Decision Point

On June 2, 1805, the Corps of Discovery made camp under a grove of cottonwood trees on the bank of the Missouri River. From where you are standing you can see the same problem that presented itself to the expedition ...

Camp Disappointment

In early July 1806, the Corps of Discovery split into two main groups at Traveler’s Rest, near Missoula, Montana. Captain Meriwether Lewis’ main mission was to determine the northern reaches of the Marias River. Lewis and his detachment ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Newport's Interstate Bridge

By the first decade of the twentieth century, Newport, Washington, had already become a bustling town that served as a regional rail hub and a gateway to commerce with Idaho via the Newport Ferry. Yet in an age rapidly dominated ...

Lewis P. Larsen House

Built for Lewis “L.P.” Larsen in 1912 and perched prominently on a cliffside location that one historian concluded is “probably the most desirable building lot in Metaline Falls,” the English cottage-inspired design is the work of Kirtland Cutter, ...

Crawford State Park and Gardner's Cave

Crawford State Park, the only state park in Pend Oreille County, is the site of Gardner’s Cave—the largest limestone cave system in the state. Ed Gardner, for whom the caverns were named, homesteaded in the area and “discovered’ ...

Captain William Kennedy House

The house was built in l866 for Captain William Kennedy, using stones quarried from the Red River banks at nearby St. Andrews Rapids. The Gothic Revival style of the Kennedy House is architecturally distinctive, compared to the other old stone ...