Deary, ID

Deary is a Latah County city at the base of Potato Hill, called Spud Hill by locals, with 508 residents in the 2020 census. It lies 24 miles east of Moscow at the edge of the Palouse and the upper Potlatch timber country. The Whitepine Joint School District serves Deary, while the city retains an original post office, a Main Street house, a grocery, hardware and repair businesses, a library, and one school campus. Spud Hill rises directly above the town, with roads and trails leading toward forest and rural recreation.

ATTRSteve Shook from Moscow, Idaho, USA / CC BY 2.0

Joe and Lou Wells were among the area's early settlers, arriving from North Carolina in 1889 and operating a lodging house for people moving through the timber country. The Potlatch Lumber Company surveyed a railroad route toward Bovill in 1905, and the Deary Townsite Company sold its first lots on September 24, 1907. The city took its name from Potlatch general manager William Deary. A 1923 fire destroyed much of the west side of Main Street, but lumber, grain shipping, and farming kept the town going. Deary is an Idaho community with a timber beginning, a Black pioneer family at its roots, and Spud Hill over its shoulder.