Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area is a

U.S. The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

national recreation area that encompasses the long Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake between

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 ...

and Northport, Washington, in eastern Washington state. The Grand Coulee Dam was built on the Columbia River in 1941 as part of the Columbia River Basin project. Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area is a unit of the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...

and provides opportunities for fishing, swimming, canoeing, boating, hunting, camping, and visiting historic Fort Spokane and St. Paul's Mission. Crescent Bay Lake in

Grant County Grant County may refer to: Places ;Australia * County of Grant, Victoria ;United States * Grant County, Arkansas * Grant County, Indiana * Grant County, Kansas *Grant County, Kentucky Grant County is a county located in the northern pa ...

just southwest of Lake Roosevelt also falls under the jurisdiction of the National Recreation Area. Lake Roosevelt behind Grand Coulee Dam - Eastern Washington State - USA

Lake Roosevelt behind Grand Coulee Dam - Eastern Washington State - USA

It was established in 1946 as the Coulee Dam Recreational Area and was created by a memorandum of agreement with the Spokane Tribe,

Colville Indian Reservation The Colville Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation located in Washington (state), Washington state, U.S. It is inhabited and managed by the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, which are List of federally recognized tribes in ...

, and

United States Bureau of Reclamation The Bureau of Reclamation, formerly the United States Reclamation Service, is a federal agency under the U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees water resource management, specifically as it applies to the oversight and operatio ...

. It has, uniquely with

Curecanti National Recreation Area Curecanti National Recreation Area (Pronounced (locally) or .) is a National Park Service unit located on the Gunnison River in western Colorado. Established in 1965, Curecanti National recreation area, National Recreation Area is responsible f ...

, never been established by Congress or the president. The recreation area was renamed for President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

in 1996, over objections from the Colville Tribe.

History

* St. Paul's Mission was a

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

mission church established in the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

(HBC) in the 1830s. The mission was built near the HBC's Fort Colville, on the bluff then overlooking Kettle Falls on the

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

. * Fort Spokane was a U.S. Army frontier outpost in Lincoln County, Washington. Located at the confluence of the Columbia and

Spokane Spokane ( ) is the most populous city in eastern Washington and the county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It lies along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south ...

rivers, it separated the Colville and

tribes from

. The fort was closed in 1929. * Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation is in north central Washington * Spokane Tribe of Indians is in northeastern Washington, centered at Wellpinit.Spokane Tribe Language and Culture
/ref> The reservation is located almost entirely in Stevens County, but also includes two small parcels of land (totaling about ) in Lincoln County, including part of the

Spokane River The Spokane River is a tributary of the Columbia River, approximately long, in northern Idaho and eastern Washington in the United States. It drains a low mountainous area east of the Columbia, passing through the Spokane Valley and the city o ...

Things to Do

*Boating, Canoe & Kayak – 22 public boat launches, plus 4 available to non-members on the Colville Reservation, by permit. *Camping – 3 Standard campgrounds, 9 Boat-in campgrounds *Fishing *Swimming

References

External links

Lake Roosevelt NRA
*
Park foundation document

Visitation statistics
National Park Service National Recreation Areas National Park Service areas in Washington (state) Protected areas of Ferry County, Washington Protected areas of Grant County, Washington Protected areas of Lincoln County, Washington Protected areas of Stevens County, Washington Parks in Washington (state) National parks in Washington (state) Canoeing and kayaking venues in the United States 1946 establishments in Washington (state) Protected areas established in 1946 {{US-NationalParkService-stub