The Chillowist Trail: Native Highway of the Okanogan Highlands

Long before any road was graded through the Okanogan Highlands, Native peoples traveled the Chillowist Trail as a primary route for trade and seasonal movement across this part of what is now north-central Washington. The trail was part of a network linking the Methow Valley and the Okanogan country, carrying people and trade goods across the region's diverse landscape.

The Methow people and their neighbors used these mountain and river routes for generations as part of a wider network of indigenous trails that tied together the Columbia Plateau and the Cascade foothills. When American settlers arrived in the late eighteen hundreds, many of these trails became the foundations of the first wagon roads and eventually paved highways. The marker here near Malott commemorates the Chillowist Trail as a reminder that the transportation corridor through this valley is far older than the state of Washington itself.