Silcott, Washington — Townsite Went Underwater

Silcott developed near Alpowa Creek and the Snake River at a crossing used long before a formal American town existed there. Nimiipuu people lived and traveled through the area, and later ferry and trading activity made the site useful to non-Native river traffic.

Fire and changing transportation gradually reduced the settlement's importance. Lower Granite Dam then changed the map more decisively.

When the reservoir filled during the 1970s, much of the old Silcott townsite disappeared beneath slackwater. The locality name survived above a landscape increasingly difficult to see.

Silcott did not simply decline until buildings vanished. The river rose over much of the evidence.