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At the End of the Road
Pushed out of Europe by conflict and poverty into Canada and the United States, settlers from across the nation and the world made their way to Northeast Washington in the first decades of the 20th Century. They not only settled in the small towns at the crossroads of wagon trails and railroads. They moved out to build communities wherever there was a mine to work or land to farm. A log cabin, a cow and a clearing in the woods was all that many first settlers had to make a living. The stories of these people at the ends of the roads have been passed on by their descendants and make a continuous pattern from their lives into our own. … Read entire article »
Filed under: End of the Road
Railroads
DC Corbin built a railway through Stevens County and to the Canadian Border in 1889 and 1890. The enterprise could make or break a town and everyone had a stake in it. The changes brought on by the railroad brought many more settlers and more commerce to the area. But at the same time they took away the dominance of Colville and other towns built along the ancient water ways and gathered goods for transport to and from the rest of the country to and from the flat and dry rail yards of Spokane. Spokane soon became the biggest city between the Rockies and the Cascade Mountains. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Railroads
Wagon Trails
Military Fort Colville was established in 1859 by Captain Pinkney Lugenbeel. He brought 36 wagons from Walla Walla to an area just north of the current city of Colville. The road was later named the “Colville Road” or the “Colville Military Road” and was the oldest pioneer highway in eastern Washington. It tied into the Oregon Trail at Walla Walla. The first route along the Colville River was subject to problems with flooding and an all-weather road was needed to supply the fort. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Wagon Trails
The Steamboat Era
The first transportation of the industrial age to enter Northeast Washington, were steamboats. With parts brought in on wagons and boats assembled on site early ships captains cashed in on the need to export ore, fruit and livestock and to import settlers, miners and trade goods into the upper Columbia. A steamboat landing involved the whole community. Firewood needed to be supplied, food and accommodations flourished. Trading establishments and warehouses sprang up. Captain Leonard White constructed the first steamboat above Kettle Falls in 1865 to service the burgeoning mining regions to the north. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Steamboats and Ferries