The tour leads through heavy forests of pine, tamarack, and fir. Rising from the deep cleft of the river’s channel are benchlands, a series of ascending terraces that break into steep, rugged mountain slopes. East of the river, the Kaniksu National Forest extends into Idaho. After climbing for a few miles, the highway dips sharply down to the benchlands. This is a region of cutover lands, with stumps, snags, and...

Mile: 434

The town took the name Dalkena after the surnames of the D & K Mill Company’s founders, Dalton and Kennedy. Now an almost deserted village, this town stands slightly above the river. On both sides of the tracks of a branch line of the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railway were the remains of a big lumber mill that burned in 1935. In 1902, the Dalton and Kennedy Sawmill was...

Points of Interest

Dalkena Lumber Company Barn

Mile: 426

A small community with stores, a post office, and a service station, along the flats west of the river. Some logging was still being done in the vicinity as of 1941, but the merchantable timber was almost exhausted. The history of the district around Usk is in a measure typical of the county. Isolated from population centers and off most rail lines, this region was not opened to logging operations...

The town began as a sawmill town on the Pend Oreille River, northwest of Newport. In the early 1890s, Joe W. Cusick settled there and platted the town on May 24, 1902. He was a pioneer river captain who ran the steamer Volunteer and other early stern-wheelers on the river. The town took his name when platted. The town once surrounded the former tall, aluminum-painted water tower and the black...

A small town with a post office, a tavern, and a general store, the town clings to the side of the road. Here the mountains close in on the valley, and the river flows quietly for a short distance between its rocky walls. It was named for Robert W. Jared, who settled in the valley in 1886. He operated a small store and when a post office was established February...

Mile: 409

A small community on the west bank of the Pend Oreille River at its confluence with Little Ruby Creek. It is named for the color of a clay slide on the river bank, which has a bluish tinge when wet. The town was comprised of a few neatly painted houses surrounded by gardens and small orchards, and was a center of valley farms and dairy ranches. North of Blueslide, the...

Mile: 400

A crossroads community on the west bank of the Pend Oreille River. The place was established in 1905 as a trading post by a pioneer named Yoder, who also was the first postmaster. The sternwheeler steamers on the river stopped at Tiger during that period. The place was named for George Tiger, the first settler who homesteaded on the bank of the river about 1900. A series of ponds and...

Mile: 391

The narrowing channel of the river is visible at the approach to this canyon, the purple-gray portals of which stand out sharply. The canyon is 1,200 feet long, and the rocky walls range from 20 to 100 feet in height. The white water flows with extraordinary rapidity through the narrow gorge. Logs, which are still sent down Box Canyon, whirl in the narrow corridor before they go booming over Metaline...

Points of Interest

Idaho and Washington Northern Railroad Bridge

Mile: 7

Dark forests of pine and fir are spotted with the golden-brown of tamarack. On a high embankment, the highway crosses the 5,000-foot tunnel of the American Lead and Zinc Smelting Company development.

Mile: 11

The Pend Oreille Mine and Metal Company’s plant is the chief industrial development at Metaline, on the west bank of the Clark Fork River. The name is taken from the adjacent falls in the Pend Oreille River. The Pend Oreille Mine and Metal Company (incorporated in 1929) was once one of the most productive mining companies in the nation, producing 20 percent of the lead and 13 percent of the...

Mile: 12