Okanogan Highlands - the inter-mix / People, Places and Things

The inter-mix of people, places and things is not about specific people, although a few historic characters are mentioned throughout this blog. The inter-mix referred to here is the affect of people on the landscape, things in the natural world. 

Using this old truck as an example of inter-mix,  which quite obviously would not be abandonned out on the wilds if not for a human intervention. Located on the southeastern toe of Mount Boanaprte near Squattersville there is most certainly a story to be told but the vehicle, long past it's last day of rolling down the rough shod roads, is most permanently silent. Silent that is except for it's fading colors, the whisper of the wind through the fir tree growing growing along it's fender and the sound of snow falling on it's metal hulk. 

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Enloe Dam Powerhouse...

Other pieces of the inter-mix are more permanent in their nature like this neglected powerhouse below Enloe Dam on the Similkaneen River, in northern Okanogan County near Oroville, Washington.

About 4 miles upstream on the Similkameen River, northwest from the town of Oroville, is Enloe Dam and its decrepit powerplant. The fifty-four foot tall, concrete, arch-gravity dam impedes the Similkameen River for half a mile upstream of the dam. Across river span of the dam is 290 feet. The dam located just above Similkameen (Coyote) Falls, was named after the president of the Okanogan Valley Power Company, Eugene Enloe was completed in 1923. The dam generating plant powered the towns of Oroville, and Nighthawk as well as the nearby Ivanhoe, Ruby, Owasco, and Canba mines.

Treacherous Waters...

The meandering Similkameen River enters Washington from British Columbia, Canada at Chopaka, west of the Nighthawk international border crossing in north central Okanogan County.  After making a large oxbow style bend the Similkameen flows east down a boulder strewn watercourse to join the Okanogan River south of Osoyoos Lake near Oroville. “Similkameen” is the local name for several bands of the native Okanogan people (Similkameigh tribe) on a river of the same name. A literal translation of the word is treacherous waters.
For more info on Oroville Washington

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Kettle Falls Railroad Bridge...

Much of the inter-mix is permanent in nature and continues to serve it's purpose since initial construction  like this railroad bridge west of Kettle Falls, WA spanning northern Lake Roosevelt, over the Columbia River watershed over 100 miles upstream from the Grand Coulee Dam. 

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More to come - check back soon...