Grangeville Highway District

About Grangeville Highway District

The Camas Prairie spreads out flat and open around Grangeville, wheat stubble buried under snow for months at a stretch once the weather turns. Grangeville Highway District keeps the county grades open across that prairie and down the long drop of White Bird Hill, where the road loses more than two thousand feet of elevation on its way toward the Salmon River canyon below. Weather up on the prairie can be clear and calm while the top of White Bird grade is closing in with blowing snow, so a run down that road means checking conditions at both ends before committing to the grade. Roads get plowed full width, drifts cut back from the shoulders, and the switchbacks near the canyon rim sanded where the grade steepens. Traffic bound for the Salmon River country still has to come through Grangeville first, and the district keeps that road open for however many trucks need to make the trip.