Discreet 24/7 Biohazard Remediation in Pateros, WA

Pateros is a small city in Okanogan County at the confluence of the Methow and Columbia rivers in north-central Washington.

The town began around 1886 as Ive's Landing, where Lee Ives farmed the riverfront, operated a ferry crossing, and built an 18-room hotel; the first post office followed in 1895.

In 1900 Charles Nosler bought most of the townsite and renamed it Pateros after a town in the Philippines he had visited, a name derived from 'pato,' the Spanish word for duck, after the many ducks he saw in the area.

Pateros was officially incorporated on May 1, 1913.

Promoter J.C. Steiner built Pateros into the principal rail shipping point between Oroville and Wenatchee, in an orchard valley with a long history of growing and processing fresh fruit.

When Wells Dam went into operation about eight miles downstream in 1967, much of the original town was flooded; the Douglas County PUD spent about $1 million moving or demolishing buildings and rebuilding Pateros, yet the city's population still fell by nearly a third between 1960 and 1970.

On July 17 and 18, 2014, the Carlton Complex wildfire destroyed much of Pateros and burned at least 95 homes in the area, though no injuries or fatalities were reported in the town.

The 2020 census counted 593 residents in Pateros living in 221 households, and about 41 percent of residents identified as Hispanic or Latino.

Each mid-August, the Tacoma Inboard Racing Association hosts the Pateros Hydro Classic, a hydroplane race on a 1.25-mile oval course on the Columbia River that ends with a fireworks display.

Pateros is the southern gateway to Okanogan County — Washington's largest county by land area — along the U.S. Route 97 corridor between Wenatchee and Canada.