While on his honeymoon in 1907, Forest Supervisor Elers Koch found the abandoned homestead of a German immigrant named “Savennach.” On that site, Koch would develop a tree nursery that would eventually provide billions of trees to reforest the Pacific Northwest. Koch once said: “When a Forester goes to St. Peter for a final accounting, I am sure that when he is asked what he has done with his life, if he can point to thousands of acres of a once ugly burn now covered with a growing forest, it will offset many sins.”

Savenac proved to be an ideal location. It was on the historic Mullan Road, which connected Walla Walla, Washington, and Fort Benton, Montana. Two major rail lines—the Milwaukee and the Northern Pacific—ran nearby. By 1909, the nursery had an irrigation system, seedbeds, a cabin, two bunkhouses, a barn, and several outbuildings.

The massive wildfires of 1910—known as the Great Burn—destroyed almost the entire property. Only the seedbeds, irrigated by the nearby creek, survived. Despite the loss, the fire also ensured the nursery’s future. Desperate to replant the burned timber lands, the Forest Service quickly rebuilt Savenac. By 1915, the property covered 200 acres and was the U.S. Forest Service’s largest nursery, providing over three million transplant trees annually.

During the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) constructed several new buildings and significantly expanded the seedbeds, increasing the annual production from 3 million to more than 12 million seedlings. The CCC rededicated the arboretum to the memory of the Forest Service employees who died in the Great Burn. There is also a stone memorial and 78 spruce trees—one for each of the dead.

In 1969, the Forest Service moved its operations at Savenac to another nursery in Coeur D’Alene. Now Savenac serves as an interpretive site for tourists and school groups. Several rooms are available to rent via the Superior Ranger District.

Credits and Sources:

Davis-Quitt, Deb. “‘We Can Take It!’: The CCC Story in Mineral County.” Publisher unknown, date unknown.

Davis, Deborah. “Transportation Means and Routes As They Pertain to the Historic Savanac Nursery.” Unpublished manuscript, 1997.

Hahn, Margie E. Montana’s Mineral County in Retrospect.Stevensville, MT: Stoneydale Press Publishing Company, 1997.

Mineral County Historical Society. Mineral County History.Superior, MT: Mineral County Historical Society, 2004.

Mountain Chieftan[camp newsletter]. Haugan, MT:  Civilian Conservation Corps. December 24, 1936.

National Register of Historic Places Inventory, Nomination Form: USDA Forest Service, Savenac Nursery. Lolo National Forest, n.d.

U.S. Forest Service. “Savenac Historic Tree Nursery.” Undated pamphlet.

Historic photographs of “Transplanting with Transplant Board, 1935,” “Cart with Seedlings,” “Savenac Planting Crew in the Cabinet Mountains,” “Transplanting at Savenac,” and “Savenac, 1916,” courtesy of the Mineral County Historical Museum, Superior, MT.

Contemporary photographs of Savenac Nursery courtesy of Historical Research Associates, Inc.