FIRST - Non-native Settlement in Stevens County, WA
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T0SHEA
N 48° 37.715 W 118° 06.402
11U E 418453 N 5386759
This, the site of the original St. Paul's Mission, was established near the Fort Colville Hudson's Bay Trading Post in 1830. This was the first non-native settlement in this area.
Waymark Code: WMNFGA
Location: Washington, United States
Date Posted: 03/05/2015
Views: 3
In about 1826 the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), British fur traders, set up Fort Colvile on a point next to Kettle Falls (the waterfall - the town did not yet exist) on the Columbia River and began to raise vegetables and grow grain to supply itself and other distant trading posts. Finding an adequate source of power in the Colville River at Meyers Falls, they proceeded to erect a gristmill in about 1830. It was built by a French-Canadian named Lapierre and rebuilt in about 1843 by chief factor Archibald McDonald (1771-1841). This gristmill for many years produced flour for HBC posts and, eventually, US Government outposts, as well.
In 1860 the Canada-US border was established on the 49th parallel. With this, the HBC found themselves in US territory and subject to tariffs when shipping goods to and from Canada. To alleviate this situation the HBC moved their operations to a new post just north of the border at Fort Shepherd, leaving the gristmill behind. The HBC officially ended occupation of Fort Colvile on June 8, 1871.
St. Paul's Mission was begun about 1830 near the Hudson's Bay Trading Post nearby. Their historical significance is due to their being the the first non-native inhabited sites in the area. The site is situated just northeast of the Kettle Falls bridges over the Columbia River, on St. Paul's Mission Road, off Highway 20/395.
All that remains of the site is the restored mission building, a small cemetery and a stone marker, erected by the Washington State Historical Society in 1932.
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