Hunters, Washington — River Landing Became Lakefront

Hunters developed when the Columbia still functioned as a moving transportation corridor.

Steamboats, ferries and landings mattered because roads through northeastern Washington's hills were slow and difficult.

Hunters became one place where people, livestock and freight could reach the river.

Then Grand Coulee Dam rewrote the shoreline.

Lake Roosevelt flooded old shorelines and changed crossings, turning a river community into a reservoir community.

Modern Hunters remains inhabited above the lake along State Route 25, serving rural homes, farms and recreation traffic.

Fishing and boating now use water once associated with steamboats and ferries.

Hunters stayed in roughly the same place.

The Columbia changed what being there meant.