The China Ditch

The China Ditch area is located just south of Pateros, WA on the south side of the mouth of the Methow River. This was an area where early Chinese settlers set up a gold mining operation and in the late 1800’s dug a rather large ditch to bring water from the Methow River down past their gold mining area on the Columbia River. These early Chinese miners inhabited the area from the 1860’s to near the turn of the century.

Many of the miners fled the area or were killed when attacked by Indians from the Methow River region in 1875. Anti-Chinese sentiment saw most of these early settlers leave the area shortly thereafter, though there were some Chinese placer mine operations ongoing in other North Central Washington areas until just after 1900 (in places like Rock Island and the mouth of the Chelan River).

After the area was abandoned, the ditch was then used as irrigation for apple orchards before it was destroyed by a flood in 1948.