Metaline Falls, Washington — Planned Industrial Town in the Mountains

Metaline Falls was deliberately built around things people could extract from the surrounding country.

Lead and zinc drew mining interest. Limestone and quartz supported cement production.

As rail service reached the district around 1910, entrepreneur Lewis Larsen and partners developed an industrial community beside the Pend Oreille River.

Company facilities, worker housing and substantial architecture appeared quickly.

For decades, cement and mining anchored the local economy, and the Metaline district became an important Washington producer of lead and zinc.

The industries eventually contracted. The cement plant closed in 1990.

Silos, company houses and historic buildings remained.

Metaline Falls survived by becoming something its founders were not primarily designing: a residential and recreation community with an unusually intact industrial past.

The factory stopped.

The town plan kept working.