Spirit Lake’s founder a visionary
Editor’s note: This is the fifth in a series of articles exploring the history of Spirit Lake and its environs as the community nears its centennial in August. Spirit Lake native Keith Spencer became interested in local history when he came across some old photographs while remodeling his home. He and his wife, Janette, researched the photos’ origins, began collecting old documents for posterity and now can’t seem to stop.
Frederick Albert Blackwell, the founder of Spirit Lake, arrived in Coeur d’Alene in 1902. He was 50 years old and at an age when many men would be looking ahead toward retirement. Not Blackwell. He hit the streets of Coeur d’Alene running, and as it turned out, running toward the creation of a vast empire across North Idaho and northeastern Washington. Spirit Lake was to become the crown jewel of this empire.
By 1909, Blackwell had become one of the most powerful men in the Inland Empire, and was listed in the Spokane Chronicle as one of the region’s wealthiest. In terms of lumbering, the July 1985 edition of the Pacific Northwest Quarterly listed his lumber empire as second only to the vast Weyerhaeuser Syndicate operating in the Lewiston and other areas. The preceding notation doesn’t even include Blackwell’s railroad and mining interests, but let’s start from the beginning.
Blackwell was born in 1852 in Fairfield, Maine, the son of a blacksmith. He was mostly raised by an aunt and left Fairfield at the tender age of 17 to seek his fortune in the logging camps of north-central Pennsylvania. The harsh life as a logger apparently didn’t suit Frederick all that well, because he soon became employed as a freight and ticket agent on the Pennsylvania Railroad.
In 1874 he married Isabella F. Bell, a union which produced a son, Russell F. Blackwell, who was important in his own right, and a daughter, Helen Blanch Blackwell. The marriage lasted until his death in 1922.
In 1880, he returned to the Pennsylvania logging/lumbering business, but this time as an owner and operator. During the next 20 years he either owned or operated a number of logging operations and mills, which distributed lumber in a four-county area. His most notable achievements were in and around Williamsport, Pa., where he hooked up with the lumber firm of Howard and Pearly. In 1890, he won a huge contract with that company to run a logging railroad and provide logs and bark. At times he had 500 men working in the woods.
By the completion of this project, available timber was growing scarce in Pennsylvania and Blackwell was sent west to find whether pastures might be greener in North Idaho. He returned with a glowing report, describing endless virgin forests and great opportunity. As such, he recommended the purchase of large tracts of land in North Idaho. His associates agreed and together they formed the William Howard Land and Lumber Co. with Blackwell named general manager and owning one-fourth of the company. His associates provided $100,000 to kick things off and Blackwell returned to Coeur d’Alene for good.
This was the last news from the William Howard Land and Lumber Co., and legend has it that Blackwell immediately broke with his Williamsport associates to go out on his own. But this can’t be true, because when the Panhandle Lumber Co. was formed a few years later, it was headquartered in Williamsport, and it was reported that the Williamsport directors had deep pockets. Also, when the Panhandle Lumber Co. disbanded in 1940, the dirty deed was accomplished in Williamsport despite the pleas of the Spirit Lake mill’s general manager, John Dimeling. As you will soon see, it is likely that the William Howard Land and Lumber Co. was used strictly as a front for quietly buying railroad right of way and huge quantities of timberland. Having said all of this, there is no question that Frederick Blackwell ran the whole show.
His first move was to quietly secure right of way for the Coeur d’Alene and Spokane Electric Railway, which went into operation in 1903. The “Interurban,” as it was called, served as the nucleus for the expansion of the system south to Palouse and Colfax. The expansion tied both Palouse Country wheat and Weyerhaeuser’s lumber to Spokane and Coeur d’Alene. The Interurban provided much needed passenger service between Spokane and Coeur d’Alene for a number of years.
While this was going on, Blackwell was secretly buying right of way for another railroad and more than 100,000 acres of virgin timberland in the Spirit Lake area and elsewhere. By 1905 people began to realize that something big was happening, but it wasn’t until Blackwell announced the incorporation of the Idaho and Washington Northern Railroad on March 27, 1907, that his intentions became clear. This initially created little stir as most people thought that the I&WN would be just another logging railroad. They were in for a surprise.
It is also interesting to note that around 1905, land records show that people started buying parcels of land in strange places, like on timbered mountainsides above Spirit Lake. Apparently, Blackwell’s friends knew what was going on and were taking advantage of this inside knowledge.
At about the same time, Blackwell incorporated the Panhandle Lumber Co., likely a reincarnation of the aforementioned William Howard Land and Lumber Co., and announced plans for two huge sawmills in Spirit Lake and Ione, Wash. By June 1907, Blackwell had purchased, from Marion Wharton, an entire section of land near Spirit Lake, and on July 15 he incorporated the Spirit Lake Land Co. The section was quickly platted and the first lot for the new town of Spirit Lake, to be carved from the wilderness, was sold on Oct. 3.
Note that, while all this was going on in Spirit Lake, Blackwell was expanding his activity in Coeur d’Alene, buying the financially troubled B. R. Lewis Lumber Co. and all holdings in early 1909. The practical result of this takeover was the absorption of all B. R. Lewis Properties into the Panhandle Lumber Co. The Coeur d’Alene mill soon became known as the Blackwell Mill, which operated successfully for many years.
In the meantime, Blackwell had appointed his son, Russell, as vice president and general manager of the I&WN. In an amazingly short period of time, eight months, Russell Blackwell had the railroad up and running between the Spokane Valley and Newport, Wash., with plans to extend the track to Ione, to support the second mill, the following spring.
On March 11, 1909, the Newport Miner reported that Blackwell had secured capitalization of $1 million to build the Inland Portland Cement Co. plant at Metaline Falls. Shortly thereafter, the I&WN directors voted to extend the line to Metaline Falls. In 1910 the road was extended north from Ione 10 miles to Metaline Falls. This was a tough task as, among other difficulties, a steel bridge 500 feet long and 140 feet above the water was required to cross the Pend Oreille River at Box Canyon. By 1911 Blackwell’s cement plant and adjacent electric power facility was complete and I&WN freight trains were carrying Portland Cement to the rapidly expanding Inland Empire market, thus completing Blackwell’s vision for the taming of the area.
In summary, the Frederick Blackwells of this world come few and far between. He was a visionary who dared to dream, but most importantly was a man of success with honor. By all accounts, he was a generous and honest man, who paid fair wages, and was well regarded by almost everyone.
He was also quite clever, somehow managing to escape financial ruin on two occasions. First, he sold the Interurban Electric Line shortly before a disastrous head-on crash near Coeur d’Alene led to its demise. Later he sold the nearly bankrupt I&WN to the Milwaukee Road in 1916. All his other ventures were successful even though the country was experiencing a major recession.
His contribution to the Inland Empire can be best described by the following (excerpted from one of his obituaries): “In the death of F.A. Blackwell, the Northwest loses one of its outstanding empire builders. Mr. Blackwell was more than a brave, successful and far-seeing builder of material resources. Blended with his rugged practical nature ran a fine blend of idealism of devotion to the fine things of life and the beautiful and resolute purpose from which he never wavered to carry out his works creditably. In the character of this admirable citizen ran no trace of the cheap, the tawdry or the deceptive. In all ways, he was one of the best and finest characters of the Pacific Northwest and his memory will long be respected and honored.”
The city of Spirit Lake is, indeed, honored to have been chosen to be the central point of this dynamic man’s empire.