Five Things
#1. It’s pronounced kon-kuh-NEL-ee. Got it? Don’t say con-CON-uh-lee. That’ll mark you as an outsider for sure.
#2. Conconully comes from a native word, conconulp or konkonelps, that means, depending on the source, “cloudy” or, more intriguing, “money hole,” a word that described the area’s beaver-rich waterways. Native and white trappers traded the pelts at Fort Okanogan about 40 miles south.
#3. Conconully is home to the state’s first U.S. Bureau of Reclamation project. After a storm in May 1894 caused Salmon Creek to overflow its banks, a 30-foot-high flood swept through the town of Conconully and destroyed more than 40 buildings. In 1910, the federal government built 70-foot-tall Conconully Dam across Salmon Creek for flood control and irrigation, creating Conconully Lake. It was part of the Okanogan Reclamation Project, designed to help farmers by regulating the flow of water. The earthen dam was raised in 1920, then reconstructed in 1969. It’s now 72 feet high and 1,072 feet long, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
#4. The dam’s construction and reservoir impoundment was photographed by Frank Matsura, a Japanese photographer who came to Conconully in 1903. He initially worked as a cook’s helper in the Elliott Hotel but eventually became a full-time photographer, chronicling the everyday and exotic in the small community. The only Japanese-American in Conconully, Matsura was well-liked and highly respected, so much so that when he died of tuberculosis in June 1913, his funeral attracted more than 300 attendees and was the largest ever in town. Washington State University holds a fascinating digitized collection of his photos.
#5. The 2021 Muckamuck Fire burned right to the park border, and the recently charred landscape is only a couple hundred feet away from the park’s cabins. We visited a week after the park reopened, and the most remarkable sight was the dozens and dozens of tents on the park lawn, where the wildland firefighters tried to get some rest between shifts. A line of port-a-potties stood just beyond the playground, and several large tents had been erected as command and information centers. A map of the fire as of that morning leaned against a fireplace in one of the park’s reservable picnic shelters. The air was thick with smoke and smelled eerily like a campfire.
Fast Facts about Conconully State Park
- 97-acre camping park, open year-round (facilities closed in winter)
- 5,400’ freshwater shoreline along two lakes, Conconully Reservoir and Salmon Lake
- Camping: 40 standard sites, 20 partial utility sites, max length 75’, trailer dump out, five cabins
- Facilities: restrooms, showers, picnic tables, picnic shelters, grills, reservable electric picnic shelter, horseshoe pits, playground, firewood sales, fire pit, sports fields, 2 boat ramps, 80’ dock (closed seasonally due to fluctuating water levels)
- Activities: hiking, mountain biking, road biking, birding, wildlife viewing, ORV driving, snowmobiling, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, dogsledding, freshwater fishing, swimming, boating, waterskiing
- Discover Pass required, $10 daily or, for a very reasonable $30, purchase an annual pass
- camping and roofed accommodations, hookups, reservable online or by calling 888-CAMPOUT
- park brochure
- park map
Land Acknowledgment
Conconully State Park occupies the traditional and unceded lands of the Nlaka’pamux, Sylix Okanagan, and Okanogan peoples, who have lived and travelled here since time immemorial.
