#2194 - Tamarack Saloon, Conconully, WA - 5/26/2013

Tamarack Saloon, Conconully, WA

Update: The Tamarack Saloon closed and was replaced by the Red Rock Saloon.

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Conconully ("kahn-kah-NELL-ee") Washington is an old miners' camp that is now a tiny mountain town that knows how to have fun. It hosts events like the annual Outhouse Race and Cowboy Caviar (AKA bull testicle) Fete, and it features a rollicking waterhole called the Tamarack Saloon. The town is about seven blocks by four blocks squeezed between Lake Conconully and the Conconully Reservoir.

Jackson's Tavern, Conconully, WA
Current site of Tamarack Saloon
Photo from City of Conconully Facebook site

It was originally called "Salmon City," and hosted miners pulling out gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc and molubdenum out of the surrounding hills and creeks. The name is purported to be a word the Okanagan Indians used for either "place of abundance" or "garden."

The Tamarack includes signs that say "Since the 1880s," but that seemed a bit questionable, and with the generous assistance of some volunteers at the Okanagan County Historical Society some of the history of the location came into better focus  Here are some historical notes that the OCHS provided me:

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Trista, Gail, Jonette, and Kristin

1894 – Flood would have taken out any building at that location.

1904 – June photo shows no bulding at that location

1905 – A building is there on the corner
1909 – Sandborn Fire Insurance Map shows a building as “General Merchandise”
1911 – A building is there on the corner
1950s - Known as Jackson's Tavern and Grocery
1957 – Known as the “Conconully Tavern”
1958 – “Conconully Tavern & Grocery Store”
1970’s – ‘Tamarack Inn’ owned by Lucky Jones (after founding by Larry M. Hamilton)

Tamarack Saloon, Conconully, WA

Okanagan county was completely dry by 1910, so the structure would have had fairly limited time to have hosted a saloon before county prohibition, which of course was followed by statewide prohibition starting in 1916 and then federal prohibition into 1933.

In any case it is now good for a boisterous Friday or Saturday night out, and we enjoyed our visit as well as the company of Kristin and Cliff, Gail and Josette, and bartenders Kimberly and Stacy.




(See also: Pete's Map of Great Old Washington State Bars)

Down goes Josette!

316 N. Main, Conconully, Washington 98819 - (509)846-8137 - 1-888-746-8137
Web site: thetamaracksaloon.com
Reviews: yahoo.com 
Previous bars in this location: Jackson's Tavern, Conconully Tavern

#2193 - Sportsmen Roost, Republic, WA - 5/26/2013

One hundred years ago Republic was a booming mining town with a population of around 2,000 people, 20 saloons, and a thriving red light district featuring hostesses like "French Marie" and "Holdout Annie." 1,500 people would line Clark Avenue for the Fourth of July horse races and activities. The town started out as the "Eureka Gulch" mining camp virtually the minute the federal government opened the north portion of the Colville Indian reservation to mining claims. It boomed with series of nearby strikes, leading up to the discover of Knob Hill, the largest gold mine in the state of Washington.

The town is a sedate now, adjusted to host tourists and hunters along the approximately 1,000 residents. Many of the buildings along Clark Avenue try to invoke the old west, boomtown days, but not everyone is enamored with it. We met one of these people the lounge of the Sportsmen Roost, in the back behind the diner portion. You can get pretty typical diner food in front and pretty typical dive bar drinks in back. The woman opened up quickly and did not pause until we tore ourselves away to continue down the road. She told us about growing up in area, moving to a large town where she worked in schools, and coming back after she'd retired. She warmed up by pointing out the men in the bar who had recently had affairs, and with whom. She told us they couldn't have a school baseball team here, because parents just aren't willing to invest time in their kids, and the town is dying because the kids leave town as soon as they can and don't come back. She told us, without a hint of humor, that a virgin in this town was a six-year-old girl who could outrun her brothers. She darkened the bright, idyllic small town image like an old episode of The Twighlight Zone.

The Sportsmen Roost is not a lot to look at once you walk past the woody front. The interior doesn't have much more personality than a hospital lunch room. But of course seeing it only on a lazy Sunday afternoon is not a good way to get to know a bar -- just as listening to one person's highly depressed descriptions is no way to get to know a town. I'd like to come back some Friday or Saturday night when the lounge is full of locals and hunters and boaters from Swan Lake.  This stop just reminded us how much pretty much any bar, like pretty much any town, can't really be grasped from any one perspective.


645 S Clark Ave, Republic, WA 99166 - (509) 775-0404
Reviews: yelp - urbanspoon

#2192 - Whitebird Tavern, Northport, WA - 5/25/2013

While Kuk's is the main historical attraction among Northport, WA bars, the action tends to be at the Whitebird Tavern (AKA Whitebird Saloon and Eatery).  This was amplified on this particular visit, as local high school graduates were celebrating a reunion (the school is small, so they include several classes at once). All told there were maybe 80 people, dancing to the cover beats of the Fat Tones. The Whitebird has a bit better food and drink options, and plenty of character and characters. Up until 9pm it is a family restaurant, at which point, it changes to 21-and-older, and, if our experience was typical, includes one or two local 21+ folk partaking to the wobbly point where we were rather stunned they managed to remain upright through our entire stay.

302 Center Ave, Northport, WA 99157 - (509) 732-6638
Reviews: tripadvisor - yelp

#2191 - Kuk's Tavern, Northport, WA - 5/25/2013

In the early evening of Friday, May 25, 2013, we rolled up to our road trip's most prominent destination. In Northport. WA, on the south bank the Columbia, about 7 miles south of the Canadian border, is Kuk's Tavern, one of the very oldest operating bar locations in the state of Washington. Long gone are the rollicking boom-town days when miners poured into the area seeking placer gold, and the LeRoi Smelter operation covered 30 acres, baking gold, silver, copper and lead ores and pouring slag into the river. The mining rush started with some strikes on Red Mountain in 1890, and by 1892 the first railroad train pulled in, tugging a flatcar with a post office and saloon on it.

The boom continued as the U.S. government opened the northern part of the Colville Indian reservation to miners in 1896. The Colvilles were several groups of nomadic peoples in the region before being grouped under the name from Fort Colville and subjected to the not atypical series of broken treaties, shrinking reservations, and diminished rights. The European population of Northport approached 2,000 in the 1890s and it became known as one of the rowdiest mining camps in the state. The growth was sustained through floods and two large fires that destroyed most of the town in 1893 and 1898. But later, with the smelter's business falling off with declining ore supplies and labor conflicts, when the largest of all fires struck on July 29, 1914, the Northport boom times were over for good.

Northport today is a pleasant, tiny town, hanging on with various old structures and vestiges of the past, but without the overwhelmingly touristy preciousness of a Winthrop or Leavenworth. According to a historical plaque featured on Kuk's Facebook page, the building hosting Kuk's was constructed in 1888 and started then as a saloon and brothel, apparently called "Skrobian's". An 1898 photo in "Gold Creeks and Ghost Towns of Northeastern Washington" shows what appears to be the same building under the sign of the Silver Crown Hotel. In 1902 the building was moved on logs to its current location in order to be safer from floods. It was later named "Fred's Pool Hall" by Fred Skrobian, and became "Kuk's" at some point under ownership of Marion Kukuk. This old but undated photo purportedly includes Kuk's Pool Hall.

Kuk's claims to be the "oldest continuous and licensed tavern" in the state. I'm not positive of the particular basis for this claim, but if they have been continuously licensed (with the exception of prohibition) since it started as a saloon in 1888 or 1889, then it would appear that the only potential competitors to that claim would be the Oak Harbor Tavern or Bickleton's Bluebird Inn. I do not know how long either of these two bars has been continuously licensed, but from my investigations they appear to be the only currently operating bar locations to pre-date the Kuk's building.

Kuk's today is a mixture of museum and small town dive bar. Female mannequins gazing out of the upper floor windows remind visitors of the bordello days. Vintage photos and sawblades painted with wildlife scenes mix with souvenir baseball caps and Budweiser girl posters. Local birthdays are listed on a whiteboard, and Taco Tuesdays at Kuk's ($1 for 2 tacos) are a community event listed on the Chamber of Commerce calendar. They have shuffleboard, darts, and pulltabs, and a few references to "Kuk's Tavern Bowling and Disco," which appear to be references to a broken down bowling game, a juke box, and small mirror ball.  In addition to Taco Tuesdays they have a few snacks, burgers and pizzas, and offer a small selection of spirits and beers. Despite the limited food and drink options, the unique ambiance and the historical small town make Kuk's well worth a drive across the state to me.

400 Summit Ave, Northport, WA 99157 - (509) 732-4443
Est. as Kuk's: ? - Building constructed: 1888
Previous bars in this location: Skobrian's, Fred's Pool Hall
Reviews: boundarysentinel - skibumlife - yelp - northportproject

#2190 - Acorn Saloon and Feeding Station, Colville, WA - 5/25/2013

Acorn Saloon and Feeding Station, Colville, WA

The Acorn Saloon and Feeding Station was established here in 1986 by John and Jeannie Acorn. It was previously "Harold's" and I was informed it had been a bar for approximately 40 years. It started as a confectionary in 1903 and may have been both Faugsteed's Star Restaurant and Faugsteed's Palace Theater in the early parts of the 20th century. The Acorns have modeled it into an imitation of an upscale, pre-prohibition drinking parlor, with antique oak tables "from Europe," an 1880s cherry wood bar from the Barbary Coast, an antique nude painting from "one of Portland's oldest bars in the bad part of town," and various other old timey items. The food and drinks are middle American staples -- burgers and sandwiches, inexpensive steaks and seafood, etc., with standard cocktails, wine, and beer options.

Acorn Saloon and Feeding Station, Colville, WA

Acorn Saloon and Feeding Station, Colville, WA

262 S Main St, Colville, WA 99114 - (509) 684-3337
Est. 1986 - Building constructed: 1903
Previous bars in this location: Harold's
Web site: acornsaloon.com - facebook  
Reviews: yelp - urbanspoon

#2189 - 5th Avenue Bar and Grill, Metaline Falls, WA - 5/25/2013

5th Avenue Bar & Grill, Metaline Falls, WA

The 5th Avenue is placid little small town cafe and bar -- the sort of place where, after making a really minor error on one of our burgers, the gave us free pie to make up for the mistake. Along with the fairly standard small town diner food and drinks, we enjoyed a chat with regular customer Markku, whom everyone in town just calls "Swede." Markku was born in Finland and raised in Sweden, and as a young man joined the merchant marine as a cook to see the world, living mostly in Australia. When we asked him what brought him to this area, he told us "a mistaken decision" -- which turned out to be a girl in Aberdeen. Markku is retired now and lives within a short walk of the bar. He told us that it was a town scandal when the bar raised the drink of cocktails from $2.50 to $3.50. He thought Trista was pulling his leg when she told him how much she pays for cocktails in Belltown.

People have been living in the Metaline Falls area for at least 8,000 to 11,000 years ago, with the Kalispel tribe there when Europeans first started to arrive in the early 1800s. The exposed minerals led the Europeans to call the place "metalines," and they eventually established the town of Metaline on the western bank of the Pend Oreille River in 1859, and Metaline Falls on the east bank in 1911. Gold was discovered in the area in the 1850s, then mining interests turned to lead and zinc, which sustained the area in the 1970s. Today the population of Metaline Falls is down to around 200 people, largely supported by hunting, fishing, and other tourist and outdoor activities. The town is just 13 miles south of the Canadian border, and if you check out Gardner Cave, the limestone cavern named for the bootlegger who discovered and hid his product there, it's a short walk to the border.  (Historylink)

Hoogy's Steakhouse, Metaline, WA
It's not so easy to find current information online for some
of these small towns, and Trista was much amused when we
drove up to this place in Metaline where I planned to have dinner.

Trail to Canada near Gardner Cave

Gardner Cave, just north of Metaline Falls, WA

214 E 5th Ave, Metaline Falls, WA 99153 - (509) 446-4234
Est. 2011
Previous bars in this location: Heidi's
Web site: facebook
Reviews: roadtrippers - yelp - tripadvisor

#2188 - Boots and Saddles Saloon, Ione, WA - 5/25/2013

Boots & Saddles Saloon, Ione, WA

Stepping into this bar feels like stepping into an old west poker game waiting to happen. The Boots & Saddles is very evidently a very old bar, with great, old, uneven, wooden floors, old taxidermy heads on aging wood walls, wood burning stove, etc. The bartender there told me that it has been named the Boots and Saddles since 1978 (I believe this was when it was purchased by long time owner Torivio "Tory" Mendoza, who passed away in Dec 2010) and that it has housed a bar back to 1908. I have not found any primary sources to help confirm those dates, but the information I have on Ione is very limited (the three bars listed in Ione in the 1913 Stevens County Polk Guide do not include addresses).

Boots & Saddles Saloon, Ione, WA

In any case, today the bar is a bit larger than one expects from the exterior and regardless of how old the place really is, it wears its old west saloon feel effortlessly and unaffectedly. It has the typical dive bar options in drinks and decor, but the beer corporation paraphernalia and NASCAR posters are mixed in with old hunting trophies and vestiges of decades of personality and personalities. I recommend a stop here if you're ever in this area near the northeast corner of the state.

Main St, Ione, WA 99139  - Phone: (509) 442-3115
Est. 1978

#2187 - Loon Lake Saloon & Grill, Loon Lake, WA - 5/25/2013

A nice stop along WA-292, just off 395, about 30 miles north of Spokane. I think I was fortunate enough to catch the town grump ("I told 'em six pack of this don't cost any goddamn more than that stuff they want $3.50 for ...")

3996 Washington 292, Loon Lake, WA 99148 - (509) 233-2738

#2186 - Constantine's Alibi Pub and Eatery, Wilbur, WA - 5/24/2013

Constantine's Alibi Pub and Eatery (AKA the Alibi Tavern) is now the only bar in town. You can see that times have been tough as you walk down Main Street, past the long-shuttered Boyd's Place, with the American flag logo in the old 1902 VFW Hall, and past the graying teddy bear face on the sign for Sarah's Restaurant and Lounge. The town of Wilbur sites northeast of Goose Creek, with both the town and creek named after "Wild Goose Bill" Condon, whose ranch basically founded the town. The story goes that town officials were planning to name the place "Goose Town," when Nannie Robertson, the wife of the town blacksmith, declared she would refuse to live in a town with such a name, and it was eventually decided to use Wild Goose Bill's middle name.

Wild Goose Bill married and divorced two of the local native American women, including one known as "Lop-eared Julia" due to her ears that had been mutilated by her tribe as punishment for sexual improprieties. Condon lost his life in January 1895, in a gunfight that erupted after he responded to Millie Dunn's refusal of his marriage proposal by shooting her, whereupon a ranch hand there to protect her engaged him in gunfire, with both men dying. Nowadays, Wilbur celebrates Wild Goose Bill Days annual on the third weekend in May, which includes the "Wild Goose Chase" run. (Spokesman Review)

At the Alibi we chatted with bartender Alan, who in addition to being a pretty cool guy is the son of the woman who runs the Willows Motel up the road where we were staying. Alan said there's been a bar in the location since the 1940s, and that the physical back bar dates back to the 1880s.  We were informed by locals that the Alibi is a good place to eat, but on this stop we were only stopping in for a drink before heading back to the motel and then back on the road the next morning. But if we're back this way we will be stopping in.

Wilbur, WA (Wild Goose Bill?)

4 SW Main, Wilbur, WA 99185 - (509) 647-2649                 
Est. 1995
Web site: facebook
Reviews: yelp - spokesman.com (Wild Goose Bill)

#2185 - Electric City Bar & Grill, Electric City, WA - 5/24/2013

In pretty much every way that the Coulee Dam Casino is lifeless and lacking in character, the Electric City Bar and Grill, just four and half miles down Highway 156, is the exact opposite. The Electric City bar is full of people laughing and engaging each other, in a setting that is uniquely defined by the owners and customers. It is vibrantly colored, with a fire pit and large patio on the side, and inside the ceiling is filled with tiles personalized by long-time customers. The food and drink choices look pretty standard, but the vibe and crowd make it one of the better bar stops in the area.

2 Coulee Blvd, Electric City, WA 99123 - (509) 633-2221
Web site: tripod
Reviews: tripadvisor

#2184 - Spillway Lounge, Coulee Dam Casino, Coulee Dam, WA - 5/24/2013

Coulee Dam is a small town (population approx. 1,000) that spans three counties - Douglas, Grant, and Okanogan -- built to house the people constructing the dam. From Wikipedia:

"The Okanogan County portion was known as Mason City, location of the head contractor. The Portions in Douglas and Grant Counties was known as Engineers Town and was government owned. In 1942 with the end of the contract in sight, CBI transferred control of Mason City to the over to the Municipal Division of the Columbia Basin Project. In 1948 Mason City was incorporated into Coulee Dam. Government began the process of selling the town to the public in 1957, finishing in 1959. Coulee Dam was officially incorporated as a town on February 26, 1959. It is the headquarters of Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area, and home of one of the world's largest man-made piles of sand ..."

Of course this is not to mention the 12 million cubic yards and 46-story tall concrete that backs up the Columbia River for 150 miles.

In contrast to the mammoth dam next door, the Coulee Dam Casino is decidedly non-epic, and it's main attraction seems to be, well, I guess people just like casinos no matter what.

516 Birch St, Coulee Dam, WA 99116 - (509) 633-0766
Web site: colvillecasinos.com - facebook
Reviews: yelp