Kettle Falls

Kettle Falls was formerly a significant waterfall along the Columbia River just downstream of the confluence with the Kettle River. The falls consisted of two distinct levels of falls separated by several hundred feet of calm water; the upper split into two channels and the lower a single channel, with a total drop of 45 feet or so. With the construction of the Grand Coulee Dam and the formation of Lake Roosevelt the falls were submerged in entirety and no longer exist today. During periods of extensive maintenance on the Grand Coulee Dam, Roosevelt Lake has been drawn down enough that a small portion of the falls has emerged to view in the past, but this has occurred only two or three times since 1940. The site of Kettle Falls can be seen looking north from Highway 20 where it crosses the Columbia River just west of the city of Kettle Falls.Kettle Falls was an immensely important Native American fishing location, and like Celilo Falls in the Columbia River Gorge, featured cantilevered wooden platforms that fishermen would stand on and drag huge nets through the river to trap migrating fish as they attempted to jump the falls. The first westerner to describe the falls was Canadian explorer David Thompson, who came across the site in June of 1811.