Schoolboys on the back of a cow. Okanogan, Washington, c.1907. The picture is captioned 'Her Daily Duty,'
Schoolboys on the back of a cow. Okanogan, Washington, c.1907. The picture is captioned 'Her Daily Duty,'
In the 1800s, the Okanogan River was well-known by Native Americans, fur traders, and early pioneers. In 1833, the renowned botanist David Douglas set up camp at the confluence of a creek, which we now believe to be Salmon Creek, right where the present-day town stands.
It sat along a well-trodden trail known as the Cariboo Trail, a route that had been used for generations by miners and cattle herders alike. The Cariboo Trail traced the footsteps of the indigenous peoples who had long traversed the Okanogan River, leading adventurers into the lucrative Cariboo goldfields of British Columbia. Around 1855, a steady stream of miners and prospectors journeyed along this relatively low-altitude trail to pursue gold.
Not only was this route favored by miners, but it also became a lifeline for early cattlemen from the fertile pastures of the Willamette and Yakima valleys. Between 1855 and 1868, these brave cattle ranchers embarked on arduous cattle drives, raising enormous dust clouds as they herded their livestock along the Cariboo Trail to supply the hungry miners with fresh beef. While the Cariboo Trail, sometimes called the Okanogan Trail, generally hugged the eastern bank of the Okanogan River, its course was somewhat loosely defined, offering various paths to those who traveled it.
As time passed, discoveries of precious ore added to the region's allure for miners. However, around 1900, the feverish excitement of mining began to wane, and settlers turned their gaze toward a different form of wealth — the bountiful agricultural lands in the valley. People started to envision the Okanogan Valley as a fertile orchard and farmland, provided they could harness the power of irrigation. In 1905, their dreams took a significant step forward when the U.S. Department of the Interior approved the Okanogan Irrigation Project, marking it the state's first project under the U.S. Department of Interiors, Bureau of Reclamation.
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