The town was from the years 1909 to 1980 a division point on the Pacific Extension of the Chicago , Milwaukee , St. Paul and Pacific Railroad ( " Milwaukee Road " ) . It was also once the western terminus for the easternmost of two electrified mountain sections on the route ; the other ran in Washington from Othello , through the Cascade Range to the Puget Sound . Electric operations ran from 1914 – 74 on this section east to Harlowton , Montana . Trains stopped at the Avery Depot , now listed on the National Register of Historic Places . Here , steam or diesel locomotives were changed or hooked up to electric locomotives . During the Great Fire of 1910 , a 28-man firefighting team died near Setzer Creek outside of Avery . The U.S. Army 's 25th Infantry Regiment ( known as the Buffalo Soldiers ) helped build a back fire that saved Avery . During the fire , many found refuge in the newly-constructed railroad tunnels between Avery and the St. Paul Pass Tunnel ( a.k.a. Taft Tunnel ) to the northeast . With ongoing financial problems which worsened in the 1970s , the Milwaukee Road abandoned its right-of-way in the West in 1980 , but the tunnels and grades east of Avery are now a rail trail route for hikers and bicyclists , the '' Route of the Hiawatha '' Trail
Great Fire of 1910
Great Fire of 1910
Avery, Idaho