A Frontier Town Washed Away in the Night
A catastrophic flood destroyed the business district of Conconully in Okanogan County, leaving residents destitute and the town in ruins after a suspected cloudburst.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Word reached here today that the town of Conconully, in Okanogan county, on Conconully creek, was swept away by the flood. Every business house in town was destroyed. Among the losers are: H. Harris, blacksmith; D. E. Wilson, merchandise store; Huster & Co., general merchandise; A. W. Tulloch, drugs; C. P. Havi, hardware store; L. Under, Henry estate; William Shafleldt, barber shop; H. W. Thompson, the bank, and all the residences between the concentrator and the town, a distance of a mile and a half. Mrs. Almira Keys lost her life. There is much suffering among the people, as they saved nothing. Conconully is the chief town of the Okanogan country, has 700 people, and the nearest railroad and telegraph point is Coulee City, fifty miles distant. The flood was due to a rapid rise of Conconully creek, which runs through the town. It is believed by Okanogan men now here that there was a cloudburst, and that this swept away the dam at the concentrator in the upper part of town.
“Mrs. Almira Keys lost her life. There is much suffering among the people, as they saved nothing.”
While Washington’s climate is changing, the vulnerability of inland communities to sudden, extreme weather events remains a constant threat. This 1894 disaster serves as a sobering reminder of the devastating impact of geography-based infrastructure failure on isolated frontier towns.
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