The LeClerc Creek Road was once the bed of a logging railroad, but little evidence remains of the railroad today. The Panhandle Lumber Company constructed the LeClerc Creek Railroad after a water rights dispute with the Diamond Match Company forced the closure of the LeClerc flume, which had been used to transport logs out of the forest and to the river.

Railroad construction began in June 1924 under the direction of Harold A. Sewell of the Interstate Engineering and Construction Company and was completed by October of the following year. The railroad was built through the LeClerc Creek basin to the east bank of the Pend Oreille River, where the tracks extended out over the river on the logging dock and then back onto the east bank of the river.

Two Shay Ballard locomotives, built specifically for the Panhandle Lumber Company, operated on this railroad until 1935. Company officials sold the two locomotives in April 1940 to the Washington Machinery and Supply Company, and they were eventually scrapped.

The Panhandle Company operated this railroad from 1924 to 1935, which provided access to the large tracts of timber in the LeClerc Creek basin owned by the company. By 1935, much of the area had been logged, and Panhandle left the basin completely in 1939. During its existence, the logging railroad was a vital part of Panhandle logging operations in the LeClerc basin, and an important storyline in Pend Oreille County’s lumbering heritage.

Credits and Sources:

Chance, David H. The Lumber Industry of Washington’s Pend Oreille Valley, 1888-1941.

Moscow, Idaho: David & Jennifer Chance & Associates, 1991.

Piper, William J. “The LeClerc Creek Logging Railroad.” Big Smoke, 1992.

Williams, Jean M. “Searching for LeClerc Creek’s Logging Railroad.” Big Smoke, 1983.

Photographs courtesy of the Library of Congress.