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Home / Washington Business - November/December 2005 / Community Profile - Republic: Fossils, Gold and a Taste of the Old West |
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Community Profile - Republic: Fossils, Gold and a Taste of the Old West |
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Written On: November/December 2005 |
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Written By: by Ron Dalby |
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The most appropriate way to enter Ferry County, Washington’s most thinly populated county, is by ferry. Hemmed in by the Columbia River to the south and east, free auto ferries are often more convenient—and cheaper—than massive bridges.
For example, about 70 miles north of exit 206 on Interstate 90, travelers on SR 21 drive aboard a small ferry for a 15 to 20 minute ride across Lake Roosevelt, which backs up behind Grand Coulee Dam. Another 53 miles brings you to Republic, the county seat, with a population of 1,000 or so.
At first glance, there’s not a lot here. There’s some tourism, to be sure. Larger operators include the K-Diamond-K Guest Ranch on the south side of town and a handful of resorts and campgrounds on the shores of Curlew Lake a few miles to the north. Large murals on the sides on buildings downtown reflect glamorized images of the past. What you don’t see immediately, though, is a huge dirt pile on the edge of town that almost every visitor will sooner or later assault with a hammer and chisel.
Republic is built on a 50-million-year-old, dried-up lake bed. Ask any local you meet on the street what there is to do in town and he or she will tell you to go dig for fossils. Directions to Stonerose Interpretive Center will
quickly follow.
Enter this old but well-kept building and ask for the director, Catherine Brown. She or one of her assistants (high school students serving as interns during the summer months) will quickly set you up for a fossil dig. You won’t have to work very hard, and Brown guarantees that you will find fossils. For $5 you can dig all day, which is not necessarily the best idea on a really hot summer day. For three bucks more Stonerose will rent you a hammer and a chisel if you didn’t happen to bring these along.
As she briefs people before they go out to the dig site, Brown says, "You can keep any three of the fossils you find today after you let us look at them to make certain there is nothing we need for our research. After you’ve selected your three, the rest of the fossils you find are the property of Stonerose."
At first, that confidence almost sounds a lot like hype, but in response to a query, Brown states: "Every group that goes up the hill comes back with something."
On this particular morning she’s particularly enthusiastic. Stonerose had a backhoe turning over unexplored layers of 50-million-year-old sediment at the site the evening before.
It takes about five minutes to walk about three blocks uphill to the dig. Once there, select a chunk of sediment as broken up by the backhoe and use the hammer and chisel to split it apart. While there’s not a fossil found with every split, few people have to split very many rocks before they cry out excitedly and hold the remains of an ancient plant in their hands. It’s quite a special moment.
After you’re done at the dig site, return to the Stonerose facility and show off your finds. Staff members will tell you what you have found. Those extra finds that you can’t take with you will eventually be cataloged and perhaps put on display or filed in a massive bank of cabinets in the basement.
Digging for fossils, though, isn’t the only thing people dig for in and around Republic. The town’s largest employer, Kinross Gold U.S.A., Inc., employs about 108 people at its Kettle Falls mine about 25 miles north of town and at the mill a couple of miles from downtown. Kinross follows in the footsteps of the town’s founders from the late 19th century.
Millions of ounces of gold and silver have been and are still being mined in the hills surrounding Republic. Kinross, currently the only commercial operator, produces around 200 ounces of gold a day from their Kettle Falls mine. To give you an idea of the scale of this operation, it takes almost 1,000 tons—2 million pounds—of raw ore to produce 12 or 13 pounds of gold each day.
But, Kettle Falls is about played out, so right now the company is focused on permitting another promising find known as Buckhorn. Kinross officials expect to begin work at Buckhorn in March 2006.
Timber and Tourism
Logging and the visitor industry make up the other key elements of Republic’s economy. Tourism is growing, but logging is but a shadow of what it once was. The last local mill shut down some time ago so log-truck drivers must carry their loads east on SR 20, over Sherman Pass, to Kettle Falls. Nobody talks very positively about the timber industry anymore.
Tourism, though, is another matter. Many of the shops downtown are aimed at visitors, even the sporting goods store. Big draws for visitors include fishing for a variety of species in Curlew Lake and deer hunting in the fall. The hills surrounding Republic are all but overrun with deer.
C.J. Stevens, city clerk and treasurer, notes that she usually sees one or two deer every day behind city hall. Lauren Roberts, operations manager at the Kettle River mine, uses a picture of a massive buck he got last year for a screen saver on his computer at work. Roberts filled his deer tag within sight of his home.
Driving around the area, particularly in the evening, means staying extra alert to avoid hitting a deer in the road. There are a lot of deer here, both mule deer and whitetails, and that attracts a lot of hunters in the fall.
Summer tourists are more likely to mount up for trail rides at K-Diamond-K, a dude ranch south of town, or sign up for one of the fishing packages in one of the resorts on Curlew Lake. Beyond offerings similar to those and the recreational opportunities offered by thousands and thousands of acres of national forests, there’s downtown Republic.
Artist Dorothy Beedle has a small studio and shop near the Stonerose Interpretive Center. She moved to Republic after her husband, a career Washington wildlife enforcement officer, died many years ago. She says Republic was her favorite of the many places they had lived over the years.
She notes that it’s hard to keep youngsters in town after they graduate from high school. "It’s hard for young people to make it here," Beedle said. "You don’t get rich; it’s a way of life."
Rusty Summy, part of a cooperative that runs the Gold Mountains Gallery on Clark Avenue, echoes Beedle when he notes, "A lot of people out here might have two part-time jobs just to make ends meet."
Anybody from the west side entering Gold Mountains Gallery last July would have had to chuckle. In a region absolutely surrounded by stunning natural scenery, the largest painting on display was a cityscape of Seattle with the Space Needle as its centerpiece.
Like the people he describes, Summy works at different ventures around town. But he wouldn’t live anywhere else. "I love the diverse people and the scenery. We’re remote, but not in the middle of nowhere, and everybody tries to get along."
Lauren Roberts of Kinross shares thoses sentiments. "This is an awesome place to live if you love outdoor activities," he said. "Also the sense of community. People pull together—your neighbors care about you."
To learn more about Republic, Wash. and the Stonerose Interpretive Center visit Ferry County’s Web site at www.ferrycounty.com.
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