Chelan County embraces the drainages of the Wenatchee River, the Entiat River, and Lake Chelan, and the Chelan River for a total of 2,920 square miles. Irrigation has transformed the arid valleys into agricultural treasure houses and the home to Washington apples and the ubiquitous Aplet and Cotlet confections. Hydroelectric development has lived up to the Wenatchee Daily World's claim as the "Power Belt of the State of Washington." Almost 90 percent of the county is owned by the state and federal governments. First Peoples The Wenatchee tribe (also spelled Wenatchi) lived along the Wenatchee River, which flowed from the Cascades into the Columbia. They spoke a version of the Salish language, also called Salishan and Interior Salish, which they shared with the peoples of Puget Sound and northern Washington, Idaho, and Montana. Wahnaachee is the name given the tribe by the Yakimas (later, Yakamas), who passed it to explorer Captain William Clark in 1804. Wenatchee is a Sahaptian word for "water coming out" (Ruby, 266). The people called themselves Pisquoses. The Chelans got their name from the writings of fur trader Alexander Ross who described them as the "Tsill-anes" (Ruby, 17). They lived along the south end of Lake Chelan and the short river that drained the lake to the Columbia. Chelans would paddle canoes 50 miles to the head of the lake and trek over the mountains to trade with the tribes of Puget Sound. The culture and economy of the tribes centered around fishing, but the members also gathered roots and berries and hunted game. Early fur traders taught them to cultivate potatoes. Extended families generally spent winters in permanent settlements of mat-covered longhouses and then dispersed from spring to autumn to fish and hunt. The Wenatchee shared the Wenatshapam Fishery in the Wenatchee Valley with Yakimas. In the late 1700s, the tribes acquired horses for transportation and for food. Settlement White settlers arrived in the Wenatchee Valley in the 1870s and 1880s. They tapped runoff from the mountains for irrigation of crops, but the water sources were not entirely reliable. Two traders, Ingraham and McBride, set up a commercial operation at Rock Island in about 1867, then in 1872 moved to the future site of Wenatchee. Their traffic in whiskey to the Indians ran contrary to federal law and they hastily sold their operation to Samuel Miller and the Freer Brothers. Don Carlos Corbett founded the town of Wenatchee in 1888. He named it after the tribe. Lake Chelan’s first white settlers were William Sanders and William Dumke. They arrived at the south end of the lake the hard way, from the north, in 1886. They crossed the mountains from the Methow Valley and found the steep shoreline impassable. After losing their horse to a fatal fall, they had to carve a cedar log into a crude canoe and made their way 50 miles to the south end of the lake. For a short time in 1880, the U.S. Army maintained Camp Chelan there to watch over the local Indians. As with the rest of the state, the spur to growth and development came with the arrival of the railroad. Jim Hill’s Great Northern Railway planned to follow the Wenatchee Valley up for a crossing of the Cascades over Stevens Pass. The Wenatchee Development Co., an outgrowth of the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern Railroad and headed by Judge Thomas Burke, surveyed and platted a town site, and sold lots to new arrivals beginning in May 1892. The company sold $100,000 in property in five days. Residents of the existing town of Wenatchee, one mile to the north, traded their lots with Wenatchee Development and moved to the new community. Even the bank and the post office relocated. The first train from the East arrived on October 17, 1892. The residents of Wenatchee voted for incorporation on December 23, 1892. The area north of the Chelan River as far as the Canadian border was the Columbia Indian Reservation before 1886 and was open only to homestead entry, not to the establishment of townsites. In 1886, President Grover Cleveland ordered that the reservation be abolished and that certain Indians could take land allotments. In July 1889, U.S. Surveyor Henry Carr and an Okanogan County Probate Judge C. H. Ballard laid out the town of Chelan where the river left the lake. They filed the plat with the land office in Yakima, even though such a filing violated the terms establishing the Indian allotments. When the error was discovered, more than 300 buildings had been erected on lots and the town had a newspaper. This was resolved in 1892 when Congress passed a bill granting title to the settlers. All efforts by the Chelans to reverse this action in court failed. For more information see: http://www.historylink.org/essays/printer_friendly/index.cfm?file_id=7624 |
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A Look at our PastNative Americans probably inhabited the lower Chelan Valley for thousands of years prior to its “discovery” by pioneer trappers, explorers, and prospectors in the 1800’s. The Native Americans derived their names from the world in which they lived, thus the Indians in the Chelan Valley were called the “Tsill-ane,” later spelled Chelan. To them this meant “deep notch”.
The first white explorers who ventured into the Chelan area were Alexander Ross of the Pacific Fur Company and David Thompson of the rival Northwest Company. Both were on wide-ranging explorations to become familiar with the terrain and establish strategic fur trading centers for commerce with the Indians. Ross passed through the area along the Columbia River in 1811, and he noted the “Tsill-ane” River on one of his maps. The Native Americans told him of a large lake nearby, but he did not see it. David Thompson was more interested in cartography than Ross and had a remarkably accurate map showing Lake Chelan in 1814. Since no mention of the lake is made in his journals, no one knows how he obtained such accurate details.
The area went largely unnoticed, except by a few hardy prospectors, until much later in the century. While on a reconnaissance trip for the U.S. Army in 1880, Lt. Thomas Symons saw Lake Chelan and proclaimed it “the most grandly beautiful lake I have ever seen.” On his recommendation the army established Camp Chelan the following year, but due to difficult access it was relocated to Spokane after only one year in service.
With the influx of miners in the 1890’s Chelan began to grow, and homesteaders moved in. It did not take long for the first fruit orchards to be established, after the potential for irrigation was realized. Surprisingly, irrigation water came not from Lake Chelan, but from tributaries draining into the lake on the north shore.
Irrigation began in 1908 using an overland pipeline from those creeks. Following a series of dry years, the irrigation line was extended to Safety Harbor Creek, a distance of 20 miles from the storage reservoir at Antilon Lake. The irrigation line, severely damaged by forest fires in 1929 and 1970, was maintained until the early 1970’s. Since that time, irrigation water has been pumped out of the Lake Chelan and piped to the orchards. (Reprinted from “Reflections of Lake Chelan”, written by Gary Paull and published by the Pacific Northwest National Parks and Forests Association.)
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SOME IMPORTANT DATES IN LAKE CHELAN HISTORY1811 - Alexander Ross and David Thompson explore the Lake Chelan area in an attempt to establish fur trading territories. In 'historical writings, Ross also mentions his encounter with friendly 'Tsill-ane' Indians.
1853 - U.S. Army Captain George B. McClellan passes by the south shore in a Columbia River exploration.
1870's - An estimated 1,000 or more Chinese Miners work their way through North Central Washington.
1872 - A violent earthquake causes a rockslide, which stopped the flow of the Columbia River for several hours. 'Earthquake Point' is now designated with a historical marker along Hwy. 97A.
1880 - U.S. Army Lt. Col. H. C. Merriam and Chelan Chief In-no-mo-setch-a canoe the Lake.
1892 - M. E. Field buys a small building at the head of the lake, and turns it into the Hotel Field. The hotel was dismantled prior to the flooding of the hotel site when the lake level was raised in 1927, and the present Golden West Lodge in Stehekin was constructed from lumber from the old building.
1883 - The Mid Columbia Reservation is dissolved and Chief John Wapato agrees to a land allotment up lake, now called Wapato Point.
1886 - The reservation lands are open to civilian settlement.
1887 - Richard Hinton Lord homesteads on the north side of town. Lord planted one of the first orchards in Chelan and was instrumental in organizing the reclamation project at Manson.
1888 - Boat trips on Lake Chelan start with the launching of the Belle of Chelan.
1889 - The first town site plat for Chelan is filed.
1891 - Moore's Hotel is completed and opened to the public. The Chelan Leader begins publication from Chelan Falls, and is later moved to the town of Chelan. And Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, visits Stehekin and files a mining claim.
1896 - J. Harry Holden files four claims on the north side of Copper Peak, creating the Holden Mine.
1898 - St. Andrews Log Church holds its first service on Christmas Eve.
1899 - Merritt F. Field, state senator from Stehekin, sponsors and is instrumental in getting the Legislature to approve a bill which created Chelan County by taking portions of Okanogan and Kittitas counties.
1900 - The first 'Lady of the Lake' is launched into service.
1901 - Clinton C. Campbell opens the Chelan Hotel in what is now used as the restaurant portion of Campbell's Resort.
1902 - The town of Chelan is officially incorporated on June 2.
1903 - The town of Lakeside is officially incorporated.
1908 - The agricultural industry gets a boost with introduction of irrigation into the Lake Chelan area.
1912 - Chelan's Camp Fire Girls organize, one of the charter members nationally
1913 - The Ruby Theatre, named for the owner a daughter, opens to the public.
1914 - Railroad service from Wenatchee complete.
1921 - The First Apple Blossom Festival is held in Manson in a pavilion built over the water. The Royalty Pageant started in 1928.
1927 - With the completion of the Chelan Dam, Lake Chelan's water level is raised 21 feet to 1,100 feet above sea level. Flooded in the process were many Lakeside area buildings and the site of the landmark Hotel Field in Stehekin.
1939 - U.S. Bureau of Mines release a report showing the Holden Mines produces nearly all of the copper; 50% of the gold and 40% of the silver within Washington State. Other statistics of the report show: 416 employees with an annual payroll of $876,000, and a mill capacity of 2,000 tons daily
1944 - 'Courage of Lassie', starring a young Elizabeth Taylor, is filmed on location in Stehekin.
1945 - School Bus Tragedy - On a cold November afternoon a Chelan District School Bus plunged into Lake Chelan more than 200 feet deep after the driver lost control on the icy South Shore Drive. 15 school students and the school bus driver drowned, 9 bodies never to have been recovered. There were 7 survivors, one was an adult. A monument and memorial park have been built on the South Shore Drive 7.2 miles from Chelan in memory of the students and bus driver that were lost in this tragic incident.
1956 - After existing for more than half a century as an individual community the citizens of Lakeside vote 66 to 44 to consolidate with the town of Chelan. The Chelan vote was 231 for and 151 against.
1960 - Following the closure of the Holden Mine, the land and structures are donated to the Lutheran Church and into Holden Village Retreat Center
1968 - The North Cascade National Park is established, incorporating most of the Stehekin Valley.
1970 - General Telephone adds Chelan to its direct dial phone service.
