City of Chewelah, Stevens County, Washington

City of Chewelah Stevens County, Washington

Mapped Location

City of Chewelah: The mapped location is an approximation and should not be used for navigation or wayfinding.

Information

General information on City of Chewelah

Feature Type: Incorporated

Official, historical, colloquial and alternative toponyms for City of Chewelah

A brief list of names that this geographic feature has been named

Name	Description
City of Chewelah	Official
Chewelah	Official

Origin Notes and History of City of Chewelah

References to City of Chewelah that document the origin of its place name

CHEWELAH, a town at the mouth of Chewelah Creek, a tributary of the Colville River in Stevens County. Rev. Myron Eells says Cha-we-lab means a small striped snake and "was applied to that place either because the snake abounded there or because of the serpentine appearance of the stream." (American Anthropologist, January, 1892.) There is an Indian legend to the effect that an old Indian chief saw a snake reaching from east to west, from mountain to mountain, and so they called the place Chewelah. In the sixties a military post was placed there and the old Indian name was accepted. (J. W. Patterson, in Names MSS., Letter 259.) The creek has also received the same name on recent maps. Captain George B. McClellan of the railroad surveying expedition, 1858, camped on the stream and called it "Kitsemawhep." (Pacific Railroad Reports, Volume I., page 886.) Governor Stevens of that same expedition says the Indians on the Colville trail were Skecheramouse, a band of the Spokane. A form of the same word appears on the United States Land Office map of Washington, 1897, as "Chiel charle Mous Creek" for what we now know as Chewelah Creek.

Edmond S. Meany in Origin of Washington Geographic Names

Meany, Edmond S., Origin of Washington Geographic Names, 1923 University of Washington, pp 45 | Origin of Washington Geographic Names

Stevens County

Political Boundaries

Last updated: 2024-06-04