Lyons Ferry State Park History
Lyons Ferry State Park occupies a place at the drowned confluence of the Palouse and Snake Rivers, where people have crossed over the rivers for millennia.
Ice Age Floods Carve a Canyon
The walls of the Snake and Palouse River Canyons, and the cliffs which soar over the park are made of basalt lava flows that erupted from vents in southeast Washington. The forces of plate tectonics continue to shape this landscape, wrenching and stressing the vast layered basalt flows that make up Washington’s Columbia Plateau, weakening the rock along subtle fractures.
The ancestral Palouse River flowed from its source in the foothills of Idaho’s Bitterroot Range, through the rolling hills of southeast Washington, and along the route of today’s Washtucna Coulee to the Columbia River. In the final stages of the most recent ice age, masses of glacier ice repeatedly blocked meltwater drainage to the north of the Palouse watershed, creating huge bodies of impounded water in northern Washington, Idaho and Montana. When the ice dams melted or were breached by the sheer weight of water behind them, gigantic Ice Age floods swept over the landscape of today’s eastern Washington. Dozens of times over thousands of years, dams formed and gave way, sending floods racing toward the Pacific Ocean.
The floods scoured the land, carving cliffs and river channels deep into thick layers of basalt across the Columbia Plateau. At some point, the Ice Age floodwaters overtopped the south valley wall of Washtucna Coulee, diverting the flow through a weakened fracture in the surrounding basalt, rapidly draining an immense amount of water into the Snake River near the site of today’s Lyons Ferry State Park. The tremendous force of the water eroded the nearly 400-foot-deep Palouse River Canyon by tearing columns of basalt off the edge of the plateau, creeping back up the path of the fracture in a process called headward erosion, finally reaching equilibrium at the present site of Palouse Falls.
Indigenous Land
The park lies within the traditional territory of Sahaptin language speaking Indigenous people whose present-day descendants include members of the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation, Nez Perce Tribe, and the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation.
The banks of the Snake River and the canyons and plateaus that surround it provide habitat for a diverse community of life that forms the basis of their cultures. The confluence of the Palouse and Snake Rivers has been home to Indigenous people for over 10,000 years.
The Palouse River takes its name from an Indigenous band that seasonally made their home near the confluence. Neighboring people called them Palúšpam, “people of Palús,” for the name of their village there. They were renowned for their horsemanship and for their development of the spotted horse breed that also takes their name—Appaloosa.
“Drewyer’s River”
On October 13, 1805, the Corps of Discovery led by Captain Meriwether Lewis and Lieutenant William Clark paddled their canoes past the confluence of the Palouse and Snake Rivers on their way west to the Pacific Ocean. The crew had just come through a “long bad rapid” on the Snake River, past which the non-swimmers of the party “went by land and carried Some rifles & Instruments” that the crew did not wish to risk getting soaked if a canoe had capsized in the rough water.
Sergeant John Ordway recorded in his journal that the site of today’s park featured “a great number of fishing camps where the natives fish every Spring. They raft all their wood down the [Snake] River a long distance and the put it up on Scaffels [scaffolds] and take great care of it.”
The Palouse River was named “Drewyer’s River” on the maps produced by Lewis and Clark to honor George Drouillard (the correct spelling of his name), a civilian member of the expedition who was praised by the leaders for his skill as a tracker, hunter, scout and interpreter.
As Lewis and Clark’s crew passed by the confluence, two Indigenous horsemen crossed the river and rode along the bank. Private Joseph Whitehouse noted in his journal that they “had to ride fast, to come up with us,” as the current was very strong.
While in the area, Lewis and Clark met with a Palús chief and presented him with one of the silver Jefferson Peace Medals that the explorers gifted to many of the Indigenous leaders that they encountered on their journey.
Homesteads and Ranches
In 1875, government surveyors began to work on the official maps and survey markers that would allow disposal of the ceded lands to private owners under terms of federal land disposal laws. They noted that there were “three hundred Indians” living at the Palús village at the confluence. The surveys were completed in 1879 and the land in today’s Lyons Ferry State Park was transferred into private ownership under terms of the federal land disposal laws. 156 acres were patented by “William, an Indian,” under terms of the Indian Homestead Act, in which ownership of the granted lands was held in trust by the US Government for a period of time. When the land was sold to Edward Harrison in 1921, the transaction required the approval of President Woodrow Wilson.
The remainder of the land making up today’s park was granted to the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1895, part of the Northern Pacific (NP) Railroad Land Grant. The US Congress had approved the grant in 1864, which eventually conveyed nearly 40 million acres of public domain lands to subsidize the construction of railroad lines into the western states. Most lands were later sold to other private landowners.
Lyons Ferry
Well before Lewis and Clark visited the site of today’s Lyons Ferry State Park, the Palús people had developed a means of crossing the dangerously swift waters of the Snake River at their village. Just below the mouth of the Palouse River was a pinnacle of basalt rising above the waters of the river, later known as “Anchor Rock.” Palouse residents attached a long hemp rope to the top of the rock and tied a shovel-nosed canoe to the other end. The river current was used to swing the canoe across the river in a semicircular sweep.
On January 11, 1859, the Washington Territorial Legislature passed an act “Authorizing Edward L. Massey to Establish a Ferry on the Snake River” at the confluence of the Palouse River. The legislation also stipulated the fares: $1.50 for each man and horse, 50 cents for each foot passenger or loose cattle, 10 cents for each sheep, goat or hog. Interestingly, the legislation provided that Massey “shall not charge more than one-half the aforesaid rates of ferriage to emigrants, crossing the plains with the intention of settling on this coast.”
In 1860, Daniel Lyons acquired the ferry right from Massey and operated a ferry at the site until 1916. Lyons’ ferry was mechanically powered by the current of the Snake River and held in line by cables stretched across the river. The fares, in silver coins, were collected in gallon buckets, which Lyons purportedly buried in his back yard awaiting his infrequent trips to the bank in town. The ferry was designated as “Lyons Ferry” in 1926 by a subsequent owner.
When Wanapum Dam was completed on the Columbia River in 1963, the existing Vantage Bridge had to be removed, as rising reservoir waters would have inundated it. The bridge was dismantled and stored by the highway department, with the intention of reusing it at another location. Eventually, it was rebuilt on the site of Lyons Ferry crossing as a part of State Route 261. When the bridge officially opened on December 26, 1968, the Lyons Ferry made its last trip across the river.
When the ferry was taken out of service, it was noted that in 108 years of service on the route it had only been shut down twice, in the winters of 1948-49 and 1949-50, when the river froze over. The boat was purchased by the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and moored in Lyons Ferry State Park.
The Mullan Road
In 1853 and 1854, Lieutenant John Mullan served as the topographical engineer with Washington Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens on the first government-sponsored survey of the Pacific Northwest since the Lewis and Clark Expedition. In this capacity, he determined and mapped the most practical route between the head of river navigation on the Missouri River at Fort Benton, Montana, and Fort Walla Walla.
With the expertise he gained on that project, he received orders on March 15, 1858, to build a military wagon road connecting the two points. The initial work was paused when Mullan joined Colonel George Wright on a combat mission that ultimately engaged Indigenous warriors led by Chief Kamiakin and others at the Battle of Spokane Plains on September 5, 1858, which effectively ended armed resistance to the US Army occupation of the Indigenous nations of today’s eastern Washington.
Mullan resumed work on the road, with a congressional appropriation of $100,000, in May 1859. The chosen route crossed the Snake River at today’s Lyons Ferry State Park on its 624-mile path to Fort Benton. The road was completed in 1860 and came to be known as the “Mullan Road.” It is estimated to have served more than 20,000 people, 6,000 horses and mules, and 5,000 cattle, before it became obsolete with the completion of rail access in 1883.
Lower Monumental Lock and Dam
In the 1930s, several groups advocated for dams on the lower Snake River to allow inexpensive barging of agricultural products from the inland Pacific Northwest. In 1945, the US Congress authorized four dams on the river with locks to facilitate river shipping plus hydroelectric power generation, despite opposition from fishery managers concerned that the dams and the long slack-water reservoirs they would create could harm anadromous fish runs in the Clearwater and Salmon River watersheds upstream.
Construction of Lower Monumental Dam began in 1961, and the main structure and first three generators were completed in 1969. Filling of the reservoir began in February 1969.
The 28-mile-long reservoir behind Lower Monumental Dam that forms a primary attraction in Lyons Ferry State Park was named by an act of the US Congress for Herbert G. West (1900-1974), the vice president of the Inland Empire Waterways Association from 1934 to 1967, and a tireless advocate for development of the region’s water resources to aid farmers and other commercial enterprises.
Marmes Rockshelter
When Lower Monumental Dam was authorized, Dr. Richard D. Daugherty from Washington State University was contracted to perform an archaeological investigation at the site of the ancient Palús village near the confluence of the Palouse and Snake Rivers to salvage whatever understanding or artifacts could be acquired before the site was inundated by the reservoir behind the dam. When Daugherty found that the area was too thoroughly disturbed to provide good archaeological information, he set his sights on the Marmes Rockshelter, a deep rock alcove a short distance up the Palouse River, which had been shown to him by local rancher John McGregor in 1952.
In the summers of 1962-1964, archeological excavations were carried out in Marmes Rockshelter by staff and students of Washington State University under the direction of Daugherty, and his colleagues Roald Fryxell and Carl Gustafson.
The excavations revealed evidence of people tracing back 11,230 years, at the time the oldest site studied in North America. The investigators at the site carefully correlated the lives of people who lived in and around the site -- as seen through tools they left, shells and bones of food they ate, and adornments with buried remains -- with the geologic stratigraphy. The massive ash fall from the eruption of Mount Mazama (today’s Crater Lake caldera in Oregon) provided a marker for 7,700 years ago. Pollen retrieved from layers indicated changes in climatic conditions through the ages. A surprise for the investigators was the discovery of a Jefferson Peace Medal, likely the one that Lewis and Clark had given to a local leader.
Marmes Rockshelter was dedicated as a Registered National Historic Landmark on June 3, 1967, in a ceremony featuring speeches by Daugherty and Fryxell and an address by Senator Henry M. Jackson, giving national recognition to the site.
Daugherty and Fryxell urged a delay of the filling of the reservoir behind Lower Monumental Dam to carry out additional archaeological excavations at the Marmes Rockshelter site. Their impassioned pleas were unsuccessful in delaying the reservoir filling, but with the help of Washington Senator Warren Magnuson, they caught the attention of President Lyndon B. Johnson, who issued an executive order authorizing $1.5 million for the Corps of Engineers to build a protective levee around the site to keep it dry. Unfortunately, the site was completely flooded three days after the reservoir began filling, due to seepage through gravel below the levee.
Making a Park
The Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission (WSPRC) entered into a lease agreement with the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) on June 20, 1971, to manage a tract of USACE-owned land within the Lower Monumental Dam Project area for park purposes. Officially named Lyons Ferry State Park by the WSPRC on November 15, 1971, the park was designed to provide recreational opportunities and access to the Lake Herbert G. West reservoir as a mitigation for the impacts caused by the construction and operation of the Lower Monumental Lock and Dam.
In 2002, budget reductions compelled the WSPRC to make the difficult decision to close some parks that were located on land leased from other agencies. Lyons Ferry State Park closed on October 1 of that year, and the USACE sought private contractors to assume operations of the facilities at the site.
In 2013, the Washington State Legislature approved an appropriation of $600,000 “provided solely for capital expenses associated with re-establishing Lyons Ferry State Park.”
WSPRC and USACE negotiated a new lease in January 2015 and Lyons Ferry State Park was reopened with a dedication ceremony on June 5, 2015.
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