A barrel is set adrift in the Kettle River at the Job Corps Bridge, and local citizens bet on when it will reach town.

[5] In 1896, two traders, Guy S. Helphry and J. Walters, set up a general store at an old ferry crossing near the junction of Curlew Creek and the Kettle River.

Miners, railroad workers, natives, and others passed through the region and by 1901, a bridge was built across the Kettle River and the community had grown to a population of 200.

As of 2023[update], the radar site no longer exists, and the base, 10 miles (16 km) northwest of Curlew up the Kettle River valley, is in use by Job Corps.

Peter's Creek passenger service in March 1902, extended the line to five or six miles north of Republic in April, and held a symbolic last spike ceremony.

[11] In 2006, the Kettle Falls International Railway, the GN successor, abandoned the 28.5-mile San Poil–Danville section,[12] ending all railroad service to Curlew.