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Rocky Mountain Maritime

By: Steven Rinella

You don’t usually think of a port city being over four hundred miles inland from the ocean, but Lewiston, Idaho (464 miles inland from Portland, actually, which itself isn’t on the coast) has managed to become just that. It wasn’t easy, though. It took the construction of eight interlocking reservoirs and dams, along with lock systems, to make the Clearwater-Columbia waterway a functioning transport route. With the 25-year-old Port of Lewiston at its inland terminus, the Clearwater-Columbia is second only to the Mississippi River in commerce. The river has a economic boundary that encompasses millions of people. One million tons of wheat and barley go through the Port of Lewiston annually, along with the lumber and wood-products of the long-time Fortune 500 company, Potlatch Corporation. Also moving through the port are potatoes from Southern Idaho, bentonite from Wyoming, talc from Montana, grains from the Dakotas, and more lumber from Canada. In a five year span in the 1990s container shipping in Lewiston expanded by 150%
The need to move this cargo has made the infrastructure of Lewiston stand out as singular in the Northern Rocky Mountains. Lewiston is served by ten trucking companies, a rail line, two U.S. highways, and five tug and barge lines.
So the waterways are a major force in Lewiston, directly affecting the lives of the city’s 30,000 residents. The Nez Perce, who lived there for hundreds of years before being driven out by whites, called the area “Tsceminicum,” or confluence, as the town’s site is on the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater Rivers. To the west of Lewiston those waters roll into the Columbia River. Aluminum jet boats are a popular form of transportation with locals, and the Lewiston area has 13 jet boat manufacturers that send their products all over the country and beyond.
One can almost taste the commerce in the air. The atmosphere of trade has had cultural affects on the community, too. Pacific Rim students and programs have both come to Lewis-Clark State College, Lewiston’s 4-year institution. The International Exchange Conference brings business leaders and policy makers from all over the world together in Lewiston every year.
So, you might be wondering, if you’re not looking to sell or buy anything is there still any reason to go to Lewiston? Actually, the area has a lot to offer besides business. It is, however, the largest community in Northern Idaho, so it doesn’t have as much desolation and quiet coyote-howl-filled nights as other places in Northern Idaho and Western Montana. Some of the best steelhead fishing that the lower forty-eight has to offer can be found in the Lewiston area. Whether that fishing improves or declines has much to do with how the tangle of lawsuits concerning the management of the fish migration-stopping dams is resolved. Mule deer and elk hunting are both pretty good, and they stand to stay that way for a long time if development is handled responsibly. There is a large National Wilderness Area nearby, offering vital habitat to a large number of game and non-game mammals and birds.
The demographics of the community are atypical for Northern Idaho. A population of Chinese Americans have lived in the area since the Nineteenth Century, and the university and business sectors bring in a great variety of people from around the country and world. A growing aspect of the community is retirees, who come to the area because they can have the beauty of the Rocky Mountain region coupled with that banana belt climate that retirees suddenly come revere when their work days are over for good. The city is the lowest in Idaho, at only 741 feet above sea level. Snowfall is intermittent and you can comfortably enjoy outdoor activities, including open-water fishing, year round.
The other draw for senior citizens are the extensive medical facilities available in the region. And let’s not forget golf. You can golf year round in Lewiston with the exception of brief periods of bad weather. So you needn’t worry about dragging the clubs back and forth from the garage to the car trunk every spring and fall. And there’s plenty of food and art galleries and ethnic events. You know, just the basic stuff you can find in any typical port town.