The
Spokane and Palouse Railway, a predecessor of the
Northern Pacific Railway (NP), completed a line from the NP's main line at Marshall south to
Genesee, Idaho in 1888, and a branch from Pullman to
Juliaetta, Idaho in 1891 (extended to
Lewiston by the NP in 1898). The
Washington, Idaho and Montana Railway (WI&M) finished its line in 1907, extending east from Palouse to
Purdue, Idaho. The
Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (Milwaukee Road) gained control of the WI&M in 1962, and sold the property to the
Burlington Northern Railroad (BN), successor to the NP, in 1980. The BN sold the lines from Marshall to
Arrow, Idaho and Palouse to
Bovill, Idaho to the newly created
Palouse River and Coulee City Railroad (PCC), which began operations in September 1996. It subsequently abandoned the ends from Harvard to Bovill and Moscow to Arrow, and in September 2006 the Washington and Idaho Railway began operating the remainder under contract. The
Washington State Department of Transportation bought the trackage within that state in June 2007, and kept the Washington and Idaho Railway as the operator. It also has access to an ex-
Union Pacific Railroad line west from Pullman to
Risbeck (also formerly owned by the PCC) for
railcar storage. In mid 2019, the WIR ceased operations as the contract was up for the state owned lines. A new operator took over in August 2019 and is called the Spokane, Spangle & Palouse Railway (SSP). ==References==