Willow Creek Slide

Willow Creek Slide is an Idaho historical marker in Shoshone County, dedicated 2025.

I-90, milepost 71.4

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On February 10, 1903, a spectacular avalanche swept down a narrow gorge near here, destroying a 300-foot-long Northern Pacific Railway trestle and wrecking a train. The engine plunged 80 feet, sinking into 30 feet of snow. A passenger car dangled precariously over the open gap. The caboose tumbled into a deep snowbank. Though it took 11 hours to free injured workers, everyone aboard the train miraculously survived the terror-stricken trip. A new, less hazardous grade replaced the demolished trestle.

TodayHistorical map

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection

Historical maps covering this location

1901 · Coeur D'Alene District, Idaho (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)
1901 · Map of Idaho (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1903 · Coeur D'Alene District, Idaho (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)
1906 · Coeur D'Alene District, Idaho (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)
1956 · Saltese, Montana (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)

Map of Idaho, 1901, covering the location of Willow Creek Slide, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — Map of Idaho, 1901, covering this location. David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries. The pin is ours, placed from the marker's coordinates.

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