Metaline Falls is a town in Pend Oreille County, Washington, United States. The population was 272 at the 2020 census.
History
By 1810, European fur traders were crossing the area. The settlement of Metaline Falls was founded in 1900, with most of its residents then employed by the Mammoth and Morning lead-zinc mines. Metaline Falls was officially incorporated on May 3, 1911.
The name Metaline comes from the abundance of lead ore, galena, found in the region. Though these lead deposits were known since 1869, mining did not commence until 1886. Then in 1910, Metaline Falls was connected with the Idaho and Washington Northern Railroad. The Lehigh Portland Cement Co. plant was soon built, taking advantage of the region's limestone deposits. The Pend Oreille Mine was developed in 1929 by Lewis P. Larsen, and combined with production from the Grandview Mine and the Metaline Mine, the area became the state's largest producer of lead and zinc.
thumb|Metaline Falls, circa 1980
In 1942, Executive Order 9066 was issued, resulting in the forced internment of 120,000 Japanese-Americans. George Kubota, Sr., the patriarch of a Japanese-American family who ran a hardware store in town, was arrested and imprisoned by the FBI in Spokane. The editors of the Metaline Falls newspaper and the majority of residents in town protested the arrest, vouching for the Kubota family's loyalty. The FBI eventually released Kubota from custody and did not send the family to an internment camp.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of which is land and is water.
The town is surrounded by the Colville National Forest, with the rugged and isolated Salmo-Priest Wilderness coming within just a few miles to the east. The Sullivan Lake Ranger District is headquartered in Metaline Falls.
State Route 31 passes through Metaline Falls, connecting the town to the rest of the state highway system at Tiger in the south and with Canada at Nelway, British Columbia.
Climate
Metaline Falls has a dry-summer Humid continental climate (Dsb) according to the Köppen climate classification system.