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Desautel Donation Ranch

 

One of the first settlements in the Colville Valley. Today it consists of two log buildings: the Desautel building and the L. W. Meyers building. Joseph Desautel, former employee of the Hudson’s Bay Company, made claim to 320 acres of land five miles southeast of the site of Hudson’s Bay Fort Colville in 1852 under the provisions of the Donation Land Act of 1850. The Desautel building was built c. 1852-4 in the French Canadian post and log style which was used by the Hudson’s Bay Company Fort Colville. The exact usage of the building is not known, but due to the lack of windows and doors, it was probably an out-building for his farm. By 1870, noted Stevens County pioneer Louther W. Meyers, had opened a trading post on the Donation Ranch. The trading post was one of the first commercial enterprises in what is now Stevens County.