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Almota, Washington

Settlers founded Almota on land used as a fishing site by the Nimiipuu, and the community’s name derives from a Nimipuutímt word meaning “moonlight fishing” or “torchlight fishing.” The town initially grew up around a store L.M. Ringer opened in 1877. For a short time, Almota served as an important wheat shipping port for the Inland Northwest, but the community’s economic prowess diminished when the railroad arrived in nearby Colfax in 1883, twenty-four years before it reached Almota. A post office operated in Almota from 1878 until 1961. Nine years after it closed, Little Goose Dam inundated the original townsite.