Keller is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

and

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counterparts of incorporated places, such ...

(CDP) in southwestern Ferry County in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

. As of the 2010 census, the population was 234.

History

The town is located in the valley of the Sanpoil River, and was founded in 1898HistoryLink Essay: Original Keller Ferry site floods as the Columbia River rises behind the newly constructed Grand Coulee Dam in the winter of 1939/1940
/ref> by Baby Ray Peone, a local fisherman. The town was located in the area known as "God's Country" (or "Old Keller" to the locals). At its height the town had an estimated population of 3,500 and even featured a minor league baseball team and red light district. The town was moved several times beginning in 1941 due to backwatering from the

Grand Coulee Dam Grand Coulee Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington, built to produce hydroelectric power and provide irrigation water. Constructed between 1933 and 1942, Grand Coulee originally had two powerhous ...

which flooded its previous locations, and is now located north of the

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, C ...

. The series of moves seriously reduced its population over time. The town is encompassed by the

Colville Indian Reservation The Colville Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation in the northwest United States, in north central Washington, inhabited and managed by the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, which is federally recognized. Established in ...

, which has an estimated population of roughly 1,200 people mostly of Native American descent and primarily members of the

Sanpoil tribe The Sanpoil (or ''San Poil'') are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American people of the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. They are one of the Salish peoples and are one of the twelve members of the Confederated Tribes ...

, one of the Twelve Tribes that make up the Colville Confederated Tribes and one of the few Indian Nations that was never relocated by order of the U.S. government.

Mount Tolman mining proposal

From 2004 to 2006 the town of Keller was the center of attention after the Colville Tribes' controversial decision to explore the possibility of opening up an open-pit

molybdenum Molybdenum is a chemical element with the symbol Mo and atomic number 42 which is located in period 5 and group 6. The name is from Neo-Latin ''molybdaenum'', which is based on Ancient Greek ', meaning lead, since its ores were confused with lea ...

mine on Mount Tolman in the San Poil Valley. Locals and grassroots environmental groups rallied around the opposition to the mine because the mining project would be too much of a hazard to the population of Washington state, given research that the mine contained hazardous materials such as

uranium Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weak ...

and toxic dust that, if exposed to a windy location, could spread up to , encompassing most of Washington's economic farming country. The proposal to mine also included the use of acid leaching to retrieve the metals being mined, and given the mountain's short distance to the Columbia River the result would have been disastrous. Other groups also claimed the mountain's spiritual connection to the Sanpoil Tribe (the name "Tolman" comes from the Sanpoil dialect, ''Tulameen'' meaning "Red Paint") because many of the tribe's legends and medicines are located on the mountain itself. The group that originally sent in the proposal for the mine mostly focused on the tribe's stagnant economy and the monetary value a molybdenum mine would produce due to the high demand of the substance, a claim that the mining opposition rebutted when the evidence showed that the price of molybdenum was unpredictable and the only consistent price range was when it fell between $0.50 to $1.50 between 1955 and 1982. When the issue was brought to vote by the Colville Tribes the proposal was turned down in three legislative districts, winning approval only in the Inchelium district.

References

*http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=7227 {{authority control Census-designated places in Washington (state) Census-designated places in Ferry County, Washington Populated places established in 1898 Populated places in the Okanagan Country