River Routes Tour

  This tour follows the green lines on the Stevens County Visitor Map for Driving instructions go to the Tour side of the map.  These tours follow the theme, Crossroads on the Columbia.  For thousands of years since the last Ice Age this area was a gathering place and a hub of activity in hunting, fishing, trading and travel.  The themes on the Stevens County Visitor Map retrace routes used for all of these activities.  Additionally, they detail the features and amenities of many campgrounds, boat launches and other recreational landmarks.

You can launch into the tour on the Google Map in the sidebar and find your own way around, or you can read stories from the pages attached to this one and jump back to the map when you want.

The River Routes Tour recognizes the early importance of the Columbia River as the main transportation route through the region.  Natives and Early explorers traveled by canoe.  For many years in the late 1800's steamboats came up the river stopping at towns along the way until they reached Harvey, now under water, where the Rickey Rapids, south of Kettle Falls prevented further progress.  Goods were portaged around the Falls to Marcus where the Pingston Ferry and others proceeded north into Canada.

Later wagon trails and highways followed along the shore and were moved along with many of the towns when the waters rose behind Grand Coulee Dam.  What did not move were the thousands of acres of orchards that gave Washington State its fame as a fruit-producing region.