Lake Wenatchee State Park History

Lake Wenatchee owes its existence to giant glaciers that widened and deepened the headwaters of the Wenatchee River. Gravel and rock carried in the glacier was deposited at the glacier’s end, forming a moraine, a natural dam to impound the lake. Lake Wenatchee State Park is situated on that moraine.

Indigenous Lands

The parklands lie within the traditional territory of Sahaptian and Interior Salish Indigenous people whose present-day descendants include members of the Wenatchi Band of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation and the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation. For thousands of years this part of the Cascade Mountains and its lakes and rivers have provided habitat for a diverse community of life that forms the basis of their cultures, especially the sockeye salmon that return to Lake Wenatchee each summer.

Local tribes ceded ownership of the area to the US federal government in the Yakima Treaty of Camp Stevens in 1855, keeping rights to harvest natural resources in their usual and accustomed places, including the Wenatchee River watershed. The treaty provided for a 36-square-mile reservation at the confluence of Icicle Creek and the Wenatchee River, near present-day Leavenworth, to be designated the Wenatshapam Fishery Reserve, and members of the Wenatchi tribe continued to live at the site. The survey of the Reserve was neglected, and non-Indigenous settlers made claims to land in the area. In 1893, Deputy United States Surveyor Oliver B. Iverson began a survey of the Reserve. However, before the survey was completed, newly appointed Yakima Indian Agent Lewis T. Erwin ordered Iverson to stop the survey. Instead, he directed him to survey a different area at Lake Wenatchee for the Reserve. The Wenatchi did not want to move from their homes by their accustomed fishing area. On January 8, 1894, Agent Erwin concluded an agreement to pay $20,000 for the Fishery Reserve at Lake Wenatchee and provide land allotments for the 180 tribal members still living at Icicle Creek. These were never provided. By 1903, the federal government had moved all of the tribal members to the Colville Reservation established by executive order of President Ulysses S. Grant on July 2, 1872, far from their homeland.

State Land

When Washington Territory was created by an act of Congress in 1853, survey sections 16 and 36 in each township were reserved to be granted to the eventual State of Washington to be held in trust to support public institutions. In places where the reserved sections were already occupied by homesteaders, part of a forest reserve, military reservation or Native American reservation, the county commissioners in the affected county were authorized to locate other lands of equal extent “in lieu of” the unavailable lands. In Chelan County, about 30 townships were included in the Washington Forest Reserve in 1897. Subsequently, the land in today’s Lake Wenatchee State Park was one of the tracts selected in lieu of the promised grant. The land passed into state ownership as part of the University Trust Lands managed by the Commissioner of Public Lands on September 10, 1903.

Forty acres adjacent to the lands granted to the state were retained by the federal government as a potential ranger station site for the U.S. Forest Service. The Washington Forest Reserve was expanded and renamed the Wenatchee National Forest on July 1, 1908, by President Theodore Roosevelt. Instead of a ranger station, though, the land was leased to the Winton Shingle Company which developed a steam-powered shingle mill on the site in 1918. Later sold to Buster and Billie Herrman, it was expanded to cut lumber as well in 1942. The shorelands in front of the park were owned by the lumber company, and drift logs were gathered for milling, along with trees harvested from surrounding national forest lands.

On May 10, 1929, the Washington State Parks Committee requested that the state trust land be withdrawn for park purposes and leased to the State Parks Committee for management. On May 13, 1929, Commissioner of Public Lands Clark V. Savidge withdrew 116 acres and added an additional 116 acres to the withdrawal on October 7, 1929. At the time, no state funds were appropriated to run the state parks because funding had been vetoed by Governor Roland H. Hartley, so the park was initially maintained by Chelan County.

Making a Park

The county road that passed through the park was realigned to the east in 1948, and the existing bridge was removed and used to replace a bridge on the Methow River that had been destroyed by flooding. The concrete bridge abutments were left in place. The Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission (WSPRC) requested a vacation of the road right of way to consolidate the park lands. The former road was repurposed as a park trail, but the two parts of the park north and south of the Wenatchee River were separated.

In 1949, John Ware was appointed as the second park superintendent at Lake Wenatchee (the first quit after experiencing one snowy winter at the lake). John developed the campground, built restrooms and showers, and built stone and timber kitchen shelters and water fountains reminiscent of the architecture of the Great Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps. John’s wife Mary worked with him, volunteering countless hours to clean restrooms, greet visitors and rake sawdust from the mill off of the beach. John and Mary fell in love with the area and never left, even after moving on to work for the US Forest Service after 12 years at the park. John and Mary often returned to present interpretive programs on the natural and cultural history of Lake Wenatchee for park visitors.

The Herrman sawmill burned down on May 26, 1952, and it was not rebuilt. The lease from the U.S. Forest Service was transferred to the WSPRC and the unharmed buildings on the site were purchased for park employee residences.

On July 8, 1963, the Chelan County Public Utility District proposed a hydroelectric dam on the Wenatchee River downstream from Lake Wenatchee State Park that would have raised the level of the lake by four feet, with significant effects on park amenities, especially the beach. The WSPRC voted to file a Petition to Intervene in the project to protect the park. Ultimately, the plan was shelved.

On June 2, 1965, the shorelands in front of the park were purchased by the WSPRC for $20,000, securing the protection of the park’s popular beaches.

On January 4, 1967, Commissioner of Public Lands Bert Cole removed the land north of the Wenatchee River from the state park lease to make it available for a commercial resort development that would provide more revenue for the “benefit the State of Washington and any particular fund for which said lands are being held in trust.” On January 23, 1967, the WSPRC passed a resolution to “respectfully request the Commissioner of Public Lands to rescind his order… regarding the removal of lands from Lake Wenatchee State Park.” The land was restored to park management on August 4, 1971.

As a response to this attempt to diminish the area of the park, the Washington Legislature decided in 1971 that continued lease of trust lands for park purposes was not in the best interest of the state and directed the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the WSPRC to negotiate a sale of the leased lands.  The two agencies entered into a contract for the purchase of 15,083 acres in 24 parks, including 434 acres in Lake Wenatchee State Park, at a total purchase price of $11.4 million. However, the timber on the lands was excluded from the contracts, as there was not enough funding. The timber in Lake Wenatchee State Park alone was appraised to be more than 2.5 million board feet valued at $464,400. In 1980, the legislature authorized the sale of bonds to cover the cost of the timber; on August 13, 1984, the timber in Lake Wenatchee State Park was deeded to the WSPRC, securing its protection.

On September 6, 1997, the interpretive program amphitheater at Lake Wenatchee State Park was dedicated to honor John and Mary Ware for their lifetime of work to enhance park experiences. Guests at the dedication told stories of their many contributions and the challenges and joys of living in an extraordinary place.

In 2020, the Washington Legislature funded a project to use the vacated county road alignment to safely link the north and south portions of the park with a pedestrian bridge across the Wenatchee River.