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ACROSS THE COULEE
North from the more settled area around Wilbur and Almira lay the Grand Coulee. A huge crack in the surface of the earth, where glaciers had slipped slowly along, rolling the rough edges off of the rocks, now it lay dry and lonely. (but see note and link at bottom of page 3 in post 3 ) It ran from the Columbia River southwestward. There were few breaks along its steep walls and only near its mouth and ending were wagons able to descend into the bottom. The road from Almira dropped over the wall and twisted slowly downward on what was known as the Coulee Hill, on across the flat bottom where the clouds of dust rolled up in the summer to the fork in the road. One fork turned east and led to the river and Seaton's Ferry. The other fork headed on to the more rugged country known to many as "Across the Coulee".
This area lay in the bend of the Columbia. The hills in summer were brown with the ripening grasses except for the black lava patches and the haystack rocks. These were huge chunks of lava that looked from a distance to be the shape of haystacks. Some of them were larger than a house and in the summer the cows and horses would crowd around them keeping out of the hot sun.
The land looked barren and dry to a newcomer as he road across it but soon he would drop into one of the small canyons or draws where cool springs seeped up. Many a stranger was surprised to find so many little lakes in among the hills. Most of these were of an alkali nature but the stock found the water palatable. The mallard ducks nested near their shore lines and would paddle about with the mud hens all summer, waiting for the large flocks that nested further north.
Spring was the time of beauty in this rough land. The hills would turn green and buttercups peeked out from under the warm rocks. Sun flowers, shooting stars, blue bells, camus, lupine, larkspur, and blackeyed susans were a few of the many wild flowers. The native bushes of the area were also flowered in the spring -- the service berry, the thorn apple, the syringa, and the greasewood. On the north slopes and along the rock walls of the coulee there were fir and pine trees. Down on the banks of the Columbia stood the majestic yellow pines.
Near the river the grass was gone by late spring and the land looked parched on the edge of the Columbia. The bunch grass grew thick and tall on the higher hills. Steep, twisting roads led down to the river at irregular intervals, where men ran ferry boats. These ferrymen crossed wagons, riders, herds of cattle and horses and in later years sheep that were headed for the mountains to graze during the summer.
On the north rim of the coulee, Barker Canyon led up through the rocks onto the north rim. From up on top a superb view of the coulee could be seen, with Steamboat Rock as the main point of interest. Near Steamboat Rock lay deep Devils Lake, named by the Indians because if anyone drowned in the lake the body would not come up to the surface again. In the fall the lake was covered with wild ducks, but in the summer only the mud hens paddled about making swirls on the quiet surface while a lonely old crane stalked along the bank. Sometimes a hawk swooped down at a
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prairie chicken. The little cotton tail rabbits were out in the evening slipping from the brush patches to nibble the green grass. They were not as hardy as their cousins the jack-rabbits that ran out in the sage. At sundown the last rays struck the high coulee wall, while the coulee itself lost shape in the gathering darkness.
Edith Alling
SELLER'S LANDING
Soon after the discovery of the rich silver mines of Conconully, steamboats began to pass up and down the Columbia River. By the year 1900 the upriver traffic had reached large proportions with the main route in high water reaching as far as Riverside on the Okanogan River; most runs were between Brewster and Wenatchee.
For the Rex and Delrio area farmers it was a long wagon haul for shipping grain and other farm products, and to get supplies from Coulee City, Almira, Wilbur, or Mansfield. Many farmers were interested in building a landing on the Columbia River for convenient grain shipment. Al McClain, Charlie Campbell, and Frank Klaas of the Bridgeport area got many Delrio farmers to invest money for such a landing on the Jay Seller's riverside property, and to construct a road to the boat landing. This was built about 1910. Two swift water steamboats were built by the company called the Bridgeport Warehouse and Milling Company.
The largest boat named the Bridgeport was able to haul about 2600 sacks of wheat, while the other called the Delrio had a capacity of approximately 1400 sacks.
The company headquartered at Bridgeport where there was a wheat elevator and mill, and also had a warehouse in Brewster. They had other landings besides that at Seller's, for they ran their freighters also up to Alameda and to near the mouth of the Nespelem River. These paddle wheel type boats had to come upriver to low water. Despite really heaping on the coal and using a windless, it took six to eight hours just to come through Box Canyon. Now flooded by Chief Joseph Dam, this canyon was one of the most narrow and dangerous passages of the river and lays about five miles north of Bridgeport.
Captain Fred McDermot, a well known Central Washington pioneer and a veteran steamboat captain with much experience on the Columbia River waters, was the chief navigator for these wheat boats. (Mr. Sellers believes Captain McDermot later put a lien on these wheat boats.) One of these was tied up and wrecked at Pateros, and McDermot never did get the money due him. Mr. Sellers says that the captain and his boy later lived on the Bridgeport tied up at Brewster where Mr. Sellers visited him. They tried to sell the boat for taxes, but received no bids.
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At Sellers Landing a large wooden platform was built on which to stack the grain. A 224-foot long wooden chute was also constructed on which wheat sacks were funnelled to the boat. Mr. Jay Sellers said that he and Norman Lilly usually acted as receivers there. Many wagon loads of grain were hauled to the landing down roads in the George Trefry Canyon, westward from the Jim Vaughn Hill and from upriver past the John Weber Ranch. Zion Fox, Phil Rinker, the Trefry Brothers, and many others drove precarious routes to deliver grain at the landing. Jay Sellers still has the last warehouse receipt book used. It shows the final shipment of wheat to be some 81 sacks of H W wheat 58 pounds to the bushel, from Washington Rinker on November 19, 1919.
This enterprise had continued for about ten years when it failed financially. George Trefry says that the farmers quit taking wheat to the river landings as they received eight cents less a bushel there than if it were delivered to Coulee City. Wheat prices dropped to forty cents a bushel during the depression. All traces of the landing have disappeared long ago.
Helen Rinker
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EARLY DAYS OF THE AREA
Washington Territory was composed of large counties, especially in the eastern section. Douglas County was created in 1883. Okanogan was named the county seat, and later moved to Waterville by the voters. Grant County was not created until 1909.
In our area, Coulee City is the oldest settlement, the beginning of which dates back to Philip McEntee who located there in 1881. The first deed was dated October 22, 1885. Mary Day was the grantor and Frank Rusho the grantee, consideration was $400. This land is some ten miles south of Steamboat rock in the Grand Coulee. The Weber Brothers of Delrio have now in their possession a land grant from the United States signed for President Benjamin Harrison by E. MacFarland, Assistant Secretary, and made out to Olney H. Atwood of Douglas County, September 15, 1892. The Atwood place on the Columbia River is now part of the Weber holdings.
The first settlement of the State of Washington under the American flag was made at the mouth of the Okanogan not far from the present town of Brewster. This site, chosen on September 1, 1811, was selected by David Stuart who had been commissioned by John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company. Later, after Fort Okanogan was taken over by the Hudson Bay Company, a new post was built about a mile southeast of the original fort. It was abandoned in the middle fifties.
Settlement increased and included many Chinese, some of whom settled in a gold camp in the 1870s on the eastern bank of the Columbia River. They never became friendly with the Indians and in 1875 there was a small uprising. The Chinese were caught unaware and many were killed and the rest soon left going up into the Okanogan Region. It is known the Chinamen carried on placer mining along the upper Columbia working the gold from the sandbars on that river in a primitive way.
Fred Weber says, "Before Chief Joe (Chief Joseph Dam) was built, on the China Bar below our place, there were nearly thirty acres of sand which showed plainly that it had been thoroughly worked six feed deep by a pick and shovel, no doubt done by the Chinese gold seekers."
The Weber Brothers have in their possession one of the most elaborate collections of Indian articles known in Douglas County. This includes countless arrow and spear points, numerous pestles, and many mortars of different designs and shapes. Also there are manas, game stones, moccasins, lasts, scrapers, bone needles, awls, arrow straighteners, and smoothers, fish net anchors, squaw clubs, etc. Rare Chinese money and knives undoubtedly used during their placer mining period in the 1860s and 1870s have also been found.
One of the best features of this collection is that all the items have been discovered on their ranch or nearby vicinity. Some of these articles date back to 4000 years. The Webers also possess some antique guns, pistols, bullets, and other items such as an old balance scale used by Bill Condon in his trading store at Condon Ferry. Found at
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the site of Parson Rapids about two miles downstream from Condon Ferry, and embedded in a tree felled by Fred Weber in 1923, was an iron cross. This cross, about 6 inches x 12 inches, was evidently placed on this tree by a priest or missionary some hundred or more years ago. Fred removed the cross and placed it on the stump. Later it was stolen by vandals.
Paintings made by Indians still adorn certain rock walls above the Weber place. In the Box Canyon area, now under water, Fred Weber discovered numerous "water devil" pictures, no doubt painted by the Indians who feared the rough waters. He also noted the deeply worn portage trail around the Box Canyon. About four feet deep and sixteen feet wide, this path must have been used considerably by the Indians who could not navigate the treacherous waters below in their canoes. Fur traders and early settlers also used this route.
It was at these same Parson Rapids that three men were killed while dynamiting to deepen the channel of the rapids so the steamboats could negotiate the river more easily to such places as Stout's Landing at Alameda Flats, and on to the mining area of Keller on the San Poil.
Great quantities of wheat were moved from Stout's Landing. There was also a saw mill there. All that now remains of this mill site is the old steam boiler which is covered a great part of the time by the waters of Rufus Woods Lake.
When George Trefry and his brothers Alex, Charlie, and Jim, and his mother came to the Delrio area in 1888, it was a very sparsely settled stock country. Albert Barker was raising horses in the Barker Canyon. Osbornes and Langes ran cattle mostly in the upper Grand Coulee. Murphy had quite a bunch of horses running northwest of George Trefry's present home, and the Brandt boys ran horses in the Pearl-Bridgeport area. In addition there was a settlement at Condon's Ferry which was then in full swing and at or near Barry. The Leahy family also came to the community named for them sometime before 1892. George Trefry says, "You could ride from Delrio to Waterville then and only find three settlers homes on the way."
Mr. Trefry lived with his brothers in a little cabin by the Columbia River during the notorious bad winter of 1889 and 1890 when they lost about half of their stock. He says, "The winter of 1893-94 was just as bad or worse in here. It was 33 degrees below zero and a hard wind came out of the northwest and continued to blow for sixteen days. It froze the feet right off of cattle. Twenty-eight head of Murphy's horses died right out here in what is now our garden. The grass hay fed in those days was not adequate feed nor was there enough of it. There was seven feet of snow on the ground that winter and in the spring there was a terrific flood. The Columbia River in flood time of 1948 was not within ten feet as high as it was in 1894."
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The Alex Greenaway account of that same winter on Dyer Hill, not far away, is as follows: "Unusually deep snows fell in the winter of 1893-94. The wind so piled up the snows that travel by team was impossible. Men got about on skis, and used small sleds to haul feed to stock. In a blizzard of sixteen days duration, the cold at times was so intense, that the jaws of the unsheltered cattle became so encrusted with ice, they could not eat until the ice had been removed. Some of the cattle literally chilled to death, and most of the stock in the country starved to death before spring. In some places, the caves where the family food supplies were kept were so deeply buried under snow that they could not be entered. One family subsisted on beans during the storm.
By the fall of 1890, a railroad was in operation to Coulee City (known for years as McEntee's Crossing), so soon more settlers reached the northern part of Douglas County. The Delrio area lying between Condon Ferry on the Columbia River and northeast of Pearl Hill and extending south to Leahy and the coulee wall was one of the last places in the county to be settled. In general one can say that settlers first filled up the adjacent river areas such as those of Alameda, Washington flats, or on the present Weber land, and the Rex country. No doubt this was due in part to the nearness to water, wood and some lumber. The light sandy soil and perhaps the "haystack" rocks of Delrio plus the State Land problem may have discouraged some pioneers who looked elsewhere.
According to Mr. George Trefry, most available homestead land was filled up by the period from 1890 to 1910. However, the State Land remained unclaimed and stock ran at liberty on it until about 1904. That year two men, Trimble and Stillman from Clarkston leased up 36 sections of this State Land. They brought in cattle and fenced up the land which process "crowded out the little stock man". These two lessees stayed in the Delrio country for three or four years and "went broke". Kirbys then took over but soon many individuals bought or leased the State Land, most of which was sold for ten dollars an acre. Somewhat later, more State Land was "bid on" at an auction and sold for much higher prices. Many were unable to pay for this high priced state land as the disaster perils and hard times came, so much of this land reverted back to the state which still owns it.
Each sod-buster attempted to farm, raise stock, and make his ranch self-sustaining. Winters were usually severe, summers hot and dry; conveniences were uncommon and hardships were endured staunchly. Recreation was usually found in dances, church and school socials, baseball games, and school functions. Music for the dances was usually furnished by the local fiddlers who included Tom Sanderson, Allie Derby, Joe Price, the Vances, and others. Each store or post office was a community center.
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A store, baseball grounds, and a pleasant meadow there made Leahy ideal for celebrations. Jay Sellers says, "I remember well of attending a three day Fourth of July celebration at Leahy. There was some kind of a stallion show, a carnival including a merry-go-round, and a baseball game between Rex and Bridgeport.
Sanderson was established April 16, 1908 with Thomas Sanderson, postmaster and was located south of the present Ken Ehler's ranch on the Barker Canyon road to serve the settlers of the northern Coulee wall area. Mrs. Charity A Carson became postmistress here in 1911; and she held this office until her untimely death in 1920. The post office at Sanderson was discontinued after Mrs. Carson died from a rattlesnake bite. Unaware of the snakebite, treatment was delayed until too late.
The early day settler's womenfolk, were particularly hardy people. They raised their gardens, milked cows, and took care of large families in spite of much privation. Mrs. Hannah B. Hunt and Mrs. Riley B. Frye were the local midwives who often officiated at births. Remote doctors were seldom brought in. Some of the women even worked in the field.
Cattle and grain, horses, and mules were raised by the homesteaders, and soon wheat became most important. Most of this was shipped out by wagonloads to Coulee City or Mansfield. It took most of the fall and part of the winter to get the wheat out by these routes. When hauling to Coulee City two wagons trailed together and loaded with about 75 sacks of wheat, and drawn by six head of horses took about two and one half days for the trip. Many of the farmers enroute stayed overnight at Courtney Ferguson's -- this place was not far from the former Art Lewis home in the coulee. They went to Coulee City and back again overnight at Ferguson's before returning home.
A countless number of homesteaders and other early settlers stayed only a few years, often just long enough to prove up, mortgage, and lose their place; the depression and drought period after the first World War depleted the area quickly.
Farming practices of the area have changed drastically since the sod-buster's time. Now, powerful tractors pulling new machinery have led to bigger farm acreage; most ranchers now combine cattle and wheat raising enterprises. The 6600 acre Weber Brothers ranch, mostly pasture land now, was once the land of 21 different homesteaders. Despite conservation practices, farmers of the Rex-Delrio area still battle the elements as evidenced by the disastrous late frost of 1952, and by the early freeze in 1955 resulting in the entire winter wheat crop being killed.
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The construction of the State Highway 10B and better county roads and the installation of a grain elevator at Grand Coulee have recently aided in the marketing and storage facilities for local grain growers. The construction of Grand Coulee Dam, and the subsequent development of nearby trading centers, have greatly affected adjacent rural life. All ferries, country stores, and small post offices and rural schools have disappeared or become only landmarks of the Old Timers.
Helen Rinker
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