Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area ⓘ

Fort Colvile was a British trading post established in 1825 by the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC). It was located near Kettle Falls, the site of an important summer fishing camp for many Native American tribes. From 1825 to 1846, Fort Colvile was a key fur trading post and agricultural hub in the Columbia Department of the HBC, second only to Fort Vancouver in importance. It remained profitable for many years after most other posts below the 49th parallel had closed due to the Oregon Treaty of 1846.

For centuries, Euro-American fur traders ventured throughout the North American continent to trade manufactured goods, rifles, tobacco, and alcohol with Native Americans in exchange for animal furs, particularly the beaver pelt. Once traded, furs and pelts were shipped to European factories and made into high class fashion. For men, the beaver pelt was styled into the beaver top hat. Women wore scarves and coats. These items were a mark of upper class status and were often passed down to the next generation in their family. The fur trade was a highly profitable business. For example, one rifle valued at 1 pound, 6 shillings in the 1800s (approximately $100 in today’s U.S. currency) could be traded for 20 to 25 beaver pelts and sold at the factory for 50 pounds each. Of note, a dockworker’s salary at the time was only 10 pounds a year.

By the 1800s, the Pacific Northwest was one of the last areas in North America yet to be explored by Euro-Americans. While the American expedition of Lewis and Clark traversed the southern portion of the Columbia River and followed it to the Pacific Ocean in 1805-06, the mission was largely for exploration. Beginning in 1807, David Thompson, a fur trader, explorer, and cartographer from the Montreal-based fur trading firm, the North West Company (NWC), began a series of expeditions in the Canadian Rockies. His goal was to find a viable waterway from the interior containing a plentiful resource of pelts to the Pacific Ocean. During his search, he directed the establishment of several fur trading houses in the Pacific Northwest, most notably the Spokane House in 1810 on the confluence of the Spokane and Little Spokane Rivers. On June 19, 1811, Thompson came at Kettle Falls on the Upper Columbia River, becoming the first Euro-American to do so. Thompson arrived at a time when representatives from several Native American tribes across a 200-mile radius of the falls came to harvest the abundance of salmon and steelhead. Kettle Falls was the second largest fishery on the 1243-mile long Columbia River. Kettle Falls was a trading mecca. Tribesmen traded other items to include camas root bulbs, sea shells, hides, beads, etc. News and information were also exchanged. Thompson quickly realized the potential of a fur trading post. Thompson’s discovery of Kettle Falls would lead him to become the first person to explore the full length of the river.

Thompson’s desire for a fur trading post at Kettle Falls would not be realized until 1824 when the Hudson's Bay Company formed the Columbia Department, a vast region from Sitka, Alaska to Yerba Buena (San Francisco, CA) and from the crest of the Rocky Mountains to Honolulu, Hawaii. The HBC merged with its rival, the North West Company, in 1821. Along with the NWC possessions and houses, the Columbia Department reconsolidated to close old, unproductive houses and open new ones. In April 1825, Governor George Simpson, head-in-chief for the HBC in North America, chose the sites of the two most important houses for the Columbia Department: Fort Vancouver near the mouth of the Columbia river and Fort Colvile next to Kettle Falls. Just 1/3 mile south of Kettle Falls, the site Simpson chose is in a horseshoe-shaped nick surrounded by tall, steep hills. The site was donated to the HBC by a the Colville Salish chief under a verbal treaty, provided the fur traders did not interfere with the salmon fishery. Governor Simpson named the future post, Fort Colvile, in honor of the London Governor of the HBC, Andrew Colvile. The HBC with its fur trading enterprise and the Columbia Department would maintain control of the large area of land for Great Britain.

Construction on Fort Colvile began in August of 1826. John Work, a contractor for the HBC, tore down the Spokane House and brought the wood to the new site to begin assembly of a store. Cedar was brought down from Canada to build more buildings including numerous cellars, store houses, a saw gristmill, residence, a blacksmith’s house, trade houses, boat houses, a chief trader's house, servant's quarters (pictured), stables, and more. For protection, the fur traders built a stockade and bastions.

Silt from glacial floods during the last Ice Age provided the flat area surrounding Fort Colvile with rich nutrients for agricultural production. More than 340 acres of land were used for agricultural production to include: potatoes, wheat, oats, peas, barley, carrots, and numerous garden vegetables. In addition, the White Mud Farm, a farm and cattle post was located nine miles away and provided livestock, hay, and dairy production of butter and milk. The natives brought salmon to the post to be traded for manufactured goods. Food was shipped regularly to all of the houses and posts throughout the Columbia Department. Any surplus of food produced was sent to Hawaii. Even Hawaiians were brought to Fort Colvile to help grow agricultural crops. Fur traders and missionaries from nearby St. Paul’s Mission encouraged Native Americans to adopt Euro-American cultural practices including converting to Christianity and growing agricultural crops.

At any one time, approximately 20 to 25 people worked and lived at Fort Colvile. Social structure and employment at the post and for the company were based upon social class and was fixed with little to no opportunity for promotion. The post was led by upper class gentlemen from Canada, Britain, and Scotland. They served as company commissioned officers and filled the positions of clerks, apprentice clerks, and chief trader. The chief factor held the senior rank and was in charge of the post. The principal labor force were called the engagés, the French word for “servant.” They were lower class men who were French-Canadian and other nationalities. They worked 16 hours a day and performed a variety of trades and functions to include servants, apprentices, carpenters, blacksmiths, mechanics, coopers, interpreters, guides, and more. The legendary voyageurs, men who travelled throughout the district in canoes, brought supplies to the post. Twice a year, pelts from all fur trading posts and houses on the Columbia River and its tributaries were brought to Fort Colvile to be shipped to Fort Vancouver. Because of the lack of Euro-American women, men at Fort Colvile often married Native American women. Their children of mixed blood ancestry were called metis. By the 1830s, Fort Colvile was the largest Euro-American settlement between the Rocky and Cascade Mountains.

In 1846, the United States and Britain signed the Oregon Treaty marking the 49th parallel as the international border. While the HBC ceded almost all of its possesions and holdings south of the new international border to the United States, the U.S. government allowed the company to keep Fort Colvile and continue operation. In 1847, Marcus Whitman and 12 others were killed at his mission near Walla Walla. The threat of native attack on missionaries at Tshimakain mission, 70 miles to the south of Fort Colvile, forced the Walker and Eells families to close it and be relocated to the trading post for safety. But the 1850s saw a period of chaos and turbulence in the region of Fort Colvile that marked the decline and its eventual close. In 1853, Washington Territory Governor Isaac I. Stevens proposed a series of reservation policies to place Native American tribes on certain parcels of land in order to facilitate the coming of American settlers. These proposals angered many of the tribes throughout the territory. That same year, a devastating smallpox epidemic killed most of the Native Americans in the Kettle Falls area. In 1855, gold was found in the vicinity of Fort Colvile and a gold rush ensued. American settlers encroached and established homes and mines, further disrupting relations with the surrounding tribes. In 1858, the Colville and nearby tribes sided with the Spokane against the U.S. Army. Chief Trader and Factor Angus McDonald and missionaries at St. Paul’s Mission served as intermediaries on behalf of the Colville after the Native Americans were defeated by Colonel George Wright. The fur trade also began to become stagnate and decline. Only the rich agricultural exports made the trading post profitable. In the In 1869, the U.S. Government and the HBC agreed on purchase of Fort Colvile for the sum of $450,000. Fort Colvile conducted its last business transaction in 1871 thereby bringing an end of British control and possession in the Inland Empire.

Chief Factor McDonald resigned his post as master of Fort Colvile but retained possessions of the buildings as a residence for him and his family until 1907. After the family left, the buildings began to decay. Visitors who came to Kettle Falls stopped at the fort to have their pictures taken as part of a tourist attraction. On July 7, 1910, a suspicious grass fire spread across the Marcus Flat plain and destroyed all of the remaining post’s buildings. In 1933, the construction of Grand Coulee Dam began and was completed in 1941. Today, the site lies underneath the backwaters of Grand Coulee Dam and within the boundaries of Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area. Most boaters that float in the area known as Singer’s Bay have little idea of the long and colorful history that lies beneath them.

In early November of 1838, two Catholic priests, Father François Norbert Blanchet and Father Modeste Demers were enroute from Montreal to Fort Vancouver when they stopped at Fort Colvile, a fur trading post on the Upper Columbia River near Kettle Falls. Throughout the region, the fur traders promoted their coming to the Native Americans. Representatives from five tribes came. For three days, the priests along with translators conducted religious services, including daily mass and 19 baptisms. Their activities marked the first Catholic presence in the region between the Cascade and Rocky Mountains. As they left the trading post, the priests promised the fur traders and natives that someone would return to establish a mission for the Upper Columbia River.

Nearly seven years after the first Catholic priests came to the Kettle Falls region, Pierre Jean de Smet, a Jesuit priest from Belgum, came to fulfill that promise. A pioneer for the Jesuit sect of Catholicism, de Smet had been traveling for years back and forth from his base in St. Louis to Europe to recruit priests and secure funds in order to plant several Indian missions in the Pacific Northwest, most notably St. Mary's in Montana. At Kettle Falls, he stayed for eight days. He noted some eight to nine hundred natives had gathered there for the annual fishing season. He built a temporary structure of boughs – a primitive structure of logs and brush in the middle of a Indian village on a bluff overlooking the falls. His stay was successful, performing over 100 baptisms. De Smet wrote, “A solemn mass was celebrated during with the Indians chanted canticles in praise of God…I gave the name of St. Paul to the Skoyelpi [Colville] nation.” As he left, de Smet said to the natives that one of his priests would come to be with them permanently.

One month later, Father Antonio Ravalli, an Italian Jesuit preist and one of de Smet’s recruits, came to Kettle Falls to take charge of the fledgling mission. He was educated in drawing, architecture, medicine, and theology. He immediately began construction of a small chapel. However, one month later, Father Ravalli was recalled to St. Mary’s Mission following the death of a priest there and would not return to St. Paul's Mission until 1857. Father Christian Hoecken from St. Ignatius Mission (present-day Cusick, WA) took over. In 1846, Father Hoecken traveled several times to St. Paul’s during the summer season to minister to the large gathering of tribes.

In 1847, Father Peter de Vos began his year-long residency at St. Paul’s. With assistance from fur traders at Fort Colvile, he began construction of a larger, substantial chapel to function both as a residence and a mission. Several cedar logs were chiseled and handhewn into beams for the frame. Instead of nails, pegs were used to keep the beams in place. White mud was chinked into the walls to prevent drafts. The building also featured glass windows. Two wood-burning stoves were installed to provide heat during the cold winter. By the end of the year, building of the mission was complete.

The primary goal for St. Paul’s as an Indian mission was to minister to the Colville and surrounding tribes who for thousands of years called the Upper Columbia River their home. Mostly semi-nomadic, the natives came to Kettle Falls during the summer to fish for salmon before returning to winter grounds. To make them settle, the priests advocated teaching the Indians how to farm instead of relying on hunting and gathering. They worked with the fur traders at Fort Colvile, also an agricultural hub for the Hudson's Bay Company to develop farming skills. Father Peter De Vos stayed at St. Paul’s Mission for four years. Until he was forced to retire in 1851 due to poor health, performed 491 baptisms, performed 123 marriages, and conducted 99 burials. His success at Kettle Falls made the mission the center of Jesuit activity in the Upper Columbia River region.

Fathers Joseph Joset and Louis Vercruysse served most of the 1850s, a time of several disturbing events that affected the mission. In 1851, a native prophet from British Columbia identifying himself as a “dreamer” came to Kettle Falls and prophesized against the Christian faith. He claimed to have passed out for six days and had several dreams, including seeing a dead person from the Colville tribe. Although the priests effectively ousted the “dreamer” from the region, he had gained many followers.

The influx of Americans settling into the Kettle Falls region created tensions among the tribes. In 1853, a devastating smallpox epidemic killed much of the native population. Afterwards, the priests conducted inoculations to prevent further outbreaks. In 1855, Washington Territory Governor Isaac Stevens proposed a reservation policy to place tribes on certain, allotted lands throughout the region as a way to prevent conflict. Instead, his proposal angered the natives. That same year, gold was discovered on a sandbar in the vicinity of Fort Colvile. News of the strike brought thousands of settlers to the Kettle Falls region in search of wealth, thus encouraging conflict. Protests began to mount by the Colville, San Poil, and other tribes. Priests who served at several missions throughout the Pacific Northwest and at St. Paul’s, including Fathers Ravalli, Hoecken, Joset, and de Smet served a spokesman or intermediaries on behalf for the native tribes to the United States Army and Governor Stevens. In May 1858, war broke out further to the south of Kettle Falls. The Colville, San Poil, Okanogan and other tribes allied with the Spokane against the U.S. Army. During the conflict, Father Ravalli and Joset alongside with Fort Colvile chief factor Angus McDonald, served as peace negotiators and prevented any warfare from occurring in the Upper Columbia Region. Their diplomacy spared any large consequences or warfare in the Kettle Falls region. But the war forced St. Paul’s Mission to temporarily close and would remain a seasonal mission until 1862. The U.S. Army established a military post, Fort Colville, near Kettle Falls in 1859. Despite all of the turbulence of the 1850s, from 1852 to 1862, the priests conducted 880 baptisms and 123 marriages.

After St. Paul’s reopened as a year-long mission in 1863, Father Joset resumed his residency. But the mission focused exclusively on serving white settlers and Irish Catholic soldiers. In 1869, St. Francis Regis Mission was built 5 miles to the east. Serving both as an established church and Indian boarding school, St. Francis Regis took over as the center for Catholic activity in the Upper Columbia region. The last known mass at St. Paul’s was held on August 14, 1875, thus closing the mission for good.

For decades, St. Paul’s Mission slowly decayed into ruins. For years, people came to the mission as part of a “tourist attraction” to have their pictures taken. The cross on the roof fell off. Shingles fell to the floor. People had taken some of the wood from the walls and doors as part of building houses or other construction projects. Even the windows were taken. By 1938, the roof had collapsed and remnants of three walls remained standing.

Several attempts to rebuild St. Paul’s Mission were suggested but never attempted. Then in 1938, Bishop Charles D. White of the Spokane Diocese began to lead an effort to rebuild the mission in commemoration for 100 years of Catholic presence in the Kettle Falls region. Sadly, White passed away shortly afterward but prior to his death, he passed the rebuilding effort to Father Paul M. Georgan from Northport, WA. With the assistance of the Colville Kiwanis Club, several businesses, and several Civil Conservation Corps (CCC) volunteers, the mission was rebuilt to its original appearance in 1939. After the rebuilding, the Spokane Diocese passed control of St. Paul’s Mission to the State of Washington in 1951 until it transferred to the National Park Service in 1974. That same year, it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Today, St. Paul’s stands as a monument of the Catholic presence in the Kettle Falls area, and the Indians whom the priests ministered to. St. Paul’s Mission is also part of the Mission Point Trail, a ¼ mile loop trail with wayside exhibits and other features describing the 9,000 year history of Kettle Falls.

Fort Spokane and the surrounding landscape hold great historic significance. For thousands of years, the area was a gathering place for native tribes fishing the rapids of the Spokane River. In 1880, the U.S. Army established a fort above the confluence of the Spokane and Columbia Rivers. With the start of the Spanish American war in 1898, the garrison was withdrawn and troops were sent to more strategic locations. The buildings and lands were turned over to the Office of Indian Affairs to be used as an Indian boarding school, which operated from 1900 to 1907. After the boarding school closed, the buildings served as a tuberculosis hospital until 1929. In many ways, the Indian experience at Fort Spokane is a microcosm of the Indian experience across the United States.

Today, the National Park Service operates Fort Spokane as a visitor center and museum . During the summer, the guardhouse is open as the visitor center and museum. The grounds are open year-round with accessible walking trails. Step back in history with a tour of the museum exhibits and grounds.

The military of the "Indian Frontier" was different than any Civil War regiment in many ways. Uniforms, weapons and photographs of the military are on exhibit in the historic guardhouse. When the military left in 1899 the buildings were converted into an Indian Boarding School run by the government. Photographs and first hand accounts of life at the boarding school are exhibited throughout the guardhouse. All exhibits and programs are free of charge.

Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area is a land of contrasts. Cold, snowy winters are matched by hot, arid summers. The bright colors of spring are hard to imagine during the thick autumn fog. The landscape, too, varies dramatically between north and south due to differences in geology and climate. The mountains in the north support dense pine forests thanks to higher rainfall. The flat plateaus to the south receive little moisture, and a hardy sagebrush-steppe ecosystem thrives on the dry, sandy soils. Wildlife species are just as varied at Lake Roosevelt. Mammals , birds , reptiles , and amphibians thrive on both land and water. Lake Roosevelt and its tributaries support a fish community that today is considerably different from the native fish community of the early 1900s due to habitat alteration and non-native species. The Lake Roosevelt watershed drains about 44,969 square miles, 88% of which is Canada. The lake extends more than 154 miles along the Columbia River through the national recreation area and includes the lower reaches of many rivers and streams. Most of the water in lake comes from glacial ice, lakes and snow high in the Canadian Rockies. The lake culminates at the Grand Coulee Dam, which is the driving force of the recreation area itself.

Lake Roosevelt has a little bit of everything: land dwellers, swimmers, and sky high flyers.

Plant diversity extends from the channeled scablands of the south to the ponderosa pine forests of the north.

This shrub-steppe ecosystem is filled with large shrubs, broadleaf wildflowers, and a large diversity of grass species.

An extension of the Rocky Mountains, this ecosystem has a more mountainous climate and is dense with conifers.

Over 230 species of birds can be found in Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area. The wide range of habitats found in the park leads to a variety of birds that call this place home. Red-tailed hawks scan for prey in a field below, while mountain bluebirds sing in the trees. Mergansers and loons float peacefully on the water, while Columbian sharp-tailed grouse walk through brush on land. Woodpeckers and crossbills are more likely to be found in the ponderosa pine forests of the Okanogan Highlands to the north. Pheasants and killdeer may be more common in the channeled scablands of the Columbia Plateau to the south. Sandhill cranes pass through the park on their migratory routes, while wild turkey might be seen year-round. The southern end of Lake Roosevelt is part of the Coulee Corridor loop of the Great Washington State Birding Trail, a popular driving route that follows significant birding destinations. Whether you are an experienced birder or a casual observer, Lake Roosevelt provides many opportunities to discover and appreciate the birds of the area. Birds should be viewed from a distance. Never feed birds or other park wildlife.

Some of the most commonly seen bird species, they may be seen soaring over a field or over water looking for a meal.

Fire is an important cycle in this habitat, as most natural fire clears the underbrush without killing mature healthy trees. Adult trees will drop the lowest branches, saving the ever-green needles from the highest reaching flames. As needles and lower branches begin to cover the floor once again, it becomes fuel for the next fire. Many trees will have chemicals in their needles to discourage growth of other plants as a way to keep open ground for their own offspring. Wildfire policies of early forest management focused on suppression of all fires, leading to less frequent but more intense wildfires. Modern management has begun to restore the natural, frequent, but low intensity fires the forest needs.

Moose prefer humid forested habitat, but they have been documented throughout the park. As the largest members of the deer family , they can reach 1,100 pounds and 6 feet high at the shoulder. Due to their large size, they prefer cold snowy ranges and are most concentrated in north eastern parts of Washington. These solitary giants feed on twigs, bark, leaves, aquatic vegetation and new plant growth. This makes them a pioneer species meaning they are often one of the first to return to an area that's been burned.

Open understory forests give way for the other large mammals of the area; deer, elk, bear, and mountain lions. White tailed deer are more common in the north, while mule deer prefer the open grasslands of the south. The mammal most common in the area is the red squirrel, its chirping can often be mistaken as a bird. Seemingly always on the move, these squirrels are gathering pine cones, seeds, fruits, for winter months.

Songbirds can be heard all year round in the highlands, fluttering from the high branches of the ponderosa, such as the evening grosbeak or a western tanager. Many of the birds you see are migratory, and will leave to different areas come winter. Rather than migrating, black capped chickadees are joined by pygmy nuthatches and black billed magpies who stay together in multi-species clusters.

To continue to be able to view this amazing and complex habitat, it is important to recognize it as all of our homes. By following Leave No Trace guidelines and park rules one can enjoy and not destroy.

Left image The Channeled Scablands, what do you notice is different between the pictures? Credit: NPS Photo

Right image The Okanogan highlands, how could the density of trees in each picture change the water? Credit: NPS Photo

Shoreline Comparison Use the above image slider by clicking on the grey circle at the center and sliding it to the left or right. The most noticeable difference between the shorelines is the lack of large conifers in the Channeled Scablands. The mountainous regions of the highlands have more soft ground for the trees to grow their thick tap root below them. Want to compare the shoreline for yourself? Visit our each of our three districts and other nearby attractions .

Part of the Columbia Plateau, the Channeled Scablands can be found on a majority of the southern half of the park. It is a type of shrub-steppe ecosystem, which is characterized by large shrubs, broadleaf wildflowers, and a large diversity of grass species. One of the best places to experience this habitat is by visiting Spring Canyon and going on the Bunchgrass Prairie Nature Trail .

It was originally formed by large, repeated flooding events, which left the land scarred from the rapid water rushing and pulling rich soils away and piling them together elsewhere. The irregular land surface of bedrock and thin soil that has been scoured of its soil by floods are called Scablands. Channeled is in reference to the many and different paths that water took with each flood event, leaving the land with channels so overloaded with sediment it created many dividing and rejoining channels as well as large coulees. This complex geology was a debated mystery for a long time.

What remains today is a unique diversity of flora and fauna that have adapted to the hot dry desert-like summers and long cold winters. This climate is much drier than its northern counterpart the Okanogan Highlands, which receives almost twice as much rain. High winds discourage any tall tree growth, and encourage wind pollinated plants such as grasses. The aridity combined with the fluctuation in temperature means that life that exists there must be able to handle both drought and snow. Pressures like these form unique adaptations and characters of life, a place where you can see a rattlesnake or a snowy owl depending on the season.

The foundation of this land is nothing without its grasses, as grasses are what hold the shifting sandy soils in place. Grassroots also bring and hold water closer to the surface where more shallow rooted plants may thrive. There are dozens of species of grasses found here. However, newcomers such as cheatgrass and crested wheatgrass threaten to take over and outcompete native grasses.The defining shrub of the area is sagebrush, which is important for stabilization due to it having two different types of root systems. Shallow, thin and widespread roots gather water before it evaporates, while roots buried deep into the soil draw water from underground reservoirs. Root systems like this make important habitat for animals such as marmots to burrow into structurally sound ground.

Many of the plants in this area have adaptations to help them survive the extremes of this habitat, from hairy water-saving stems, to rolled or small leaves to decrease evaporation, to the waxy spiny defenses of the northern prickly pear.

These grass dense areas are rich habitat for grazers such as deer, elk, and in the recent past even pronghorn antelopes. Mule deer are the main mammal that can be seen throughout the Plateau, while white-tailed deer are found in the northern district of the park.

Creatures of this land make themselves at home in the rocks and under the ground, usually at the base of shrubs. To avoid the daily peak weather, many of the animals are crepuscular meaning they are active most at dawn and dusk. For seasonal extremes, animals will often either migrate or hibernate in the winter. Ground squirrels take this to the extreme by going into aestivation , a type of summer hibernation. These and other rodents are the dominating presence in this landscape due to the large amount of grass seed, the main part of their diet. Although these animals are often hidden from our sights, they are important as the main food source for predators of the area.

Here, the predators mostly take to the sky; hawks, falcons, and owls . The day shift consists of Red-tailed Hawks and the smaller faster falcons. Much of their diet consists of small mammals, insects, and smaller birds than themselves. Owls take up the night shift, preying mainly on nocturnal animals such as rodents and bats. Burrowing owls are of particular interest due to its candidate status for the Washington state endangered species list. Their populations continue to dwindle as the shrub-steppe ecosystem declines and they lose habitat.

Wildlife is never far away when visiting visit Lake Roosevelt. From the fish leaping in the waves, the cries of red-tailed hawks echoing through the trees, yellow-bellied marmots whistling as they spy a bald eagle searching for lunch, turkeys gobbling and displaying in the roadway, to deer watching from the pine shadows. The lives of all these animals are interconnected and they relate to and shape the environment where they live. There are nearly 60 mammal species, over 230 varieties of birds , 45 species of fish , and 20 different types of reptiles and amphibians . From scablands to ponderosa pine forest to freshwater aquatic, the park showcases a diverse group of wildlife. The lake is the important life source for all animals in the area. The lakeshore is their shelter, drink, and hunting grounds, and for some, their home. The National Park Service strives to maintain the natural processes that keep these animal habitats protected. While monitoring and studying changes taking place in animal populations, biologists learn what is changing in the animals environment. Knowing what animals live here help keep them and everyone safe and healthy.

Half the park is underwater. Native, non-native, and invasive fish of many kinds can be found swimming in the lake.

The lake is home to snakes, lizards, and even skinks, slithering around in the brush on the water's edge.

Wildlife sightings can be exciting and memorable experiences, but it is important to keep both people and animals safe during any potential encounter. Keep as much distance as possible between yourself and the animal; the larger the animal, the more distance you must maintain. Even if they appear calm and non-threatening, animals can react very quickly and cause damage. Respect wildlife for an enjoyable and safe visit to the park.

Want a list of most of the species found at Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area? Select a species category below and download a list of all the wildlife found at the lake before you visit the park. Note that the lists are not comprehensive, but updates are added when possible.

Lake Roosevelt Campgrounds Check recreation.gov or call (877) 444-6777 for availability. April 1 through November 30, all campgrounds can be reserved. December 1 through March 31, singular loops at Spring Canyon, Fort Spokane, and Kettle Falls are available for reservation. (Note: Cloverleaf Campground is only open May 1 through September 30.) Camping regulations apply to all campgrounds. Check for alerts and conditions before heading out. Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area offers three types of camping: Standard campgrounds : groups of 10 people or less. Standard campgrounds are reservation only and can be booked up to 6 months in advance. Group campgrounds : groups of more than 10 people. Group campgrounds can be booked up to 12 months in advance. Boat-in campgrounds and shoreline camping : access via boat only (no reservations)

Additional Campground Options Keller Ferry Campground Keller Ferry Campground standard and group sites are managed through Lake Roosevelt Adventures. Reservations can be made online or by calling 1-800-816-2431. First come-first serve sites may be available day of. Camp Na-Bor-Lee An interpretive and educational campground for large groups and families. Reservations can be made online or by calling 509-720-9544 or 509-294-9812. Tribal Lands When camping on lands adjacent to or on the reservation shoreline, please contact the tribes to determine where access is allowed and whether additional fees are required. The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation can be reached at (509) 634-2110. The Spokane Tribe of Indians can be reached at (509) 625-3511.

NPS Photo Camping Regulations Campgrounds Standard campsites are limited to no more than two vehicles (Trailers count as one vehicle. For example a truck and a boat trailer; or an RV and a car; or two cars) and no more than ten people at each campsite. For larger groups, group campsites are available . Vehicles must fit within the site pads provided. The wheels of all vehicles and trailers must be within the paved designated parking space and not on the roadway or vegetation. Generators may only be used between 6 am to 10 pm. Quiet hours are from 10 pm to 6 am. Check-in time is 1:00 pm. Check-out time is noon. Hookups are not provided for recreational vehicles. Connecting to a campground electrical outlet or water system is not permitted. Camping is limited to 14 consecutive nights per campground within a 30-day period and not more than 60 total nights per calendar year at any campground within Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area. Digging, leveling, or other alterations of the ground is not permitted. Digging, leveling, or other alterations of the ground is not permitted. Campgrounds are closed from 10 pm to 6 am, except for registered campers. Campfires Shoreline fires are permitted below the full pool line year-round, except when complete fire restrictions are in effect. ( Contact the park for current burn ban status.) Fire size must be less than three feet in diameter and at least ten feet from beach logs, structures, or vegetation. Chemically treated wood, painted wood, and wood with nails or staples is not allowed. No pit fires. Do not burn debris, including plastics and cans. Fires must be attended at all times and completely extinguished with water, not covered with sand. Rock rings are never allowed anywhere above or below the shoreline. Dead and down wood may be collected for campfires in the park. Chainsaws cannot be used to cut wood in the recreation area. Pets Pets must be kept on a leash six feet or less in length and may not be left unattended. Pets are prohibited in all developed swim beach areas. Barking dogs are considered a nuisance. Owners must remove them from the campground. Dispose of pet waste in a trash bin. Learn the rules of B.A.R.K. to help protect your park! Water Fill and Dump Station Fee These stations are available at Evans, Kettle Falls, Gifford, Hunters, Porcupine Bay, Fort Spokane, Keller Ferry, and Spring Canyon. Please note that water and dump stations are seasonal. Water is turned off from October 1 to April 30. Water filling and dump station use is intended for visitors recreating at Lake Roosevelt and not for residential use. $10 per use to dump grey and black water tanks and to fill potable water tanks. Payments can be made at pay.gov . Fees are 50 percent off with America the Beautiful Senior or Access Pass. Fees are not included in a campground reservation. Campers with a campground reservation only pay the fee once per reservation. Visitors without a campground reservation pay fee per use.

509-754-7800 Please leave a detailed message if no one answers your call. Our rangers are often out talking to visitors.