Emergency Biohazard Cleanup Services in Metaline, WA

Metaline is a small incorporated town in Pend Oreille County in Washington's far northeastern corner, roughly a dozen miles south of the Canadian border.

It sits on the west bank of the Pend Oreille River, about a mile from Metaline Falls, its larger neighbor on the opposite bank — the two are separate towns that are often confused.

Metaline is the older of the two communities, with a townsite dating to the area's 1859 gold-rush era, and its name comes from the metallic look of the galena lead ore found in the nearby crags.

After the Pend Oreille River was deepened at Box Canyon in 1906, boats could navigate to Metaline, and the Metaline Mine began producing lead from the Metaline Formation, a Middle Cambrian limestone that also yielded zinc.

When the railroad arrived in 1910 it crossed to the east bank and served Metaline Falls instead, leaving Metaline the quieter of the two communities.

Metaline was officially incorporated on October 6, 1948, as a town of the fourth class, and is governed by a mayor and council.

The town's population reached 563 in the 1950 census, during the mining era, then plunged by nearly two-thirds over the next twenty years.

The 2020 census counted 162 residents in Metaline; in 2010 there were 173 people in 86 households, with a median age of 50.2 years.

Metaline covers about 0.31 square miles of land along the river at an elevation of roughly 2,008 feet.

Its climate is humid continental, with warm summers and cold, sometimes severe, winters typical of the Selkirk Mountains foothills.