Historic Logging Sites on the Marble Creek (St. Joe River)? (St. Maries: house, camps)

[Toyman at Jewel Lake]

I hope someone can help me out. There are a number of historical sites of interest near Marble Creek on the St. Joe river. There are supposed to be at least 2 old logging camps. One is at Hobo Creek/Hobo Cedar Groves, it is a short hike and has an old steam donky in the valley, I'm familiar with that. There is supposed to be another one somewhere in the vacinity of Marble Creek, that has an old inclined railway and I guess some old buildings still standing. Does this ring a bell with anyone? I'm wondering where to go to find it.

Thanks all.

[Fred s2]

Sounds like you are looking for the splash dam
Panoramio - Photo of Marble Creek Splash Dam

[Toyman at Jewel Lake]

Fred, you might be right, but there are several spash dams on Marble Creek. That looks like the one at the Hobo Cedar Grove site, but I'm not sure.

[ejay]

Check with the forest service. They should be able to point you in the right direction....

[TMA]

I lived there more than thirty years and have never heard about anything like that. There is an information center at the Marble Creek/St. Joe River Road that may give you some information or the little museum thing in Avery. You might also check with the Hughes House in St. Maries for information.

[Fred s2]

Rutledge Timber Company, a part of Potlatch Corp purchased a large block of White Pine on the Marble Creek drainage during the early 1900's. Marble Creek, a tributary of the St. Joe River, some 25 miles east of the mill town of St. Maries, is a cascading stream that descends rapidly on it's lower end through rocky chasms. Rutledge at first tired to move it's logs to the mills by constructing splash dams and flushing it's logs down the stream. But this led to frequent log jams and timber that was so thrashed during the process as to be unusable. The timber that did make it to the mill required the employ of three full time people whose sole job was to pry rocks from the end of the logs before they damaged the saw. The logs were cut three feet longer than usual to account for the excess damage to the ends of the logs.
This could not continue, and Rutledge was forced to seek another way to move it's logs to market. The slope from the Marble Creek Basin was far too steep and rugged to even consider a railroad in that direction. But a wide valley around the Milwaukee Road station of Clarkia on the Elk River Branch lay just to the southwest. Rutledge constructed a logging railroad that ran north from Clarkia to the base of the low ridge that separated the Marble Creek Basin from the St Maries River Valley. The ridge required the use of an incline on both sides, so cars could be hoisted up one side and down the other. Even to this day, the ridge is known as Incline Ridge. This was an expensive operation, and when the timber finally played out in the 1940’s, the company still considered the whole project to be a financial loss. Little remains of the operation, save one unfortunate piece of equipment. During the closing day of the operation, the last of the equipment was being hoisted out of the Marble Creek Basin. Last to ride the incline was a logging lokey (locomotive). As it was being hoisted up the incline, the old cables broke apart and the locomotive went flying into the ravine of Lines Creek. The cost of replacing the cables would be far too expensive, and the locomotive was left to rust where she came to rest. And there she lies to this day.

this sound pretty good, it looks like lines creek is on the clarkia side

[Fred s2]

just dug around on the usgs maps site, and they show an old rr grade, checked on google maps, and you can see the old grade a bit.

[OtisMaloy]

I have seen the remains of at least 8 splash dams on Marble Creek and the remains of 5 or 6 steam donkeys in the Marble Creek drainage. Some are little more than piles of scrap metal but the one on Hobo Creek and the one on Cornwall are still in pretty good shape. There are the remains of at least two small, single drum, donkeys on Bussel Creek. Bert Russell's book, "Swiftwater People," has some maps on pages 103-106 that show the locations of many camps and splash dams. Most of the dams that I have seen over the past 60+ years have pretty much rotted and washed away. A few old buildings can still be found but they too are rotting away. Some "good" remnants still on Duplex Creek.

[509]

Again, check with the Forest Service. Back in the late 70's they had a paper on the historical resources of Marble Creek. You still might be able to find a copy.

Ask to talk to the Archeologist either in St. Maries or at the Supervisor's Office in CDA.

[Toyman at Jewel Lake]

I spent quite a bit of time exploring that area this summer on the motorcycle. The spot I was thinking of was Line Creek Camp. If you go to the interperative center at the end of Marble Creek Road on the St. Joe, they have maps and information. It's about a 3 mile loop. Lots of the sites are overgrown, it needs some maintenance badly. There is the remains of some old rr trestles build to haul logs out of the woods, an old engine and steam donky, and the inclined railway site. Well worth the trip.