Biohazard and Crime Scene Remediation in Curlew, WA

Curlew is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in northwestern Ferry County, on State Route 21 between Malo and Danville — a community distinct from the separate Curlew Lake CDP around the lake northeast of Republic.

Curlew was named for the curlew birds that were once prevalent in the area.

The community sits where Long Alec Creek joins the Kettle River at about 1,800 feet elevation, 21 miles north of Republic, the Ferry County seat, and 10 miles south of the Canadian border.

Curlew began in 1896, when traders Guy S. Helphry and J. Walters opened a general store at an old ferry crossing near the junction of Curlew Creek and the Kettle River, and a post office was established in 1898.

A bridge crossed the Kettle River by 1901, when Curlew had about 200 people, two general stores, two saloons, a hotel, two livery stables and a dry goods store, serving nearby mines such as the Drummer, Lancaster and Panama.

The historic Ansorge Hotel still stands in Curlew and now serves as a museum.

Rival railroads raced to build lines through Curlew in 1901 and 1902, but the last rail service ended when the line was abandoned in 2006.

The Curlew Air Force Station, an Air Defense Command radar site, operated near the community in the 1950s, and the former base is now used by the Job Corps.

During Prohibition, Curlew was a moonshine pick-up point on the Kettle River, a story still celebrated at the Curlew Barrel Derby Days on the first Sunday of June, when a barrel is set adrift at the Job Corps Bridge and residents bet on when it will float into town.

Curlew is the western terminus of the county road over 4,600-foot Boulder-Deer Creek Pass, the northernmost Washington pass across the Kettle River Range.