Lincoln County Washington has 11 places on the National Register of Historic Places including 1 place of National significance and 5 places of Statewide significance. Significant places include Goose Creek Rockshelter, Atlas E Missile Site 9, Fort Spokane Military Reserve, Little Falls Hydroelectric Power Plant and Long Lake Hydroelectric Power Plant.
Prehistoric cultural affiliation(s) include Sanpoil-Nespelem dating back to 1000.
Some of the country's most noteable architects helped create the Lincoln County places including Washington Water Power Co., Washington State Highway Dept., Bechtel Corp., US Army, Burrill,J.R., & Co., P.L. Peterson, Herman Preusse, State Dept of Hwys and Henry Hagman. Prominent architectural styles found in Lincoln Country are Classical Revival, Early Commercial and Gothic Revival.
Historic Significance:
Information Potential
Area of Significance:
Prehistoric
Cultural Affiliation:
Sanpoil-Nespelem
Period of Significance:
1499-1000 AD
Historic Function:
Domestic
Historic Sub-function:
Village Site
Current Function:
Landscape
Current Sub-function:
Conservation Area
The Goose Creek Rockshelter, designated archaeologically as site 45LI73 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, is a highly significant pre-contact archaeological site situated within the rugged basalt coulee landscape of Lincoln County, Washington. Tucked into a protective natural basalt formation near Wilbur, the rockshelter served as a vital seasonal encampment and temporary refuge for Native American groups navigating the semi-arid interior of the Columbia Plateau for thousands of years. The unique geological configuration of the shelter shielded its interior from the elements, resulting in the exceptional preservation of deep, stratified cultural deposits that chronicle successive eras of human occupation.
The historical and scientific significance of the Goose Creek Rockshelter lies in its rich archaeological record, which provides invaluable insights into the subsistence patterns, technological developments, and environmental adaptations of the region's indigenous peoples, who are ancestral to the contemporary Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. Artifacts recovered from the site, including projectile points, lithic debitage, faunal remains, and preserved organic materials, offer a detailed look at how ancient hunter-gatherers utilized the local channeled scablands for resource processing, tool manufacturing, and shelter. As one of the key stratified sites in the region, the rockshelter continues to be a crucial benchmark for understanding the cultural chronology and paleoecology of Eastern Washington.
