The Man Who Built Meyers Falls
A 76-year-old Stevens County pioneer who filed the water right, built the flouring mill and helped open the Colville valley dies at home — and the county's paper of record can find nothing dishonorable to say about him.
Death of a Pioneer
M. W. Meyers, one of the pioneers of Stevens County and president of the Stevens County Pioneers' Association, died at his home in Meyers Falls March 27, 1909, aged 76 years.
Mr. Meyers had been a resident of Stevens County since 1862, when he arrived here from Fort Garry, now Winnipeg, Manitoba. He filed on the water right at Meyers Falls and established a flouring and sawmill at that point, and aided greatly in the development of the Colville valley country.
Probably no man in the western portion of the country was held in greater esteem by his neighbors than was the deceased. In all of his actions and dealings throughout his long residence no one can point to a dishonorable action. He served as county commissioner for two terms, and it is said that he was one of the most conscientious officials that ever served the county. He was also the first school director to qualify on an official board in the county.
While he was a native of Canada he was of Revolutionary stock, his grandfather and seven uncles having served in the Revolutionary War, and he was an intense American.
He is survived by a widow, two sons and a daughter. The funeral services were held in Meyers Falls and were attended by friends from all parts of the county.
“Probably no man in the western portion of the country was held in greater esteem by his neighbors than was the deceased. In all of his actions and dealings throughout his long residence no one can point to a dishonorable action.”
Meyers Falls was renamed Kettle Falls in 1929, and the original townsite — mill, water right and all — now lies under Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake behind Grand Coulee Dam. That a man built a town by filing on a river is a reminder that Columbia basin water has been claimed, sold and litigated for more than a century and a half. Stevens County is still arguing about who gets to use it.
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