Joseph and James LeFevre (Medical Lake)

This page is part of the Reardan History 1959 booklet that was written by the Washington State History class of 1958-1959.

In 1871, our father, with a partner, Mr. Martin, bought a band of five hundred head of sheep, a few cattle and horses and drove them to Medical Lake, where Father settled on a pre-emption claim on the present site of Medical Lake. The first winter they lost two hundred and fifty head of sheep from scab disease. In the spring they washed their sheep in the lake and to their great surprise, discovered that the medicinal properties of the water, which cured the sheep, also cured Father of rheumatism in one of his arms, which had almost become useless. This was the first discovery of the medicinal qualities of the water by the Whites.