Thursday, July 27, 2023

Aban/Camas Prairie/Northern Pacific Wooden Trestle in Cottonwood, ID

(Satellite)

Josh Schmid posted two photos with the comment: "Yesterday [Jul 8, 2023], I found this abandoned trestle on the west side of Cottonwood, Idaho. This was part of the Camas Prairie Railroad, the famous "railroad on stilts". While much of the line has been abandoned for decades, there are several remaining wooden trestles along or within a short distance of US Route 95 in this area."
Tim Shanahan shared
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In 1924, the railroad was labeled the Northern Pacific. This would be the "3 span trestle" on the west side of Cottonwood. The "5 span trestle" could not have been very deep. I could find no evidence of it on a satellite map. It is interesting that this topo map doesn't have any contour lines.
1924 Kamiah Quad @ 125,000

In 1967, the railroad was labelled the Camas Prairie.
1967 Cottonwood Quad @ 24,000

By 1981, the new US-95 avoids the town. The railroad is still labelled Camas Prairie. Because US-95 avoids the town, both the 2007 and 2008 street car drivers did not go into this town.
1981 Cottonwood Quad @ 24,000

It turns out that this route was always the Camas Prairie Railroad, and it was jointly owned by NP and UP. [I lost the reference.] I've noticed before, that topo maps won't list multiple railroads if a route has more than one owner.

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