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EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first in a series of stories highlighting communities in the Pend Oreille River Valley.
METALINE FALLS – In the farthest corner of north Pend Oreille County in eastern Washington stands the town of Metaline Falls, population 277. Familiar mountains surround the town with the Pend Oreille River running through it, casting Metaline Falls as an idyllic community for visitors and townsfolk alike.
“I moved here four months ago,” said Amber Davies, an 18-year-old woman with hopes for an acting and modeling career. Currently, she works in nearby Ione, a town she moved from to be closer to the local ice cream shop, the minimart and the movie theater.
“It’s a welcoming town. I like going on late night walks. It’s a safe walk,” the recent Selkirk High School graduate said.
“I like how it’s surrounded by the river, I like driving over the bridge and I like the scenery,” Davies said.
Metaline Falls was incorporated May 13, 1911, before Pend Oreille County became its own county. Pend Oreille County officially came into being less than two weeks later, on June 10, 1911, when the Washington State Legislature split the existing county of Stevens roughly down the middle, declaring the eastern portion to be Pend Oreille County. Pend Oreille was the last county to be formed in the state of Washington.
To celebrate the state’s newest arrival, Governor Marion E. Hay (1865-1933) took a train tour of the county-to-be on Blackwell’s Idaho & Washington Northern Railroad on May 29, 1911, ending in Metaline Falls.
Resident Michele Zwettler, moved here in October 2023 from far away Danube, Minnesota as a means of escape from big city life.
“It’s beautiful up here. There is less crime and their politics align more with mine than the big cities,” she said.
A school district employee want-to-be, Zwettler can often be seen hiking the nearby trails taking photos from her camera she carries with her, recently having taken photos of bighorn sheep near Sullivan Lake.
What has driven both Davies and Zwettler along with countless other visitors to Metaline Falls is its friendly attitude and quiet surroundings.
On top of that, Zwettler was enamored by a film crew in town producing a Hollywood movie called ‘Train Dreams,’ a picture of Idaho’s panhandle starring Oscar nominee Felicity Jones.
Metaline Falls has been the scene for Hollywood films before, including 1997’s ‘The Postman’ starring Kevin Costner.
Sets were built in town and several hundred locals were hired as extras. Eva Gayle Six and a 5-year-old Neal Coon were the only ones with speaking parts.
Nancy Petersen walks into the Cutter Theater
Amber Davies Small towns have a small town feel and Metaline Falls is no different. “There aren’t any stoplights,” Mayor Tara Leininger said explaining the character of the town.
“You know everyone. And if you don’t know their names you recognize them. It makes us friendly to visitors,” she said.
Leininger, pastor of the Congregational United Church of Christ and mayor since 2008, and her husband Donovan are transplants having moved to the area in 1991 for a job at the school.
“We were going to stay maybe four or five years and we never left,” she said.
Metaline Falls has experienced an economic downturn for the last 10 years having seen little employment growth. It is a place for an escape, not to build a family. Many younger people moving away to college and jobs.
“We are left getting gray,” Leininger said.
Lehigh Portland Cement Company, sustained by abundant surface deposits of quartz and limestone, was the economic hub of Metaline Falls for much of the 20th century. In the second quarter of the century, the Metaline Mining District became the state’s largest supplier of lead and zinc, and during World War II “soldier-miners” were deployed to help extract the metals for the war effort.
The region’s primary industries -- mining, logging, and especially cement -- declined during the 1970s.
“After that, it started to trickle,” Leininger said. “We lost a lot of families.”
One of the largest local employers, Vaagens Lumber mill, closed in nearby Ione in 2008. The Pend Oreille zinc mine shut down operations in 2019.
“It’s tough to see that we will not have another generation coming up,” Leininger said. “They are growing up in a great school district and great communities. But they are going to have to leave.”
However, Leininger said since there is no growth aspect to Metaline Falls, the community retains its quietness, the very core aspect of the town that draws people in.
“People discover us because we are on the Selkirk Loop. We’re also only 90 miles from Spokane and they can come up for the day,” she said.
Other amenities in town are the annual summer Bigfoot Festival taking place this year from June 14-16 that draws in crowds for its run and street fair, and the iconic Cutter Theatre that hosts businesses, shows and concerts.
“The Cutter has always been the heartbeat of the town,” Leininger said.
Kirtland Cutter designed the town’s impressive brick schoolhouse that would later become The Cutter Theatre. It was built for $25,000 in 1912, and became the architectural soul of the Metaline Falls community.
Metaline Falls has a long history and a checkered past full of ups and downs.
What Metaline Falls will look like in the future, Leininger said she couldn’t tell, but she predicted it will not turn into a ghost town.
“There will always be a spirit of community here. There will always be a core of people here. It just might look different,” Leininger said.
