Camas Prairie Railroad

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Camas Prairie Railroad
System map
Reporting marks CPR
Locale Lewiston, Idaho to Ayer JCT(Riparia), Washington
Lewiston, Idaho to Stites, Idaho
Spaulding, Idaho to Grangville, Idaho
Orofino, Idaho to Headquarters, Idaho
Dates of operation 18891998
Track gauge ft 8½ in (1435 mm) (standard gauge)
Headquarters Lewiston, Idaho

Camas Prairie Railroad was a short line railroad in northern Idaho owned and operated by Northern Pacific Railway and Union Pacific Railroad. The Camas Prairie Railroad was knowen as the "railroad on stilts" due to the many trestles. In one five mile stretch, there are more than a dozen trestles. The CPR was a remnant of the great railroad wars in the 19th and 20th century, when the Harriman and the Hill were fighting over this whole inland area to see who could get the most rails into the Pacific Northwest. They called it “the war” and the Camas Prairie Railroad was the result of that war and in many ways the end of the war. In the end, the railroads cooperated to build the Camas Prairie Railroad. The Camas Prairie railroad was built to tap the rolling, fertile hills of the Palouse prairie, as well as the more southerly Camas Prairie and the forested hills and canyonlands of the area's rivers.

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