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'''July 15, 1951 Spokesman-Review Page 59:'''
#REDIRECT [[Colville Road]]
<blockquote>
[[file:1951-07-15-sr-p59-colville-road.jpg|thumb|right|200px]]COLVILLE ROAD
 
Oldest of the pioneer highways
 
THE Colville road is the oldest
of the pioneer highways;
Indi explorers and mis-
sionaries made their
way from the Snake river north
along the old trails west of the
Palouse to the and then
on by the way of the Chamokane
Creek valley, a natural route to
the Colville valley, which
 
on to the Columbia river at Ket-
tle Falls. Not only did the ter-
rain indicate the route in a n-
eral way, but it seemed to fit into
the travel needs of both the In-
dians and the whites. There were
some variations; the Spokane
House traders followed an Indian
trail on the north bank of the
Spokane river to reach the Col-
ville trails—a route which David
Thompson went over several
times.
 
This old route was first used
as a military road in 1859, the
same year that Mullan’s work
was started but the road that he
planned in that year was aban-
doned when it was found that it
would be impracticable to go
around Lake Coeur d’Alene on
the south side and it was not
until 1860 that work was under-
taken along the route which be-
eame the historic Mullan Road.
 
From the Snake river:to Cow
creek, a distance of 25 miles, the
Colville and the Mullan roads
were identical, but here they di-
verged. The Mullan road_turned
northeastward to the Spokane
river where Antoine Plante’s
ferry furnished a crossing, while
‘the Colville road went on to the
north past Sprague lake, which
David Thompson saw in 1811.
From here the road _ passed
through southeastern Lincoln and
northwestern Spokane counties.
After leaving Rock creek and
Willow springs, a well-known
camping place, it ran about 5
miles west of me creek in sec-
tion 29, Twp. 25 N., R. 40 EWM,
crossed Coulee creek at the forks
and on to the “Winding Ford”
in the Spokane River.
 
% £-t
 
The establishment of Fort Col-
ville and the Colville Military
road were both developments that
grew out of the Indian wars of
1855-58. Although the Indians
of north Washington had _ not
taken part before 1858 in the hos-
tilities that began in 1855, their
sympathies were on the side of
the hostiles, as they keenly real-
ized that the coming of large
numbers of settlers endangered
the way of life they had followed
for uncounted generations.
 
“In the fall of 1857, when the
white population of the Colville
valley was not more than 250, the
increasing unfriendliness of the
Indians brought about the or-
ganization of a voluntary local
 
overnment and petitions asking
 
‘or the location of a company of
soldiers for the protection of the
people in the valley were sent to
the military authorities. In May.
1858, Lt. Col. Steptoe, comman-
dant at Fort Walla Walla, de-
cided to examine the situation in
the region north of the Snake;
but he was stopped and defeated
in an engagement near Rosalia
by a combined force of Spokane,
Coeur d'Alene and Palouse In-
dians.
 
The next clash between In-
dians and whites occurred in the
Okanogan country when a party
of 167 miners and packers on
their way to the Fraser river rs
diggings were stopped at Mc-
Loughlin canyon by the Indians,
and three white men were killed.
The party, however, outflanked
the Indian tion and went on
to the mining country north of
the international border. Then in
September of the same year, 1858,
Colonel Wright, with a large and
well-equipped force, invaded the
Spokane country, defeated the
Indians in open field engage-
ments, destroyed their her of
horses, took hostages, and hung
a number of Indians who were
 
By Dr. C. S. Kingston ;
Professor Emeritus of History, Eastern Washington College.
 
charged with the murders of ci-
 
viliams and other atrocities.
After the suppression of Indian
resistance it was decided to es-
tablish army posts in strategic lo-
cations to maintain re-
dians and
 
the
loca-
 
spring
 
Lougenbeel, with two i
of infantry, marched from Walla
Walla to the Colville valley and
eonstructed the buildings for a
four-company army
ereek about three mi
present city of Colville. This was
called Fort Colville, U. S. A., and
is not to be confused with Fort
Colville of the Hudson’s Bay
company, which was on the Co-
lumbia- river some 15 miles dis-
tant. During the winter of 1859-
66 two more companies of sol-
diers that had been detailed to
protect the engineers of the
Boundary commission were also
quartered at Fort Colville, to-
gether with the Boundary com-
mission engineers.
 
A few hundred yards from
Fort Colville there grew up a
little satellite town that_ was
known as Pinkney City or Pink-
neyville, from the first name of
Major Longenbeel. The name was
 
Zo,
 
   
 
The author, Dr. Kingston.
 
changed to “Fort Colville” in
1868, but there was something in
the name “Pinkney City” that
has kept it alive to the present
day, although there is nothing
there today—hardly a wide spot
in the road—to remind the
passer-by that here was once the
county seat of old Spokane
county when in the early 1860s
it extended from the Columbia
river to the Rocky mountains.
A correspondent of the Pacific
Tribune (Olympia) of July 8,
1865, stated that about 60 fami-
lies were living in the valley at
that time. Of the town he wrote:
“Pinkney City, the county seat,
 
located on a tributary of the Col-
ville, deserves a passing notice.
The town contains IL or 20
 
houses, three stores, one saloon,
brewery and a blacksmith shop.
Churches and schools have not
yet come into fashion . . .
 
. . . The present permanent
population of the place consists
of about 10 whites, 10 Indians,
the same number of Chinamen
and from 75 to 100 Cayuse horses.
During winter, however, it is usu-
ally the headquarters of quite a
mining population from the Koo-
 
tenai and Columbia, at which
time it is said to be very
lively. os
 
It was the trading center for
the northeastern part of the ter-
ritory and its merchants sup-
plied the needs of both the, set-
tlers and the soldiers at the post.
Goods sold here were bought
from wholesale dealers, brought
up the Columbia in river steam-
boats, unloaded at Wallula, the
river port of Walla Walla, and
then carried on wagons—some-
times on pack mules—all the way
 
to Colville, a distance of some
250 miles.
 
A surprising amount of oe
was carried to Pinkney City.
Statesman ( ber 23, 1864)
mentions a wagon train of six-
mule teams be i to Fa G00
 
& Co. bri in 5d,
 
son
 
a of merchandise, and that
his was one of six —_ during
the season. The Colville settle-
ment was far away and isolated;
Saree. transportation costs
were heavy. W. P. Winans, one
of the Colville merchants, r
paying $1950 in 1863 on 13,000
= s of merchandise from Wal-
ula to Colville. This averages
15 cents a pound. Im 1856 he
states that he paid 12% cents a
——. or $250 a ton from Wal-
ula to Colville and sold coffee at
75 cents a pound, sugar 50 cents,
salt 25 cents, nails cents, shot
50 cents, a spooi of thread 25
cents and a paper of needles the
same.
 
* * *
 
The long road to Walla Walla
and Wallula was now known as
the Colville Military road. Where
improvements were necessary,
soldiers were detailed for the
work; but the crossing of the
Spokane river was left to private
enterprise. When the river was
low the old “winding ford” pro-
vided a means: of crossing; but
now, with the military establish-
ment and the increasing growth
of civilian population in the val-
ley, a more dependable link in
the line of communications was
necessary. This meant, first, a
regular ferry and later the build-
ing of a bridge.
 
‘he first ferry was put in by
J. R. Bates in 1859 and ferry
service was maintained by a_suc-
cession of owners until 1867,
when a toll bridge was completed.
Authorization for this bridge had
been granted by the territorial
assembly to William Nix and
James Monaghan in an act dat-
ed January 11, 1866. The prep.
erty was sold, according to A
P. Winana, about 1875, to Joseph
LaPray, who operated the bridge
for-many years. The site is now
covered by the backwater from
the Long Lake dam.
 
In the 1860s and 1870s_ the
Colville military road from Walla
Walla and Wallula continued to
be the principal means by which
the Colville valley and Fort Col-
ville were supplied with merchan-
dise and mulitary requirements
from the outside world. Some
freight was hauled from White
Bluffs, but most of the freight
wagons were operated by men
who had their homes either in
the Colville valley or in the Walla
Walla country, and they pre-
ferred the older route across the
 
Snake river and thence north-
ward.
 
The situation altogether
changed in the 1880s with the
building of the Northern Pacific
railroad. The line reached Spo-
 
kane Falls from the west in 1881,
and this point now became the
supply center for northeastern
Washington. In that same year
the old road from Cottonwood
Creek south of Chewelah, which
had been cut through the woods
in 1867 by the inhabitants of the
Colville valley to reach Spokane
bridge was improved with some
changes by detachments of the
men from the fort, under the
command of Captain Hunter,
with John Hefstetter as overseer
who had laid out the original 14
years before. From Spokane
Falls this road was shorter by
several miles than the old milli-
tary road by way of the LaPray
bridge and Walker’s Prairie.
Consequently, most of the
freight and travel now crossed
the Little Spokane by a bridge
south of Chattaroy and then on
ast Loon lake on the height of
and between the Spokane and
Colville river drainage systems.
 
This continued to be the freight-
ing road until D. C._ Corbin’s
Spokane Falls and Northern
 
railroad was completed in 1
 
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This was used as a military road in 1359, the year Mul-
 
lan started his road. This article is the second in a
series which Dr. Kingston has written for the Inland
Empire Magazine. The first, on the Mullan road, ap-
 
in the July 1 issue. The next article will be on the
Kentuck trail. All of the roads and trails covered in this
series were the pioneer routes of this region, the fore-
runners of today’s roads and highways. Readers are
advised to save these maps and articles, affording as
they do an excellent sidelight on region history. The
auther, professor emeritus of history at Eastern Wash-
ington college, Cheney, is the dean of region historians.
 
THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW, JULY 15. 1951
 
$
�</blockquote>
[[Category: Newspaper Clipping]]

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