Washington and Idaho seemed to have a little bit of a romance going on with a couple of their towns. Their names could stand alone, however they paired rather nicely in the form of meaningful symmetry. Those names weren’t coincidental either. They were completely intentional.
New and Old
First came the curious case of Newport, Washington and Oldtown, Idaho.
Newport and Oldtown were contiguous, both situated along the banks of the Pend Oreille River. The distinction between them was somewhat artificial though. They were located on either side of North and South State Avenue and otherwise appeared as a single entity except that one portion fell within Washington and the other fell within Idaho.
Of the two, Newport was the newer. That made perfect sense. New should be new and old should be old. It happened to be the second town with that exact name in that same basic area. Oldtown was once Newport before Newport became Newport.
HistoryLink provided an explanation:
“Newport, originally in Idaho, acquired its name by virtue of being the ‘new port’ when Albeni Poirier (1861-1936) established a trading post and port on the Pend Oreille River in the 1890s. Upon moving the short distance into Washington, Newport soon became the major town in Pend Oreille County, the last homestead frontier in the United States… During its frontier days, Newport was a steamship port serving the settlers in the Pend Oreille Valley. In 1892, with the arrival of the Great Northern Railway, the town was able to link river with rail, relieving the isolation of its people and eventually transporting Pend Oreille County’s wealth of mine and forest products to distant markets.”
Newport, Idaho — the original Newport — gradually dwindled. By 1947, residents felt they should rename it Oldtown.
Intrepid Explorers
The pairing of Newport and Oldtown was certainly appropriate although there was an even better pairing along the shared border: Lewiston, Idaho and Clarkston, Washington. It even had an accurate historical context.
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led the Corps of Discovery Expedition between 1804 and 1806, a journey also known by many as the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The two adjoining towns on opposite sides of the state border commemorated the Corps’ passage. I probably would have placed Lewiston in Washington and Clarkston in Idaho so it could read Lewis-Clark from west to east on a map, however they didn’t consult me so it looked more like Clark-Lewis. I’m sure William Clark would have been happy to receive top billing for once.
Lewis and Clark actually traversed through the future location of their namesake towns between October 7-10, 1805. As the Lewis and Clark Trail described it:
“A succession of treacherous rapids damaged the canoes, and while the canoes were being repaired the Corps dined on fish and dog. It was then that the Captains made the discovery that their Shoshone guide, Toby, had slipped away during the night to rejoin his nation.”
Yes, they dined on dog.
Lewis and Clark stopped at the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater Rivers on October 10, 1805. The towns rose later on that same spot, Lewiston in 1861 and Clarkston in 1862.
I tried to see if I could find other paired towns situated between Idaho and Washington, or perhaps their neighbors and came up short. The closest example I discovered was The Dalles, Oregon and Dallesport, Washington. I’ve not seen other pairings like these elsewhere although I’m sure they must exist.
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