A Railroad with a Distinction

Arrowrock Dam, dedicated in 1915, was the tallest dam in the world, for a few years.  You probably knew that. Did you know the railroad line that was built from the community of Barber all the way along the Boise River to the construction site of the Arrowrock Dam was the first publicly owned railroad line in the country?
 
The Barber Lumber Company wanted a rail line along the river that could haul timber out of the mountains. They owned the right of way where the line would need to go. The Bureau of Reclamation needed a way to get material back and forth to and from the dam site, so they worked out an agreement with Barber Lumber company where Reclamation would lease the tracks and run the railroad. That made the Arrowrock and Barber Railroad the first publicly owned line in the nation.
 
The Arrowrock and Barber Railroad ran from—wait for it—Arrowrock to Barber and back. The Oregon Shortline ran from Barber to the new Reclamation office in Boise, where materials were warehoused and sent to the construction site as needed. The Reclamation Service Boise Project Office, at 214 Broadway Avenue in Boise, was listed on the National Register of Historic Place in 2010.

Working on the railroad, in this case the Arrowrock to Barber Railroad.