Rudy Owens Photography

Fort Spokane, a mixed legacy

 

The stables is one of the few remaining buildings from the old military fort dating from 1880.
The powder magazine and stable are captured in the morning light at Fort Spokane.

This month I visited Fort Spokane, a former U.S. military base that is located where the Columbia and Spokane rivers join. Today those waters are dammed in what is now the Lake Roosevelt National Scenic Area. The fort was built in 1880 to keep “the peace” between white settlers and Indian residents on the Colville Reservation. (Click on each photo to see larger pictures on separate picture pages.)

The National Park Service notes, “In many ways, the Indian experience at Fort Spokane is a microcosm of the Indian experience across the United States.” In 1900 the fort become an Indian boarding school, one of the most controversial legacies of the treatment of American Indians. Children were forcibly moved here from their families from the Colville and Spokane reservations, leading to major protests by Indian leaders, including Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce. The school was then closed in 1908.  (See the display from the visitor center below.)

Click on the picture of a display at the Fort Spokane Visitors Center entrance to read the description about the Indian boarding school controversy surrounding the boarding of more than 200 American Indian children here at the start of the 20th century.

Spokane Historical, published by Eastern Washington University, describes this controversial era, which was followed by having the fort become a tuberculosis sanitarium after 1909: “The idea behind Indian Boarding Schools was that the children would benefit from learning skills that would help them integrate into the white population. It was the general consensus among the white government agencies, at the time that this was far superior to the education that they would have received at home. As Capt. Richard H. Pratt said on the education of Native Americans, the cruel philosophy was, ‘Kill the Indian, and Save the Man.'”

After much of the fort was removed prior to 1930, a few remaining buildings were saved, such as those captured in my photographs and incorporated into a cultural site to be administered in the area surrounding the newly created reservoir that filled the river canyon after the Columbia River was dammed in Coulee City. I highly recommend anyone traveling to eastern Washington visit to the fort and lake and enjoy the beautiful scenery (I heard coyotes when I camped there). Also take the time to learn about the area’s history. This location truly is a microcosm of the state’s development in the last two centuries.

Colville Confederated Tribes’ pride

 

The Omak Stampede held in August every year is one of the main gatherings of the Colville Confederated Tribes of Washington.
The Colville Reservation covers nearly 1.4 million acres in Washington’s Okanogan and Ferry counties, in the middle of the state.

The Omak Stampede, in Omak, Wash., is both an official rodeo and a gathering of members of the Colville Confederated Tribes, in central Washington. The event takes place the second weekend of August every year. This year I didn’t stay for the event, and instead shot a few pictures of the tepees set up every year new the pow wow performance area. I then took my first drive through the reservation ever, stopping in Nespelem and eventually at the Coulee Dam on the reservation’s border. It was great to finally see this place, as it covers 2,100 square miles and has a key role in the state’s and region’s history.

The rolling hills of the Palouse
I took this photo from Steptoe Butte, which overlooks the Palouse region north of Pullman, Wash. It is wheat harvesting time now in Washington, and farmers are feverishly working in all directions harvesting the valuable crop.

 

Southeast Washington extending into northwest Idaho is home to the region known as the Palouse. Rolling hills that extend for miles in all directions host some of the nation’s most productive farmland. Farmers grow wheat and lentils, and the region hosts the annual and world-famous National Lentil Fest. (Click on the photo to see a larger picture on a separate picture page.)

The barns of Lincoln County, Washington
This beautiful barn is located near Fort Spokane, a major spot for history buffs and those wanting to splash in Lake Roosevelt. I love this part of the state.
Coming southeast from Coulee Dam on Highway 174, this large barn and old farmhouse sit on a prominent point overlooking the Columbia River valley. This was one of those perfect photographic moments.

I recently completed a wonderful tour of central and eastern Washington. One of my trip’s highlights was passing through rural Lincoln County, which is west of Spokane. This is wheat country. There are fields upon fields of wheat in all directions. Given the price of wheat, this is also a very profitable business too. Right now harvesters are running night and day cutting down the golden grain in the hot summer sun. The landscape is dotted with grain elevators and some of the most beautiful barns. These barns remind me of the ones I used to see on jigsaw puzzles that I connected growing up. I still do not why red is the preferred color, but the effect is stunning, particularly against an evening sky and rolling hills of wheat ready to harvest. This is definitely a place worth a visit. Be sure to slow down and stop and savor the scenery. (Click on each photo to see a larger picture on separate picture pages.)

In the path of fire’s fury

 

Pateros was the hardest hit single community, where wildfires burned a swath of homes after the flames raced down the hillside forcing residents to flee with almost no time to grab belongings.
Residents of Pateros, three weeks after the fire destroyed many of their homes, now clean up and pick up the pieces of their massively disrupted lives.
The United Methodist Church of Pateros survived the blaze, despite the fire taking homes to its west and the minister’s home to east. Having a small bit of defensible space without fuel likely helped.
One can see some of the dozens of burned structures in the Methow Valley, like this, driving north from Pateros to Twisp.
The road connecting Twisp and Oknanogan saw some of the greatest damage from the ongoing fires.

This past week I visited areas that were burned in the Carlton Complex fires, which now rank as the state’s worst in recorded history. Part of a neighborhood was burnt down in the small town of Pateros, on the Columbia River. More than 300 homes were lost in the Carlton Complex blaze as of late July, which still is the epicenter multiple fires now burning in Okanogan County.  It is deeply saddening to see a person’s or family’s dreams turned to black ash.

I believe this fire will be a watershed in how this state contemplates dealing with people living and building in the so-called fire wildland-urban interface zones, which are at high risk of wildfires. Insurance companies will no doubt be rewriting their policies. The larger issues of how we will prepare for a drier, hotter, and more fire-prone future because of ongoing climate change remains to be seen. I expect more fires of this magnitude in the future in this part of the West.

I do not know if those with money or big dreams will still be flocking to resort and natural areas like the Methow Valley to live closer to nature, now that we have tasted nature’s wrath. My experience as a former St. Louisan, where I have witnessed two 100-year floods on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, is that people will likely again build and return in areas once destroyed. The pressures to do so likely will overwhelm many of our best efforts to prevent through smart planning the next all-but certain natural disaster. (Click on each photograph to see larger pictures on a separate picture page.)

(Note this post was updated on Aug. 11, to reflect a more accurate count of the fire damage based on media accounts from local officials.)

Fires continue to burn central Washington

 

One of the fire incident command centers is located at the Methow Valley Elementary School near Winthrop, where hundreds of tents are pitched, creating a small city.
One of the active blazes in the Methow Valley, when this photo was taken on Aug. 6.
The many hundreds of firefighters have been welcomed warmly in Okanogan County.
The air is thick with smoke in the Columbia River basin, north from Wenatchee to the Canadian border. This was taken near the fire damaged town of Pateros on Highway 97.

I just completed a trip through some of the most impacted areas of central Washington, where the largest fires ever in the state have left a path of devastation and continued disruption. Okanogan County, a beautiful mountainous and a popular recreation area, was among the hardest hit. One fire alone, the Carlton Complex fire, burned more than 300,000 acres and destroyed dozens of homes. Charred remains of burned buildings can be seen from the roadside, not to mention hills turned black and brown. Thankfully, no one was directly killed. More than 25 helicopters remain deployed in the valley, and several thousand regional firefights continue to fight blazes in the county and now other areas of the state.

I will publish pictures of actual fire damage tomorrow, in Okanogan County and also in the town of Pateros, which lost more than a dozen homes to a fast-moving blaze in mid-July. I have never seen type of smoke cover we have now statewide as I saw the past few days throughout the entire state. (Click on each photo to see a large picture on a separate picture page.)

A life lived well together
I consider this portrait I took to be a classic portrayal of lifelong love and a true partnership. The picture does not lie.

I truly believe that pictures, in fact, do not lie. Pictures speak volumes about emotions, character, purpose, and relationships. This is one of my favorite portraits of two of my favorite people, of Luther and Gladys. RIP, Gladys. (Click on the picture to see the photograph on a separate picture page.)

Wine country in the Pacific Northwest

 

Washington state is one of the major wine growing regions of the United States. According to the Washington State Wine Commission, the state has eight distinct wine growing regions. All told, the industry’s economic impact is worth about $9 billion annually. For most of us, what matters is the taste, but for me, I am much more interested in the people who grow and pick the grapes, the ecology for the distinct products, and way this ancient tradition of viticulture is changing this state. (Click on each photograph to see a larger picture on a separate picture page.)