Placer Mining at Chinaman Bar

Just downstream from this point, is a place known as Chinaman Bar.

During the 1850s, miners explored remote drainages throughout the American West in search of the next big strike. This activity came to Pend Oreille County in 1855 when ...

Steamboats on the Pend Oreille River

Beginning in the nineteenth century, steamboats plied navigable waterways throughout the interior West, including the 55-mile-long stretch of the Pend Oreille River between Newport and Metaline Falls. First appearing in the late-1880s, the Pend Oreille River vessels were a familiar ...

Carl Harvey

Nineteenth-century gold seekers were the first non-Indians to settle along the Pend Oreille River. While most of the prospectors departed as anonymously as they came, a few stayed to take up homesteads. One became a beloved fixture in the community. ...

Z Canyon

On the Pend Oreille River, just west of this point, is Z Canyon.

Before hydroelectric dams influenced the Pend Oreille River’s flow, the character of the river varied greatly along its length. The wide and seemingly tranquil river that existed ...

Pend Oreille County Historical Society

The residents of Pend Oreille County have long been interested in the history of their county. In 1923, the Pioneer Historical Society formed to highlight the history of the county’s earliest pioneers. The current Pend Oreille County Historical Society formed ...

Box Canyon Dam

In 1952, the Pend Oreille Public Utility District (the District) commissioned construction of the Box Canyon Dam as the centerpiece of its Box Canyon Hydroelectric Project. Including the spillway, the dam is 500 feet long and over 62 feet high. ...

Boundary Dam

The Boundary Hydroelectric Project is located in the Selkirk Mountains of northeastern Washington on the Pend Oreille River. It was completed in 1967 after more than a decade of planning and permitting, and has been providing power for both distant ...

Washington Hotel - Metaline Falls

The Washington Hotel is among the most recognizable buildings in Metaline Falls. The cornerstone of Lewis P. Larsen’s development plans, the hotel was built in 1910 to coincide with the opening of the Inland Portland Cement Company and provided accommodations ...

U.S. Border Station

Metaline Falls is a border town. In the early twentieth century, a rough wagon road led the dozen or so miles north into Canada, weaving in and out of forest to cross the international line. In 1923, the route improved ...

Sullivan Creek Hydroelectric Project

Located near Metaline Falls, in the northeastern corner of Washington, the Sullivan Creek Hydroelectric Project was constructed in 1909 by the Inland Portland Cement Company (later the Lehigh Cement Company) located in Metaline Falls. The original project included a timber ...