Metaline Falls, WA

Metaline Falls is a town in Pend Oreille County on the Pend Oreille River, close to the Canadian border and the easternmost international crossing in Washington. The 2020 census counted 272 residents. Washington State Route 31 carries traffic north to the Metaline Falls–Nelway crossing and south toward the rest of the county, so the border is part of the town’s regional orientation even when the customs station is beyond the main streets. The river remains the town’s clearest geographic reference through every season.

Metaline Falls grew through mining, cement, timber, and hydropower. The railroad reached town in 1910; the Lehigh Cement Company and nearby lead-zinc deposits supplied the early industrial base, while the Pend Oreille River later supported hydroelectric projects. Boundary Dam sits just north of town, and the region’s power history records a long shift from mineral extraction to large-scale generation. The present map still holds those layers: river, border highway, old industrial ground, and a small downtown at the foot of northeastern Washington’s mountain country.