Editing Colville, Washington (section)

==History==
[[File:Town of Colville. Letterpress. On same sheet with LARO 2453 and 2454. c. 1900. (732b8cad-0604-4507-a898-ae2fe34a52ab).jpg|thumb|left|Colville, c. 1900]]
John Work, an agent for The [[Hudson's Bay Company]], established [[Fort Colvile]] near the [[Kettle Falls]] fur trading site in 1825. It replaced the [[Spokane House]] and the [[Flathead Post]] as the main trading center on the Upper Columbia River.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=5101|title=John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company establishes Fort Spokane in 1812. - HistoryLink.org|website=www.historylink.org}}</ref> The area was named for [[Andrew Colvile]], a Hudson's Bay Company governor. The fort continued to be used for some time as a center of mining and transportation/supply support associated with gold rushes in the 1850s, particularly the [[Fraser Canyon Gold Rush]]. After it was abandoned in 1870, some buildings stood until as late as 1910. The site was flooded by [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt Lake|Lake Roosevelt]] after construction of the [[Grand Coulee Dam]] on the Columbia River.

Americans also wanted to operate in this territory. In the first half of the 19th century, the [[Oregon boundary dispute]] (or Oregon question) arose as a result of competing British and American claims to the Pacific Northwest. It was settled by the [[Oregon Treaty]] of 1846, which set the new boundary between Canada and the United States at the [[49th parallel north|49th Parallel]], about Forty (40) miles to the north.

In 1859, the U.S. Army established a new [[Fort Colville]] at [[Pinkney City, Washington]], about 3 miles NE of the current city of Colville.  That fort was abandoned in 1882. In late 1871, with the resolution of [[Hudson's Bay Company]] land claims, Governor [[Edward Selig Salomon]] directed John Wynne to accept those lands which extended south to Orin-Rice Road, including some currently part of the City of Colville.<ref>Washington State Archives AR1-J-1 · Governor Edward S. Salomon, Correspondence and Subject Files</ref> With the planned closure of Fort Colville, businesses and buildings moved to the present location in the Colville River Valley prior to 1882. In January 1883, W. F. Hooker filed the first plat in Stevens County with the name "Belmont"<ref>"Colville's First Skyscraper Moved From Main Street". (June 3, 1920). ''Colville-Examiner'', p. 3.</ref> or "Bellmond".<ref>Hilgard, Eugene W. (Eugene Woldemar), 1833-1916, Preliminary agricultural map of Colville region, Washington Ter, 1883, viewed on Legacy Washington State, http://www.sos.wa.gov/legacy/maps_detail.aspx?m=124 September 11, 2014.</ref>  He was encouraged to change the plat name to Colville so that the county seat could be moved to this location. On December 28, 1883, the Stevens County Board of County Commissioners, including county commissioner John U. Hofstetter, held a special session regarding the removal of county records to Belmont from the county seat of Colville, formerly called Pinkney City. In that meeting, commissioners allowed moving the county seat and jail to the town with the name of Colville, if proprietors provided a block of land for them without cost. County officers were allowed to move into a building owned by John U. Hofstetter for two years. On January 1, 1884, the Stevens County courthouse moved to Colville.<ref>Stevens County Board of County Commissioner's Journal Book A 1860-1883</ref> City tradition says that Colville was founded by [[John U. Hofstetter]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rootsweb.com/~wasteven/Sketches/HOFSTETTER-John.txt|title=RootsWeb.com Home Page|website=www.rootsweb.com}}</ref> With the arrival of the [[Spokane Falls and Northern Railway]] in the summer of 1889, eventually connecting [[Spokane, Washington]] with [[Vancouver, British Columbia]] via the [[Canadian Pacific Railway]], the fledgling community experienced a brief boom period which saw the establishment of the region's first bank and the construction of several substantial brick structures.<ref>{{cite news |title=It Is a Go: The Spokane & Northern Railroad Will Be Built |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gdFYAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA7&dq=%22SPOKANE+FALLS+%26+NORTHERN%22&article_id=6951,2023536&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjC3b-L4v-LAxXmHTQIHQALArYQ6AF6BAgIEAM#v=onepage&q=%22SPOKANE%20FALLS%20%26%20NORTHERN%22&f=false |access-date=March 10, 2025 |work=Spokane Falls Review |date=February 14, 1889}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=The Coming Roads |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TLQUAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA3&dq=%22SPOKANE+FALLS+%26+NORTHERN%22&article_id=7264,5283256&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjC3b-L4v-LAxXmHTQIHQALArYQ6AF6BAgGEAM#v=onepage&q=%22SPOKANE%20FALLS%20%26%20NORTHERN%22&f=false |access-date=March 10, 2025 |work=Spokane Falls Review |date=April 19, 1890}}</ref> Colville officially incorporated as a city on June 7, 1890.

In the 1950s, the [[Colville Air Force Station]] was developed and operated 14.7 miles north and east of Colville as part of the [[Air Defense Command]]'s network of radar stations. A few buildings remain at the site today. It is used largely by paint-ballers.