Town and Country Days

For two days each June, Meyers Street in Kettle Falls fills with tents, food booths, a stage, and wrestling mats. The Kettle Falls Area Chamber of Commerce runs Town and Country Days and calls it a “small town community reunion festival.” The grounds center on the blocks by the Kettle Falls City Park & Pool. The 2026 festival fell on Friday and Saturday, June 5 and 6.

Friday on Meyers Street

The chamber and the city give the same program for the first day. Friday opens with live entertainment on the main stage, the food and craft booths, and the beer garden.

• The beer garden. In 2026 it went by the name Sasquatch Saloon and opened at noon. Its tents came from Sun Rentals of Colville, and the festival’s page thanked the crew there and Kim Warwick “for making it happen.”
• The stage. New Tec LLC builds the main stage each year. The festival page says its crew volunteers both time and machines.
• Food and cash. The food court sits near the pool. In 2026, ATMs were set up inside the Masonic Lodge.
• Help from the town. The Kettle Falls fire department kept water filled through both days. The Beautification committee spent the week before dressing up the streets.

The chamber advertises a Street Vendor Fair of over 100 local vendors selling artisan goods and festival food. The festival page counted 70 vendors in the 2026 street market. The library holds a sale of pie and books. In 2026 a coordinator named Donna ran an art contest, and festivalgoers were asked to choose a favorite before the judging on Friday night.

Friday evening goes to children and runners:

• Kids Bike Parade. Riders gather at Kettle Falls Elementary School. In 2026 the parade left at 6 p.m., and each rider got a free goodie bag.
• Kids Fun Fest. This ran the same day.
• Grumpy Grouch Giddy Up. This fundraiser became an official 5K in 2026, with check-in at 5 and the start at 7.

A street dance closes both nights. The 2026 emcee was Chuck Ritchie, station manager at KCHW 102.7 and president of the Chewelah Creative District. The festival page said his work “comes down to helping people make things happen.”

Grouch Breakfast to Show & Shine

Saturday begins with the Grouch Breakfast at 7:30 a.m., next to the Masonic Lodge and near the courts of the Slam Jam, a 3-on-3 basketball tournament. The festival page called 2026 the Slam Jam’s “first year back.” Its coordinators were TJ Thrasher, Kenny Cremeans, Rachel Benjamin, and Mike Potestio.

The day also brings:

• a game of H.O.R.S.E.
• the Street Scramble, a wrestling fundraiser in which, the chamber says, “wrestlers unleash their inner beast on the mats on Meyers”
• a pickleball tournament
• a duck drop
• bagpipers
• in 2026, a “human slot machine” from 2 to 4 p.m.

At 11 a.m. the parade comes down Meyers Street, led by the Kettle Falls Grouch and Friends. The chamber says the parade honors “community involvement, public service, clubs and leagues, industry, and our beautiful PNW!”

The Grouch holds an honorary rank. By the chamber’s account, the title goes to a person of “exceptional leadership qualities” who “deserves a place of honor.” The Grouch leads the parade processionals and hosts the festivities, and is often known as a community leader or cultural hero. The title dates to 1985. The chamber puts it this way: since then Kettle Falls “has proudly welcomed visitors to its growing town of quaint shops, friendly people, and one grouch.” The Town Grouch is announced on Saturday, along with the Ma & Pa Kettle Award.

The Show & Shine car show also runs on Saturday. Visitors walk a street of vintage cars and trucks, talk with the owners, and vote for a favorite. The winners take home custom-made trophies.

A town that moved

The city’s own pages carry the line “The Town That Moves!”

The falls. The town takes its name from falls on the Upper Columbia. According to the city, they dropped nearly 50 feet and carved “kettles” into the quartzite below. The Colvilles, Spokanes, San Poils, Okanagons, and Kootenais gathered there for ceremonies, trade, and salmon fishing. They called the falls “san-ate-koo,” meaning “deep-sounding waters.”

Traders and settlers. David Thompson, a British-Canadian fur trader, arrived with his party in July 1811. The Hudson Bay Company then established a trading post called Fort Colville. An Executive Order of 1872 pushed eleven of the region’s tribes onto reservation land.

The first town. Wikipedia says the original Kettle Falls was incorporated on December 17, 1891, on the bank of the Columbia. The city’s history gives 1892 as the year it was established. Sawmills and ranches supported it.

The dam. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation built Grand Coulee Dam for hydro-power and for irrigation of the Columbia Basin. The city says the entire town had to be moved before the dam was completed in 1942. Wikipedia dates the flooding to 1940. Kettle Falls was the largest town in Stevens County to be relocated. Homes and businesses went to Meyers Falls, a community near the railroad lines, and the two towns later combined.

The bridges. Before the water rose, two new steel cantilever bridges were built, each 600 feet long, one for cars and one for trains. The city says they had the longest central span of any highway bridge built in Washington during the 1940s. They were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.

The town today. Kettle Falls now sits beside Lake Roosevelt, the reservoir of the Columbia, on the Colville River just upstream of where it joins the Columbia.

The sources disagree on when the festival began. Its Facebook page says friends and family have gathered “since 1942.” The chamber’s festival page says “since 1962.” The city and an earlier chamber listing say only that it has been held every year since the town moved from the shores of the Columbia River in the 1940s.