Potlatch, Idaho, a small North Idaho town, was the location of the world’s largest lumber mill from its construction in 1906 to its closure in 1981. Potlatch Lumber Company employed hundreds of people in the mill as well as in the various company-owned businesses. The town was built by the company to provide housing for its employees. The company provided several options for recreation, often in the now historic gymnasium. Despite the dominant presence of the company, there were other places for entertainment within a short drive. One of the most fondly remembered and universally enjoyed was Riverside, the octagonal building off what is now Highway 95 at the base of Riverside Hill. The building served as a dance hall, concert venue, and later a roller skating rink. The grounds included the building, as well as a racetrack and rodeo grounds.

The first iteration of the iconic Riverside building was constructed in the 1920s. Ray Hanson constructed the building most people associate with Riverside in the 1930s after a fire destroyed the first. Much of the lore surrounding the popular gathering place comes from the oral histories and stories from the older generations that are shared both in private and at the many community events.

Many people look back fondly on the iconic race track and dance hall located at Riverside. The venue hosted some of the most famous country and western singers The Grand Ole Opry had to offer. Those big names include but are not limited to Hank Thompson, Johnny Cash, Tex Ritter, George Jones, and Dolly Parton. Even former University of Idaho Professor and proud Potlatch resident Malcolm Renfrew played his trombone at Riverside. It was thanks to the efforts of owners Leonard and Marlene Zahnow that Riverside drew the star power and surrounding communities to the dance hall. The couple, along with Leonard’s father Wesley, owned the venue from 1957 to 1962. The couple dedicated their time to caring for the grounds and maintaining the building to ensure both locals and performers would come back for another good time at Riverside. Due to yearly floodwaters from the Palouse River and the high maintenance costs attributed to the flooding, the Zahnows sold the dance hall in 1962. Soon after the sale the building succumbed to the years of flood damage and fell into disrepair.

Ask residents of the town who were around in the 1950s and 60s and they will be able to tell you a story about their experiences at Riverside. The joy of a place like Potlatch and its population are the stories the younger generations get to hear at celebrations like Potlatch Days and the new Return to Riverside music festival. The Riverside dance hall will forever be in the memory of Potlatch and the surrounding Palouse.

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In 1903, the Potlatch Lumber Company was incorporated by William Deary of the Northland Pine Company (a company established by the Weyerhaeuser Syndicate) and Henry Turrish of Wisconsin Log and Lumber. These men who were originally competitors chose to collaborate in pursuit of keeping land prices down by merging their companies to form the Potlatch Lumber Company. The mill opened in 1906 and processed the company’s holdings of over 100,000 acres of western white pine and other timber holdings around the region. The mill was one of the largest sawmills in the United States at the time and was the largest white pine sawmill in the world.

The company soon decided to build a town on the hills near the mill to house their employees. Established with 128 homes and soon after a hotel, churches, a general store, and schools, the town continued to grow. The town, aptly named Potlatch, symbolized pride for the company. By 1907 over two hundred houses had been built. Much of the workers housing had been constructed in haste, often with green lumber, resulting in constant remodeling of windows, doors, and flooring. Company Towns were not uncommon in the Pacific Northwest, dozens of them dotted across the landscapes of Idaho, Washington and Oregon. These towns would see a great “boom” but most met the same fate when a “bust” occurred and the communities shrunk into shells of their former selves.

When the mill first opened it could cut 350,000 feet of lumber in a single ten-hour shift. An eighteen-hundred horsepower steam engine powered the mill and drove a series of belts that worked the various machines and implements. The power plant produced enough excess steam to heat many of the houses in town. In its early days the mill employed five hundred workers and thirty horses to operate. In the 1950s, the mill transitioned from its steam engine and series of belts and pullies, to individual electric motors on machines, modernizing the facility.

Although there had been a lot of product moving through the mill in the past several decades, the mill had begun to downsize and in August 1981 the sawmill closed due to dropping lumber prices in a depressed market, forcing two hundred people out of work. Workers and residents hoped, like several closures before, that it would only be a temporary shut-down until the market recovered. In March 1983, however, Potlatch Corporation announced that the closure would be permanent, and the mill was quickly torn down and the materials salvaged. During its heyday Potlatch had over fifteen-hundred residents, today the population has idled around eight hundred.

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