Photograph of Omak, WA, 1909

This photograph shows a view of the town of Omak, WA, in 1909. In 1901, Mr. Ben Ross, an employee of the Great Northern Railroad, settled with his family in the area that became Omak, Washington. By 1906, Ross had helped to organize the first accredited school in the area, with the beginning of the Omak School District. Taking twenty acres of his farm and platting it into 25 foot lots in 1906, Ross also began the town on the road to incorporation in 1907. Matsura takes a picture of Omak from a bend in the Okanogan River. The town lay about 28 miles north of the Columbia confluence and about six miles from Okanogan.