OK, this is a small issue in the greater scale of USA railroading. ;>)

Potlatch ID is the site of an old Potlatch Company lumber mill. The town itself is named after the Potlatch Company. The mill has been gone for decades (although Lewiston ID, not that far from Potlatch ID, still has a giant mill).

There is a still a railroad through Potlatch ID, at one time a Milwaukee RR branch, but now served by shortline W&I RR, connecting with the rest of the world at Marshall WA. Not really that much rail traffic in Potlatch ID, but they are plugging along still.

Potlatch ID is now somewhat of a bedroom community for larger towns, such as Moscow ID, but realistically Potlatch is not a dynamic, bustling town, and hasn't been for decades.

So. it was a bit surprising to see that Potlatch ID has a brand new manufacturer, and that they are shipping by rail ...

Quote:

Spokane Spokesman-Review
Pellets with potential: Potlatch company has persevered to turn timber waste into a fuel source for sale in South Korean markets
POTLATCH – A pile of seemingly neglected sawdust sitting outside a north central Idaho sawmill gave birth to Ben Anderberg’s latest big idea.

Stored outside, the sawdust didn’t appear to have much value to the mill. That made Anderberg think it could be an inexpensive raw material for another product. Four years later, he believes he’s still right.

He is a founder of Northwest Biomass, a company that began making wood pellets six months ago.

Anderberg’s eight-employee operation is taking Potlatch back to its roots in a small, but important, way.

It is the first time any manufacturing has been done in the former company town since the Potlatch sawmill closed in 1981, said Mayor David Brown.

[www.spokesman.com]

Here is the most interesting part:

Quote:

Same S-R story
New issues continue to surface. The rail line that takes the pellets to Longview, Wash., where they’re transferred to oceangoing ships is 400 feet from the plant. In the absence of a rail spur, Anderberg hauls each 1-ton bag to rail cars with forklifts.
“That’s a real fiasco for us right now,” he said.

Still Anderberg thinks the company is heading in the right direction. The first shipments to South Korea were accepted, and South Korean investors have visited the site and are considering helping with an expansion.

[www.spokesman.com]