Spokane and British Columbia Railway

The Republic & Kettle Valley Railway Company (R&KV) was initially incorporated on August 8, 1900, with J. Stratton as president, Holland obtained permitting from the provincial government to build a rail line from Grand Forks south to the international border, and then with help from Morris permits to build south from the border to Republic. The initial financing was to be supplied by Hollands brother F. Holland along with funds from J. Stratton and T. Coffee, all three being employees of the Toronto based Dominion Permanent Trust Company. On March 18, 1901, Morris obtained the needed permits from the Secretary of the Interior to build a Grand Forks to Republic rail line across the northern portion of the Colville Indian Reservation. Upon return from Washington, D.C. Morris worked with the R&GF company to buy out the R&KV company, after which the R&GF Railway board relinquished the survey rights for the route. Organization of the R&KV Company had been undertaken by Montreal business interests who were backing the Republic Mine on Republic and the company had secured permission for a rail line along the same route on May 8, 1900. Full operation began in 1902, with a Grand Forks band travelling to Republic to celebrate the increased ease of commerce between the towns. ==Southern line==

On 2 January 1902, the railroad was also approved by the Secretary of the Interior to conduct surveying for a southern line though the Colville Reservation along the Sanpoil River. From the southeastern boundary of the reservation the railway located a line along the Columbia River and then up the Spokane River to a junction with the then defunct Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway road bed. Another juncture, with the Okanogan Electric Railway, was planned near Peach, after which the two would share the line into Spokane. The mapped route for the southern extension was approved 17 October 1905 was approved by the Secretary of the Interior. Included in mapped route was location of the proposed branch line starting near the mouth of the Spokane River at the Columbia River and thence traveling along the eastern shore of the Columbia to "Sand Bar Landing" which was also the terminus of the Big Bend Transit Company rail line. The Secretary of the Interior gave notice upon map approval that consideration for the branch line would not take place until construction of the railways main line south had been completed. During the same year, the small Belcher Mountain Railway had also surveyed a southern line from Republic across the Colville Reservation to the Columbia. The company had been directed that in any case where the proposed route paralleled another rail line within 10 miles, it was to give justification for the benefit of public interest for two lines. Upon review of the proposed route, submitted 24 November 1905, the Secretary of the Interior noted it to cross, re-cross, and at times use the same exact bed as that which had already been mapped by the Spokane and British Columbia Railway. The Belch Mountain Railway maps were not approved due to failing to meet submission requirements and notice of the conflicting route was given. The full extent of the line was a proposed route connecting Republic to Spokane, Washington. With the 1905 reorganization of the company into the Spokane and British Columbia Railway, an additional $4,000,000 in stocks was authorized for the southern line. However, as of a 1915 valuation by the US Commerce Commission, little actual building or prep work had been made on the southern route due to building debts, and none of the additional stocks had been issued. On June 30, 1915, the S&BC had a total operating loss of at the end of the 1915 fiscal year. ==Washington & Great Northern Railway rivalry==

On 4 June 1898 permission was granted by the Secretary of the Interior to the Washington Improvement and Development Company for a right of way running from the mouth of the San Poil river on the Columbia north to the international boarder. The grant covered the mapping of rail, telegraph, and telephone lines plus lands for switch tracks, sidings, stations, and other buildings. The mapping was subsequently completed, submitted, and approved by the Secretary of the Interior by 27 November 1899. Before work was started on the approved route, the Washington Improvement and Development Company was bought out by the Washington & Great Northern Railway Company and as a result all of the grants and rights the Washington Improvement and Development Company passed to the new owners. After the buyout, no actual work as performed by the Washington & Great Northern to grade or improve any of the planned rail line. The company did continue to perform right of way surveys based on the original work, with a proposed branch line being proposed up the West Fork Sanpoil River into Aeneas Valley and on to the Okanogan River Valley beyond. One of the provisions in the original 4 June 1898 permission was that within six months of a route filing, the company was to begin grading on the approved section or the grant would be void. Additionally section 5 of the grant specified at least of line were to be built through the Colville Reservation within two years of the grant or the right would be forfeited back to the US government. The 17 October 1905 route approved by the Secretary of the Interior for the Spokane and British Columbia Railways southern line used much of the same route that had previously been granted to the Washington Improvement and Development Company. Two years later, in 1912, the United States congress passed an act granting both railways rights to lay rail right-of-ways through the Sanpoil Valley and across the Colville Reservation. In turn, the Great Northern officially abandoned its claim to the Sanpoil right-of-way in 1913, with word that work done on a Bluestem to Miles spur in the area of the Sanpoil River mouth was for a line North To Kettle Falls along the Columbia. ==Later years and abandonment==

On 16 August 1916, a hearing by the Public Services Commission of Washington in Republic. The purview of the hearing was to address a request by the Great Northern Railway that the Great Northern and the Spokane and British Columbia Railways no longer have any physical connection. Both railways indicated they no longer wished to engage in the switching charges or privileges granted by interconnection of the respective lines. This request was granted by the commission. The final officially scheduled train run on the line was September 27, 1919, and only a few sporadic runs happened after that date, and the last run was in November 1919. The company officially filed a request to abandon its rail line with the Interstate Commerce Commission, with an advisory position held by the Public Service Commission of Washington. The commission held a hearing on January 20, 1921, to ascertain if there was any objection to the filed request or if any hardship would result on the region serviced by the rail line. It was concluded that the Great Northern was providing the needed service in the area and a final order by the hearing commission was made on February 2, 1921, by that the application should be granted. The line was listed as an active corporation in the Seventeenth Biennial Report of the Washington Secretary of State for 1920–1922, but was stricken from the Washington State Corporation records on July 1, 1925, in the Nineteenth Biennial Report. ==Rolling stock==

In 1912, the company had three steam locomotives and a small inventory of rolling stock mostly geared towards mining and freight hauling. The S&BC registered only two passenger-freight combination coaches in service, while having a fleet of four boxcars, ten ore dump cars and thirteen flatcars. All of the rolling stock was marked with S. & B.C. along with the car number, 100–104 for boxcars, 500–510 for ore dump cars, and 600–613 for flat cars. ==References==