Started as a company town for Potlatch Forest, Inc., it was founded by Frederick Weyerhaeuser and several other investors in 1900. By 1906, the town had the world’s largest White Pine sawmill. The sawmill was located on the Potlatch River.
During World War II, the company helped with the war efforts. After the war, with a booming housing market, Potlatch Forest, Inc. built a plywood plant in Lewiston, Idaho. It continued to grow throughout the 1950s and 1960s.
By the 1980s, however, the company began to struggle with the fluctuations in the housing market. It attempted to modernize during the 1980s and 1990s. In 2018, however, it merged with Deltic Timber with the consolidation’s new name being PotlatchDeltic Corporation.
With the closure of the sawmill, the town has seen a dramatic drop in population.
Historical Marker Inscription
Built as a model town, Potlatch was owned by Weyerhaueser’s Potlatch Lumber Company.
Spokane architect C. Ferris White designed the new community in 1905. Workers’ housing stood close to the mill. Managers’ homes were built away from the plant’s noise and smoke. The railroad depot separated town from industry. All company owned, Potlatch was complete with churches, school, gym, hospital, opera house, and company store.
Historical Markers of the World 