Spokane and Inland Empire Railroad

Spokane and Inland Empire Railroad

Spokane & Inland Empire Railroad Company interurban cars in Spokane, Washington, 1912
Reporting mark	S&IE
Locale	Spokane, Washington to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and vicinity
Dates of operation	1904–1929
Successor	Great Northern Railway Spokane United Railways
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Headquarters	Spokane, Washington

The Spokane and Inland Empire Railroad Company (S.&I.E.R.R.Co.) was an electrified interurban railway operating in Spokane, Washington and vicinity, extending into northern and central Idaho. The system originated in several predecessor roads beginning c. 1890, incorporated in 1904, and ran under its own name to 1929. It merged into the Great Northern Railway and later, the Burlington Northern Railroad, which operated some roads into the 1980s.

One of the earliest components of Spokane's early interurban system was the Spokane and Montrose Street Railway, a narrow-gauge system with the distinction of being the first motorized street railway in Spokane. Its owner, in 1893, was Francis H. Cook (1851–1920). Cook, financially embarrassed by the Panic of 1893, sold the line to a group of Spokane businessmen headed by Jay P. Graves (1859–1948) in 1902. (Prior to this Graves and his partners had bought Cook's foreclosed land holdings in the Spokane area.)

Graves and partners from Portland, Oregon, reorganized the Spokane and Montrose as the Spokane Traction Company on February 1, 1903, incorporated it as the Spokane and Inland Empire Railroad Company in 1904, and rebuilt it as a standard gauge line. The routes were extended through various areas of Spokane, including Corbin Park, Hillyard and Lincoln Heights. Initially, power for the line was purchased from the Washington Water Power Company. However, in 1909, Graves built a hydroelectric dam at Nine Mile Falls, Washington. This went on to power not only Spokane Traction and the Spokane and Inland Empire, but also sold surplus power locally.

During this same period, Idaho Lumberman Frederick A. Blackwell (1852–1922) organized the Coeur d’Alene and Spokane Railway. Operating in conjunction with the Graves' lines in 1903 it formed a route between Spokane and Lake Coeur d'Alene in northern Idaho. Together, Graves and Blackwell developed properties along this line. "To increase summer and holiday ridership," historian Laura Arksey notes, "Graves and Blackwell opened beaches and amusement parks on Coeur d’Alene, Hayden, and Liberty lakes."