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Old Kettle Falls, Washington

Colville women taking part in the Ceremony of Tears, held before Grand Coulee Dam inundated Kettle Falls. Kettle Falls was one of the most productive fisheries in the region, and served as an important fishing, gathering, and trading place for numerous Indigenous communities from across the Northwest and Rocky Mountains. Salmon numbers began to decline in the 1860s, after settlers built canneries that drove overfishing. In 1891, Spokane businessmen incorporated Kettle Falls, which they imagined as a bustling resort town. The railroad bypassed the community, however, and as a consequence Kettle Falls never fully took off. When Grand Coulee Dam displaced residents, many of them moved to nearby Meyers Falls, which was eventually renamed Kettle Falls.