Kettle Falls, Washington, in Stevens county, is 72 miles NW of Spokane, Washington and 209 miles E of Seattle, Washington. About 1,640 friendly people and one grouch live in Kettle Falls.

As the Gateway to Sherman Pass Scenic Byway and Within close proximity to:

• the International Selkirk Loop Scenic Byway
• Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area
• Colville National Forest - containing numerous camp grounds, lakes and rivers
• a National Wildlife Refuge

Stevens County, of which Kettle Falls is one community was designated a 'Preserve America Community' recognizing the regions efforts to protect and celebrate its heritage.

 

Every year people come to Kettle Falls and enjoy a wide range of recreational activities including - backpacking, bird watching, boating, canoeing, fishing, golf, camping, hunting, kayaking, Motor Sport & off-roading, mountain biking, hiking & nature walks, star gazing, swimming, tubing, wildlife viewing & photography

Tourists come and this section of the Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area to relax and enjoy a restful vacation.

Our heritage connection

The original town of Kettle Falls was a forty-acre site platted in 1889 two miles south of the site of the Hudson’s Bay Company fur trade post, Fort Colville. Ft Colville had been officially abandoned in 1871 but some of the family of the last chief factor still occupied the site until 1891. In spite of the fact that the railroad bypassed Kettle Falls in favor of Marcus in 1891, it was a substantial community that faced relocation when the construction of Grand Coulee Dam caused the waters of the Columbia River to cover the town in 1939.

 

Old Kettle falls (circa 1939) - prior to flooding by Grand Coulee and Lake roosevelt

 

The town voted to move farther up to the location of Meyers Falls a short 2.5 miles away. The residents of the newly formed town voted to change the name to Kettle Falls. Many of the buildings that are still found in the town were moved by truck up from the old town site.

The Kettle Falls area has a long history of habitation. Not only had it formerly been a Hudson’s Bay Company fur trade post, Fort Colville, and the site of an early Jesuit mission but, for some 9,000 years before that, it was the location of a major Native American salmon fishery. Many of the tribes in the surrounding areas traditionally gathered at the falls to trade and harvest salmon.