Current Conditions
The 50.5-mile glacial lake slices northwestward into the Cascade mountains. The first people in the area were from the Chelan tribe. The word Chelan (originally spelled Tsillan) means “deep notch,” a fitting name for the third-deepest lake in the U.S. — situated in a valley deeper than the Grand Canyon. It is the largest natural lake in Washington state. The Chelan Tribe spent the winter along the south end of the lake near the Chelan River, which drains the lake to the Columbia River. The Chelan people paddled canoes 50 miles to Stehekin at the head of the lake and then followed a trail over Cascade Pass to trade with Puget Sound tribes. Stehekin is derived from a Salish word that means “the way through.” By the 1860s, tribes were decimated by smallpox epidemics and wars that broke out after the treaties. Remaining Chelan tribal people became part of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation.