Barstow, Washington — Sixty-Six People Along the Kettle River

Barstow counted sixty-six residents in the 2020 census, a number that sounds tiny until Ferry County's geography is allowed into the calculation.

The community stretches along U.S. 395 beside the Kettle River, where a valley concentrates roads, ranches and homes in country otherwise broken by mountains. Mining, timber and cross-border travel have all used the same practical corridor.

Barstow never needed a spectacular boom to remain a real place. People continued living along a useful stretch of river and highway while the industries and vehicles passing them changed.

Sixty-six residents may not produce much of a skyline. They still produce a community.