A small rectangular green space in downtown Omak, the park is the site of various community functions and events through the year, including the local farmers' market and
Art in the Park. The Farmer's Market is held every Tuesday beginning mid June, running through October. Given that the park holds a bandstand, we assume that the odd concert takes place here, too. In the past the bandshell has been used for theater, music and dance performances, as well as community movie nights. The inside walls of the bandshell have been painted with a mural depicting a summer festival in the park - a July 4th Community Picnic.
In the northeast corner of the park is this memorial to the founder of Omak, Ben F. Ross. A surveyor and civil engineer, Ross, at the behest of Okanogan orchardist J.I. Pogue, surveyed and laid out the townsite of Omak. Building a cabin at the townsite, Ross became one of the first white men to settle the area. Ross also founded the Omak School District in 1906, shortly after the first schoolhouse was built.
We don't know what to make of the memorial itself. It is probably an artwork, made of concrete to appear as flowing lava. It could be a sample of actual solidified lava, be we doubt that. Near the top of the "lava flow", facing northeast, is the dedication plaque:
PLACED HERE IN 1935 BY
ORDER OF CITY COUNCIL AND
DEDICATED TO THE HONOR OF
BEN F. ROSS
WHO FOUNDED OMAK IN - 1907
In 1901, Mr Ben F. Ross, an employee of the Great Northern Railroad, settled with his family in the area that became the town of Omak, Washington. By 1906, Ross had helped to organize the first accredited school district east of the Cascade Mountains and named it the Omak School District. Taking twenty acres from his own farm and platting it into a twenty five town lots in 1906, Ross also pointed the town toward the direction of incorporation and was its first and most earnest boosters. He drafted this map for use in its development. The town lay on the bank of the Okanogan River, about thirty miles north from its confluence with the Columbia River and about six miles north of the town of Okanogan.
Also incorporated in 1907, Okanogan was Omak's rival, particularly in the fight for County Seat when the position moved from Conconully in 1915. Okanogan won the seat, but both towns profited from the Conconully Dam Irrigation Project. The U.S. Reclamation Project began in 1907 and the dam was completed in 1910. When the irrigation canals were set in place within the next decade, the project watered over 10,000 acres in the vicinity of Okanogan and Omak. It has continued to prosper with the fruit industry.
From Washington State University