Idaho Forest Industries

Company History: Idaho Forest Industries (IFI) operated three North Idaho sawmills and 89,000 acres of timberland. IFI employed approximately 460 people at the mills in Coeur d'Alene, Priest River and a forestry office in St. Maries. Idaho Forest Industries (IFI) Inc. was sold to Stimson Lumber Co. of Portland in September 2000.

Successor/Parent History: The StL&A (reporting marks SLR) was established in 1989 as a spin off from Canadian National. Originally they ran 150 miles from Portland, Maine northwest to a connection with CN at Island Pond, Vermont. In 1998, StL&A was extended to Norton, on the Canadian border. StL&A established a Canadian subsidiary called St. Laurent & Atlantique Quebec (reporting marks SLQ) to take over the CN line from Norton to Sainte-Rosalie, Quebec. Both railroads joined the Genesee & Wyoming shortline group in 2002. At that point, the SLQ became a paper railroad in most respects with StL&A motive power running straight through to Sainte-Rosalie. The combined length is 260 miles. Traffic includes aggregates, food, animal feed, forest products, steel and scrap. They also offer stack train service in cooperation with Canadian National. StL&A has their own 35 acre intermodal terminal in Auburn, Maine.

Brief History: The U.S. is a country of 50 states covering a vast swath of North America, with Alaska in the northwest and Hawaii extending the nation’s presence into the Pacific Ocean. Major Atlantic Coast cities are New York, a global finance and culture center, and capital Washington, DC. Midwestern metropolis Chicago is known for influential architecture and on the west coast, Los Angeles' Hollywood is famed for filmmaking.