History of Ferry County The first written account of Ferry County comes from the records of David Thompson, who, in 1811, described the surrounding country in his journals as he floated the Columbia River. However, there is evidence of Native American culture that dates back approximately 9,000 years. In 1824, the British-based Hudson’s Bay Company established a fur-trading fort just above Kettle Falls. Consequently, the following decades were a time of rapid change. Catholic and Protestant missionaries arrived in the 1830s. In the 1850s, gold was discovered at Rock Creek just north of the newly defined U/Canadian border. Prospectors began coming from all over in search of gold. In 1883 General Sherman passed through Ferry County on a tour of the frontier. Township and range lines were established in 1893 and 1894, which set the stage for the gold rush. In February of 1896, the north half of the Colville Indian Reservation was opened for the staking of mining claims. The first claim was staked on Eureka Creek, near Republic. It wasn’t long before gold seekers began pouring into the booming town. Eureka Camp changed its name to Republic, and in 1898, Republic’s population increased by 2,000 people. In 1900, when the gold rush was coming to an end, logging restrictions were eased and small sawmills began sprouting up around the area. In 1907, President Roosevelt created the Forest Service and included most of the northern half of Ferry County. Consequently, the area remained remote and largely unreachable until the 1930s when the Civilian Conservation Corps built roads and communications systems. The creation of Lake Roosevelt in the late 1930s created jobs, electricity, and irrigation projects but also ended the Columbia River salmon runs, drastically changed the county’s shoreline on the river, and flooded hundreds of archaeological sites. In the 1950s, Ferry County’s population ebbed, but began to increase again in the 1960s. Today, Ferry County continues to survive, and its residents preserve the tough and independent attitudes of the frontier so recently left behind. *This excerpt is summarized from “A Brief History of Ferry County” by the Ferry County Historical Society, 1994. |
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