the nickname "Papa Potlatch."
"So, yeah they continued to work for 'em, and still there wasn't that much love for the company because they're big and oh, they can dictate, you know. They can control ya, and If you don't like it go somewhere else. So there is that, but I guess that would probably be true with any big outfit, maybe. I don't know, probably would. Yeah, it was Papa Potlatch."
Lapehr Store in Onaway, ID - 1930
Potlatch Post Office - 1930