Ione Courts the Homesteaders — and Backs Newport for the County Seat
The new town of Ione raises $500 for roads, plans a ferry to the Sullivan trail country, and joins Newport's push for a new county — with Ione as the eventual seat.
The new town of Ione proposes to reach out into the adjoining country for the trade of the homesteaders. At a recent meeting of the Commercial Club of the town the matter of road building was taken up, and steps were taken for the raising of $500 to improve the roads leading into town, particularly the improvement of the road to the Little Pend Oreille lakes.
Another committee was appointed to look after the establishment of a ferry to reach the Sullivan trail country on the east side of the river.
In the matter of county division a committee was appointed to work with the Newport Commercial Club to secure division. It was held that Ione should be the permanent county seat, but in order to get the matter under way and secure the co-operation of other communities on the east side, it was resolved to favor Newport as the temporary county seat, as the bill establishing a new county would have to designate a place to start doing county business.
“It was held that Ione should be the permanent county seat, but in order to get the matter under way... it was resolved to favor Newport as the temporary county seat.”
Ione's Commercial Club was doing what small towns across Washington still do: pooling money for roads, courting trade from the countryside, and angling for the county seat. The county-division fight it joined here eventually carved Stevens County apart — Pend Oreille County was created in 1911 with Newport as its seat.
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