July-August, 2024
It’s a gorgeous morning. My first full day here! As you can see (below), it was a quiet night last night, my first night here. In a day or two there will be more folks arriving with their RV’s, and staying in the cabins. But even after those people arrived, it was still quiet at night. People can be just the best … the best people!
But last night and this morning was so exceptionally quiet, and beautiful.
For the photo below, I had walked towards the lake/reservoir and then turned around to look back at my truck and trailer to get a photo of them. Oops, my truck and trailer were right behind that cabin below. But this shows you how nice the cabins are. Each of them has this “porch” that faces the lake/reservoir, with nice seating under cover of the roof … and each cabin has its own picnic table and an in-ground fire pit AND an above ground barbecue cooker outside (not shown in this photo). Each cabin has electric heat and air conditioning inside.
I tried looking in the cabin windows (all closed up). I even tried opening a few doors (all locked up). None of these cabins has kitchen facilities or a bathroom inside, although there are very nice flush toilets and showers within about 150 feet of the cabins. But still, in the middle of the night you’d be traipsing over unsteady ground. I like my trailer (Towhee the Trailer) and her on-board facilities.
Ah, but, I must focus here. The title of this blog post is “Conconully, the name, the history”. After reader Walt Taylor asked about the name of the town in the last blog post, I promised you folks that I would share what I could find about the name/word of the town, and the history.
Ok! Here’s some info. First of all, the word “conconully” (CONC-uh-NULLY) is an American mush-muddle of the original Okanogan (o-ca-NAH-gun) native word qʷúnqʷunɬp. Originally, the small river/stream that ran through the area was known as being muddy or cloudy … that’s what the word means, cloudy.
Here’s a Wikipedia article with more information … https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conconully,_Washington.
And yet, take a look at the photo below. It’s how the town looks today, with the two reservoirs right next to the town. The history of those reservoirs, and why there’s a town here at all even before the reservoirs, is interesting. That Wikipedia article says the town started as a gold-miner’s camp, but why did the town grow after the gold ran out? when the town was/is so remote? And what’s the history of the two large reservoirs? I suspect they may have been built and used to supply water for crops further down stream in hot summer weather, but I don’t know that. As well, there’s evidence online of huge spring floods and mud slides here, so maybe the earth dams and reservoirs were established to control those sorts of things. But what a huge expense used to protect such a small town. Hmmm.
The RED arrow on the left points to the “gate” in the earth dam for the reservoir that’s above the town. That gate allows water to flow in a controlled stream/river down past the town, then down into the reservoir below. The RED arrow in the upper (left) part of the photo above is the “gate” in the large earth dam for the reservoir that’s slightly lower than the level of the town. The RED DOT is where I’m camped. 🙂
In a future blog post, I’ll show you that earth dam on the left. I got as close as I could to the earth dam in the upper part of the photo above, but couldn’t get close enough to get photos. As you can see, this is a small town! I drove through the town, or walked through the town, every day, sometimes two or three times a day … will share a few photos in a future blog post.
But, in the meantime, I found an interesting video about Conconully! I can’t verify his information, but it’s an interesting video. When he shows you the deer in the grassy area … that’s the state park campground that I’m in.
So, let’s get back to my first morning here! After I walked a short distance from my campsite towards the lake/reservoir and got that one photo of that one cabin (above) … I then walked almost all the way to the reservoir and turned and got this photo below. It shows the big white truck and Towhee the Trailer very nicely in among the empty campground and empty cabins.
But, it also shows (up on the hill behind the campground), it shows trees with no greenery on them, and trees with blackened trunks. Fire! A forest fire came within less than 1/10 mile of the town back in 2021. Today, in 2024, the trees are regenerating, the undergrowth is regrowing. The land and the life will renew itself. But still, there’s evidence of the destruction even three years later. The two photos below were taken by me, and are of areas right next to the campground, right behind my campsite.
The fence in the photo above is about 40 feet from the back of my trailer.
Thank heavens for firefighters, and airplanes and helicopters that dump water on these wildfires. The forest is healing and re-growing.
Today, what Conconully is very well known for is all of the ATV (all-terrain-vehicle) trails here. Here’s a fun video below showing off-road ATV trails in the country around Conconully. The videographer is riding an ATV and the camera is on his/her helmet. I would have loved to see that forest-fire lookout station, but access is advised only by ATV (all-terrain-vehicle) and not by “big white truck”, so I didn’t go. Notice the number of fire-damaged trees in this video.
Seems like half the homes (or more!) in Conconully had one or more ATVs parked out front or in the garage. And lots of folks used those vehicles to drive though town, to the small grocery store, etc. The two bars/restaurants had parking lots that were FULL of ATVs every evening. Just a way of life here. No license plates on them. Lots of roaring and revving of engines. Just a way of life.
But me? I just took my time walking through this gorgeous state park late this morning. And what did I find? A horse shoe pitch/game! Ha! With no one else around, how could I lose?
I could choose either the blue shoes or the green shoes. I chose blue. There was no one around to choose the green shoes, so I had no competition. Spectacular.
I tossed the first of those blue horse shoes … ringer! The second one … ringer!
Ok, sigh, I’m supposed to be honest here. Ah me. Actually, when I threw the two blue shoes, I didn’t even get either one of those metal horse shoes into the sand box, much less around the post. I tried a few times. So then I just walked over and PUT one of the blue shoes around the post and took the photo above. Winner!!! 🙂
So that’s a bit of information about Conconully and the surrounding area and its history. More fun stuff coming. Hang in here with me. Feel free to comment, ask questions, suggest other ways of playing horse shoes, etc. I really like that all of you folks are here with me. 🙂
I am laughing out loud at the horse shoe ringer photo explanation. I loved that! 🙂
🙂 Thanks Tim. I won!! 🙂
LOL, me too! I was SO impressed with those first two throws of the horse shoes, only to realize we’d been duped! tricked! And then it was so much fun to read what you really did, took the photo, and declared yourself the WINNER! I loved that. 🙂
Duped and tricked. 🙂 Not so much, eh? Glad you thought I really was a winner for at least a moment or too. 🙂 Fun stuff, Fran.
Thank you Ann. So many place names in the state are from native names or words but this one surprised me. I think I might have moved the town before spending the money on the reservoirs, especially since the town was smaller back then. Great blog, great info.
I didn’t think this town’s name was from a native word either, Walt. It just didn’t sound like it. But I sure don’t know native languages! And, yes, me too, like you, I wondered why they didn’t move the town before spending millions/billions of dollars on those reservoirs.
Really pretty. I think I see a sprinkler running in the campsite next to you. How can they run a sprinkler with campers there? Enjoyed the horse shoe story. 🙂
Oh, good eyes, Cindy! I arrived late Sunday afternoon. Yes there were sprinklers here all over the place on Monday and Tuesday, before other campers arrived on Wednesday. State park employees here work Wednesday thru Sunday, mostly. There was just this one guy working Monday and Tuesday and he needed to move the sprinklers every hour or so, through the whole campground, several acres! When I realized that, and knew I was the only camper in his way, I started moving the sprinkler around … and even set it up right outside my rig such that it watered the picnic table that was “mine” and the grass around it. I didn’t use that table that evening! When he realized that I was moving the sprinkler, and had purposefully set it to water the grass right next to my rig, he stopped by, knocked on my door, and thanked me profusely! He said he’s never had anyone do that. I wondered why other people/campers don’t help!? You noticed, Cindy, even in a photo where it isn’t very obvious. Thank you!
Do you know what caused the fire in 2021? It’s really sad to see such damage, tho I know wildfires can be natural, and needed. What gorgeous country!
Emily, I didn’t know what caused the fire. Looked online a bit and still couldn’t find out. But read the comment by June the Moon below … she found the info! It was lightning. Still sad to see the damage.
Used to play horseshoes when I was a kid, but WE actually had to THROW them to make a ringer, LOL! Wonderful campground, gorgeous big country.
LOL! Obviously, today, one doesn’t need to throw a horseshoe to make a ringer. One just needs to make up a story. 🙂 Fun comment, Pat, thank you.
You always seem to get to know some bits about the local community, wherever you go. Enough anyway to learn about the place/town you’re close to, understand why things are the way they are. Since you were camping here in 2024, I suspect there were numerous political signs in town, but you don’t go there, you don’t criticize or start a “discussion”. In fact, you care about the town and the people … the fire, the floods. Sure would like more people to learn to care about each other as opposed to judging and being angry. Gorgeous country! I’m sure looking forward to seeing more of it. 🙂 Thank you!
Your assumptions are correct, David. The political signs were “political” and more than that, they were angry and hateful of non-white people, and of anyone who might be a Democrat. There were even death threats on some signs. I decided to ignore them and just wander around town without a care … mostly. I just don’t understand the hatred. Pretty much everyone in this town is descended from an immigrant, usually European … so should we, in turn, deport them!? Sigh. No, we shouldn’t. But I wish we could teach those folks to love and care for everyone on this planet, and that everyone is important. Thank you David. More fun stuff coming soon. 🙂
Excellent!
🙂 Thanks.
Love how you find so much good in life. Beautiful places, too, but so much good in life. Thanks.
You’re welcome Eileen. 🙂
Found some info online from KHQ (whatever that is, news/TV?) that said the ENTIRE town of Conconully was evacuated because the 2021 fire jumped one of the roads and was ON THE EDGE OF TOWN. The map on that website showed the campground was inside the fire also, so no wonder there were burned trees right next to your campsite. The fire was caused by lightning, not by human error/cause. Yes, natural forest fires help regenerate/restore. Lately, the good Lord has had too much help from humans tho!! Your blog is the best.
Thank you, June! I couldn’t find anything online that said what caused the 2021 Conconully fire. But I used the “KHQ” thing from your comment and then immediately found what you had already found. Yes, it was lightning that caused this fire. And yes, KHQ is a local TV/radio station. Thank you! My readers are the best. 🙂