Keller, Washington

Keller is an unincorporated community in southeastern Ferry County in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Washington.

History

The town is located in the San Poil Valley (erroneously called Keller Valley), and was founded in 1898 [ [http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=7227 HistoryLink Essay: Original Keller Ferry site floods as the Columbia River rises behind the newly constructed Grand Coulee Dam in the winter of 1939/1940 ] ] by John C. Keller, a local businessman. The town was located in the area now known as the San Poil Bay (or Old Keller to the locals); at its height the town had an estimated population of 35,000 and features such as a minor league baseball team and a red light district. The town was moved several times beginning in 1941 due to back watering from the Grand Coulee Dam which flooded its previous locations and is now located eighteen miles north of the Columbia River which seriously reduced its population over time.

The town is encompassed by the Colville Indian Reservation, and has an estimated population of roughly 1,200 people mostly of Native American descent primarily members of the Sanpoil Tribe of Indians, one of the Twelve Tribes that make up the Colville Confederated Tribes and one of the few Indian Nations that was never relocated by order of the U.S. Government.

Mount Tolman mining proposal

From 2004 to 2006 the town of Keller was the center of attention after the Colville Tribes' controversial decision to explore the possibility of opening up a open-pit molybdenum mine on Mt Tolman in the San Poil Valley. Anti-mining groups rallied around the opposition to the mine when it soon became evident that the mining project would be too much of a hazard to the population of Washington State given research that the mine contained hazardous materials such as uranium and toxic dust that if exposed to an already windy location could spread up to 200 miles encompassing most of Washington State's economic farming country. The proposal to mine also included the use of acid leaching to retrieve the metals being mined and given the mountain's short distance to the Columbia River the result would have been disastrous. Other groups also claimed the mountain's spiritual connection to the Sanpoil Tribe (the name "Tolman" comes from the Sanpoil dialect, "Tulameen" meaning "Red Paint") because many of the tribe's legends and medicines are located on the mountain itself. The group that originally sent in the proposal for the mine mostly focused on the tribe's stagnant economy and the monetary value a molybdenum mine would produce due to the high demand of the substance, a claim that the mining opposition rebutted when the evidence showed that the price of molybdenum was unpredictable and the only consistent price range was when it fell between $0.50 to $1.50 between 1955 to 1982. When the issue was brought to vote by the Colville Tribes the proposal was turned down in three legislative districts, winning approval only in the Inchelium district.

References

*http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=7227