Before the railroad arrived the lower Clark Fork River valley was very quiet, traveled seasonally by the local Salish and Kootenai peoples and then by the occasional fur trapper and adventurer following on the heels of David Thompson. Steep mountains, rain, snow, and river rapids made travel challenging. Camps were temporary, used only for berry picking, camas digging, fishing and hunting. They then moved on. Originally a railroad town on the Northern Pacific, the North Pacific Railway reached Heron in 1882. Within a year Heron had about 400 residents, 3 stores, 6 saloons, 2 hotels, 2 restaurants and a town water system. In January 1884 Heron's first post office was opened. In September the first school district was created. By October 1888 the water source for the steam engines dried up and the railroad terminal moved to Hope, ID. The post office closed before Thanksgiving and Heron was almost wiped from the map. People left in droves. A few stubborn folks hung in here and eventually a new wave of in migrants arrived, lured by out of region promoters. This cycle repeated itself many times over the decades. Heron has been rebuilt and reinvented numerous times. Lured by the promise of something better, homesteaders, farmers, trappers, miners, loggers, business owners continued to arrive. Some endured. Many moved on when the extolled riches never materialized or were burnt up in the frequent fires or lost to the spring floods.
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