The Avery Depot in

Avery, Idaho Avery is a small unincorporated community in the northwest United States, located in the St. Joe River Valley in Shoshone County, Idaho. Avery is located in the middle of the St. Joe District of the Idaho Panhandle National Forest, and is a ...

was built by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (also known as The Milwaukee Road) in 1909 as part of its Pacific Extension into the Pacific Northwest from Chicago, Illinois. Avery was the west end of overhead catenary, which allowed electric locomotives to operate instead of

steam engines A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be trans ...

. The depot is a rectangular single story wood-frame building built in the Craftsman style. At one end is the passenger waiting area with a freight room at the other end. The station agent's office and lunch room ("beanery") are located between the two. When the railroad went bankrupt in the 1980s, the depot was sold to the town of Avery for use as a community center. The depot was added to the National Register of Historic Places due to its association with the

Great Fire of 1910 The Great Fire of 1910 (also commonly referred to as the Big Blowup, the Big Burn, or the Devil's Broom fire) was a wildfire in the Inland Northwest region of the United States that burned in North Idaho and Western Montana, with extensions into ...

as an evacuation site.

References

* Anonymous. ''Avery Depot, North Idaho 1910 Fire Sites Thematic Group.'' On file at the National Park Service, Washington, DC. n.d. *Sims, Cort. ' National Park Service, Washington, DC. 1984. PDF accessed August 23, 2008. {{Registered Historic Places Railway stations on the National Register of Historic Places in Idaho Railway stations in the United States opened in 1909 Former Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad stations Transportation in Shoshone County, Idaho National Register of Historic Places in Shoshone County, Idaho Former railway stations in Idaho