Editing Potlatch, Idaho (section)

==History==
===Company town===
[[File:Potlatch, Idaho (1906).jpg|thumb|left|Potlatch (1906)]]
[[File:08393-Potlatch, Idaho-1906-Potlatch Mill-Brück & Sohn Kunstverlag.jpg|thumb|Potlatch Mill (1906)]]
In 1903, [[Friedrich Weyerhäuser|Frederick Weyerhaeuser]] incorporated the Potlatch Lumber Company (eventually becoming the [[Potlatch Corp.|Potlatch Corporation]]),<ref name="schwantes">Schwantes, Carlos (1996). ''The Pacific Northwest: An Interpretive history''. University of Nebraska Press.</ref> naming his son Charles as the President. The directors of the company selected Canadian lumberman William Deary to build a mill somewhere within the company's timber holdings. The townsite was chosen because of proximity to the company's large holdings of [[Western White Pine]] on the [[Palouse River]].  Potlatch was chosen as the mill site, and in 1904, crews working under W.A. Wilkinson of Minnesota began constructing what would be the largest [[Strobus|white pine]] sawmill in the world.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.lib.uidaho.edu/digital/FamilyTree/about.html|title=About - The Family Tree Collection, a Potlatch Forests, Inc. Newsletter - Digital Initiatives - University of Idaho Library|website=www.lib.uidaho.edu|access-date=2019-09-10}}</ref>

Because of the remote placement of the mill, Potlatch was built as a [[company town]] to provide housing and commerce for the mill. A total of 143 houses were built in 1906, with 58 more built the following year; other building constructed during that period include [[boarding house]]s, an [[Ice house (building)|ice house]], a Catholic church, hotel, school, and general store.<ref name="nrhp"/>

The company developed and ran Potlatch on a model mostly patterned after that used by [[Pullman Company]] for its [[Pullman, Illinois|company town in Illinois]].<ref name="nrhp"/>  It provide police and fire protection, a school, churches, a hospital, an inexpensive [[company store]], and recreational amenities.  It banned prostitution, [[prohibition|prohibited alcohol]], and encouraged its workers to marry by allowing only married couples to rent the houses it owned.<ref name="nrhp"/>   The [[paternalism]] was profitable, even though rents were low: during 1943 the company showed a profit of $59,000 for its "townsite" services.<ref name="nrhp"/>  Less than a decade later, with labor costs significantly reducing its townsite profit, the mill sold most of the homes and other buildings it owned, and Potlatch was incorporated.<ref name="nrhp"/>

On the west side of town, the mill began operating on September 11, 1906, and continued for over seven decades. Due to a depressed economy and declining lumber prices, the mill closed in August 1981.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.intermountainhistories.org/items/show/112|title=Potlatch Lumber Mill and the Company Town|last1=Carscallen|first1=Zac|last2=Idaho|first2=University of|website=Intermountain Histories|language=en|access-date=2019-09-12}}</ref><ref name=hdtmahd>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=as5eAAAAIBAJ&sjid=xTIMAAAAIBAJ&pg=5112%2C5071702 |work=Lewiston Morning Tribune |last=Johnson |first=David |title=Hard times ahead |date=August 13, 1981 |page=1A}}</ref><ref name=tmldy>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=BtfE7wd9KvMC&dat=19810815&printsec=frontpage&hl=en |work=Lewiston Morning Tribune |last=Johnson |first=David |title=The mill's last day |date=August 15, 1981 |page=1A}}</ref>

===Following the mill's closure===
In 1981, the mill was shut down, shortly after the town was sold to the residents.<ref name=schwantes />  Five years later, part of the [[Commercial Historic District (Potlatch, Idaho)|commercial district]] was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.<ref name="nrhp"/>

After the mill's closure, Potlatch became a [[bedroom community]] for the university towns of [[Moscow, Idaho|Moscow]] and [[Pullman, Washington]].<ref name="seatimes">{{cite web| title= Idaho town seeks to lure gun and ammo makers | url= http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/text/2018277082.html | publisher= The Seattle Times | first= Nicholas K. | last= Geranios |agency= Associated Press | date= May 24, 2012 | access-date= 2012-05-24}}</ref>

Business and political leaders of Potlatch are making a concerted effort to attract companies involved in the firearms industry; they have set aside {{convert|26|acre}} for such businesses, located on the former site of the mill.<ref name="spoke">[http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2011/nov/13/field-reports-ammunition-company-moves-to-potlatch/ Field reports: Ammunition company moves to Potlatch] from ''The Spokesman-Review''. {{Retrieved | accessdate=2012-05-24}}</ref> Approximately a mile (1.6&nbsp;km) west of the mill, State Highway 6 connects with [[U.S. Route 95 in Idaho|U.S. Route 95]], Idaho's primary north-south highway.