Colvilles Purchase Barney’S Tribe Plans To Rejuvenate Area Around Popular Eatery

The once-popular, lately closed Barney’s Junction restaurant near the site of this city’s namesake waterfall has new owners with long-standing ties to the area: the Colville Confederated Tribes.

The Colville Tribal Enterprise Corp., the business arm of the tribal government, recently purchased the restaurant and motel complex for an undisclosed price and reopened it last week.

“We see it as a neat area to do some economic development and really showcase that area,” said CTEC Vice President Terry Knapton. “That area has such strong cultural significance to the tribes that we’re real happy to get that piece of property.”

The restaurant and motel overlook an area where Indians gathered for centuries to take advantage of what was the second-most productive inland fishery in the Northwest. That ended when Lake Roosevelt covered the waterfall.

Knapton said the Colville tribes hope to build a small-scale interpretive center and monument to explain the significance of the waterfall in tribal culture. They also envision adding some small, tourism-oriented businesses - but no casino - to renew the area’s economic importance to the tribes.

“With public restrooms, we think the public would stop, and maybe it would create kind of a park atmosphere,” Knapton said. “If we can get them to stop, maybe we can feed them and get them to spend a little money in our community there.”

Knapton said CTEC will invite area business and civic leaders to an economic-development meeting in late July to share ideas and “let them know that we intend to be good neighbors.” Barney’s may have a grand reopening celebration at the same time, he said.

The restaurant and motel now employ about 30 people, many part time, and CTEC leaders think that number could rise to 50.

While tourist attractions such as an espresso shop or an art gallery might be developed on the north side of the restaurant, the site’s traditional truck-stop amenities may be restored on the south side, Knapton said. New environmentally safe fuel tanks would be required.

“It’s an excellent location,” he said. “It’s on a scenic byway and a major truck route.”

The complex is at the intersection of U.S. Highway 395, a truck artery between British Columbia and Spokane, and state Highway 20 at the eastern gateway to the scenic Sherman Pass.

Knapton said development of the 40-acre site will be limited to about five acres. He said the tribes probably will seek to convert the land to reservation trust status. Although the site is outside the current reservation, it is in what used to be the northern half of the Colville Reservation.

Plans for the site are still uncertain, “so any construction would probably start in the spring of 1999 at the earliest,” Knapton said.

Meanwhile, he said CTEC is concentrating on restoring the reputation the restaurant enjoyed for four decades under founders Barney and Judy Miller.

The couple sold the restaurant to the tribal corporation after other sales and management changes collapsed in recent years.

Knapton said the Millers are working with CTEC, and the corporation hired some of the couple’s former employees to train a new crew.

CTEC operates a number of cafes and delis at its casinos, resorts and trading posts, but “this is probably our first real venture into fine dining, and we know that’s a challenge,” Knapton said.

“Barney’s was always well-known for having high-quality steaks and meat, and that’s what we’re interested in: sticking with what worked in the past.”

WHERE The complex is at the intersection of U.S. Highway 395 and state Highway 20 at the eastern gateway to the scenic Sherman Pass.

PLANS Development of the 40-acre site will be limited to about five acres.