The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1915-01-22
ELIMINATING AN OLO RELIC
THE PIONEER STAGE LINE OF
THE COUNTY GOES OUT OF
COMMISSION
After n Continuous Service Between
COncOnully and LOOmis OF
Twenty.Seven Years

Saturday the stage made its last
trip between Loomis and Conconully.
after an unbroken service of some 26
or 81 years. 1t is not intended to con-
| vey the impression that this long SER
vice has been continuous under the
same management During the quar-
ter of century that the line has been
| in commission many individuals have
held the contract for carrying mail
express and passengers between the
two oldest towns in the county. 1t is
a route over which large number of
people in past years have depended
for mail and transportation, and If its
history could be written it would make
interesting reading. At all seasons
and in all weather that daily stage
has made the run, leaving Conconully
in the morning and returning in the
evening, and it's blotting out removes
a relic of the past that will be regrett
ed by those who have seen the COM
ing and going of that primative mode
o. communication for so many years.
The advent Of the railroad through
the north end Of the county and down
the valley was the death knell of the
stage. Only few years ago the peo-
pie of the entire county depended up
on the stage service for mails and for
means of getting into or out of the
country, and number of lines were
in operation. At one time mails ar
rived all the way from Spokane by
stage. When the Central Washington
was completed to Coulee City stages
ran from that place to this north
country. The route was through
Bridgeport, Brewster, Davis ranch,
Malott, Ruby, Conconully, Loomis and
Oh to Oroville. The service was divid-
ed up. One contractor had the route
| from Coulee City to Brewster, another
| from Brewster to Conconully, another
from Conconully to Loomis and still
another from Loomis to Oro. There
are a number of us still living here
NuO nave lhduC tuc lOA6, lCulOuo anu
uncomfortable trip to Coulee City by
stage, and few of us who have made
the journey through to Spokane. AT
ter the Great Northern was completed
to Wenatchee mails and travel came
Up the river to Brewster by boat, and
were distributed from that point by
stage to the towns to the north AT
ter the railroad built to Republic a
stage was put on between Loomis and
Republic, one of the longest and hard
est rides over any of the various stage
lines in the county. Then the railroad
reached Oroville and beyond, and
much of the country to the south was
served from this place and Nighthawk
Through all these changes, however,
the Loomis-C -Conconully line continued.
With the completion of the road down
the valley Conconully was served from
Riverside, and the final removal of
| the county seat cut down the business
of carriage so low that at last the
Loomis-Oroville stage line mail ser.
vice was abandoned by orders from
Washington. Now Loomis has mail
stage three times a week to Night
hawk
With the cutting off the stage and
the removal of the county seat travel
will almost entirely cease over the %
miles of road between Loomis and
Conconully. The road follows the Sim
lahekin valley to Fish lake, from
whence it passes through gap in the
cOnully lake for several miles. In
1883 the route along the lake was one
or the toughest in the state, passable
only for sure footed horses and ped
estrians. The building of that road
cost thousands of dollars, and even
at the best there was big room for
improvement. Conditions have chang
ed in the last quarter of century,
very slowly indeed when one looks
back over the time, but changed they
are. and the most conspicuous change
is the elimination of the stage and the
substitution of that great civilizer and
miracle worker, the railroad. The
stolid, tough and always dependable
stage driver, who coolly and indif-
ferently faced all kinds of weather,
never failing nor never baking in the
face of hardship, getting you over the
road somehow, if not always promptly
on time, is an individual of past age,
one Okanogan county will soon be
without entirely, and the residents
thereof will see his like no more.