- 1885

Dan Gamble arrived with his backpack at the Harts Pass area in Washington State having walked from Nova Scotia for the beginning of the upper Methow gold rush. Later, he chased the silver boom at Ruby in the Okanogan Valley. He first established a saw mill in the mouth of Cactus Canyon near Brewster in 1894 where he caught and milled drift wood out of the river. He followed this venture with the establishment of the Gamble Hotel and steamboat landing on the banks of the Columbia River.