Riverside Docks

I regret that I cannot deliver gladder tidings with today's post, but, then again, I have always associated this season more with coldness, withering and death. Today we look at what once was: a pair of freight transshipment terminals operated by Estes Express Lines and Saia Motor Freight Line, respectively. These now erstwhile freight yards where located near the Boise River and Ann Morrison Park on the opposite side of Capitol Blvd. from Boise State University. Undoubtedly, this was an ideal location to move freight and dispatch trucks in the mid 1950s. Since that time, however, freeway construction and institutional creep have changed the character of this neighborhood, compelling Estes and Saia to relocate to more appropriate facilities near the Boise Airport. Sometime during the past nine months, these no-longer-relevant structures were leveled to the ground, likely to make room for student-oriented housing or low-rise commercial office buildings. Certainly, times change and this dense riverfront neighborhood is perhaps better off without the congestion associated with freight liner traffic. What is tragic, however, is how brusquely and unceremoniously we wipe loading docks off the face of the planet without so much as an acknowledgement of their years of dutiful service. May the memory of these and other docks be preserved in at least some modest way in the following video: