Biohazard Cleanup Near North Keller Keller, WA

Keller is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in southwestern Ferry County, set in the valley of the Sanpoil River in northeastern Washington.

The community was founded in 1898; locals knew the original settlement as "Old Keller," in an area nicknamed "God's Country," and at its height it held an estimated 3,500 people, a minor league baseball team, and a red light district.

Beginning in 1940, Keller was moved several times as backwater from the newly built Grand Coulee Dam flooded its successive locations; the present townsite sits about 18 miles north of the Columbia River, and the repeated moves steadily shrank its population.

The 2020 census counted 229 residents in Keller, down slightly from 234 in 2010, the first census in which Keller appeared as a CDP.

Keller lies within the Colville Indian Reservation, and about 76 percent of its 2020 residents were Native American, primarily members of the Sanpoil tribe — one of the twelve tribes of the Colville Confederated Tribes and one of the few Native nations never relocated by order of the U.S. government.

The CDP covers about 9.5 square miles of land at an elevation of roughly 1,883 feet, giving it a density of only about 25 people per square mile.

South of town, the state-run Keller Ferry crosses the Columbia River on State Route 21, linking the community to Lincoln County.

In July 2024 the Swawilla Fire, ignited by dry lightning southwest of Keller, forced level 3 "go now" evacuations around the community, and the Keller Ferry ran overnight evacuation trips instead of stopping at dusk as it normally does.

Keller has its own post office with ZIP code 99140.