History of Headquarters, Idaho
It's a clear, crisp moonlit early morning in the tiny hamlet of Headquarters, Idaho.
As I step into the hot tub and then pause and listen intently, I can almost feel the pulse of another era as the present town sleeps. Fog drifts up from the wooden swimming pool, a horse stomps in the corral, or is that the door to the milk barn creaking and waking up the cows who will provide milk to the children of this logging community?
Overnight, snow has stacked up on the steam engine roundhouse and the cook is currently shoveling white, fluffy drifts off of the cook house steps in anticipation that soon loggers will be stomping down the boardwalks eager to fill up on the flavorful fare provided. Huge stacks of decked logs cast wide, long shadows. The logs might have been skidded into Headquarters by horses, or perhaps they were transported by flumes to a landing where they were then loaded directly onto flat cars. The whisper of loggers caulked boots sweep down the three tiers of covered steps leading from "the circle" to the complex of buildings in the center of the community.
As the workers pass by the little white school house, their gaze drifts to the frost-covered window panes where the industrious school teacher is stoking the wood stove. Some of the shadows are supervisory personnel, others will prepare the animals and equipment for work, some will labor on the trains, and still others will keep the infrastructure of this logging community operating at peak performance. The hot tub gurgles and pulls me back to reality.
Headquarters was born in 1926 and saw its population peak in the 1950's when nearly 600 people resided in this bustling, robust logging community. The town included a drug store, a post office, a community hall, and an operating rail line to transport timber and supplies.
The current population of Headquarters has shriveled to a ghost of its former identity. Only a couple of the old buildings remain; Potlatch Corporation has a bunk house that is usually empty, an office and a few shops and outbuildings remain on the site; the circle is owned by private individuals and only 6 houses still stand; the area that housed the boss of the Headquarters operation is also owned by a private party.
This sleepy hamlet continues to evoke dreams and memories for the people who pass through this valley in the heart of Clearwater County. We are privleged to be caretakers of "The North LineShack", one of the remaining remnants of a major piece of Clearwater County logging history.
