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Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings
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LAKE ROOSEVELT NATIONAL RECREATION AREA
fomerly Coulee Dam National Recreation Area
Washington
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Location: Parts of Douglas, Ferry, Grant, Lincoln,
Okanogan, and Stevens Counties, in the environs of Grand Coulee Dam and
Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake, in the northeastern part of the State. The
Fort Spokane site, focus of historical interest, is located on Wash. 25,
near the southern shore of the Spokane River arm of Roosevelt Lake.
Address: P.O. Box 37, Coulee Dam, Wash. 99116.
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The 660 miles of shoreline along Franklin D.
Roosevelt Lake not only provide extensive recreational facilities and a
scenic wonder land, but also have considerable historical significance.
Thirteen Indian tribes, seminomadic hunters and fishers of Salishan
stock speaking the same language, originally inhabited the northeastern
part of present Washington. The first Europeans to penetrate the region
were fur trappers of the Canada-based North West Co., which between 1807
and 1821 monopolized fur trapping and the Indian trade in the Columbia
Basin. In 1821 the North West Co. merged with the Hudson's Bay Co.,
which maintained the monopoly into the 1840's and 1850'seven after
1846, when Britain recognized U.S. sovereignty over the area. In 1855-56
a minor gold rush to the Colville River caused the Indians to begin a
series of retaliations, and U.S. settlers did not move into the Columbia
Basin until 1858, after the Army brought the Indians under control.
In 1872 the U. S. Government created the Colville
Indian Reservation and concentrated there several thousand members of 10
tribes inhabiting northeastern Washingtonjoined in 1885 by some of
the nontreaty Nez Perces returning to the Pacific Northwest from Indian
Territory, where they had been confined after their defeat in 1877. In
1881 the Army set up the Spokane Reservation, directly to the east of
the southern part of the Colville Reservation.
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Fort Spokane during its active
years. (National Archives) |
The year before, though the reservation Indians were
peaceful, to quiet settlers' fears of further hostilities, Gen. Oliver
O. Howard had activated Fort Spokane, on the south bank of the Spokane
River about a mile above its junction with the Columbia. Inactivated in
1899, its history was rather uneventful. It served as an Indian school
until 1914 and an Indian hospital until 1929.
The National Park Service administers Lake Roosevelt
National Recreation Area in cooperation with the Bureaus of Reclamation
and Indian Affairs. The three buildings that are extant from Fort
Spokanethe brick guardhouse, brick magazine, and large frame
stableshave been restored. Ruins of the brick granary have been
stabilized, and the foundations and sites of other buildings, all of
which were frame, have been marked. The visitor center, in the
guardhouse, interprets the history of the fort and region.
http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/soldier-brave/sitea25.htm
Last Updated: 19-Aug-2005
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