At the bottom of the lake lies the small town of Riffe which was sacrificed for the good of all when the lake was formed in 1968 with the construction of Mossyrock Dam, the town was covered with about two hundred feet of water although the deep end of the lake is approximately three hundred and sixty feet deep. The lake was originally named Davisson Lake after a Tacoma utilities director, who had no significance to Lewis County, as you can imagine this was about as popular as a fart in church so after years of petitions and resolutions the name was officially changed in 1976 to honor the small pioneer town that was drown so now it's known as Riffe Lake.
Historic Facts:
The town of Riffe was named for one of the original setters, Floyd Riffe, who was postmaster when the town formed in 1898. Floyd Riffe arrived in the area in 1895 after coming west from the Appalachians in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. Many settlers who came to Riffe originated from the same Appalachian region as folks went west seeking prosperity and then sent word back home about the opportunities in Lewis County. The way of life in Riffe as well as the mountainous topography would have reminded many migrants of their former homes in West Virginia.
Buddy Rose wrote a book call "Stories from Riffe, Washington" this is just one of many books written throughout the history of the United States regarding extinct cities sacrificed in the name of progress - none of the town's went quietly but none can win the war when Eminent Domain is used as the government's weapon of choice - "the right of a government or its agent to expropriate private property for public use, with payment of compensation".
Buddy Rose grew up in the town of Riffe and lived there until 1963 when, at the age of 15, he and his mother were forced to sell their condemned home and property to the City of Tacoma and move to Centralia, Washington where he finished high school. After retiring from a 30-year career with the U.S. Forest Service in 2003, Rose took up free-lance writing, and wrote hundreds of outdoor articles for The Chronicle newspaper in Centralia. He is now a popular contributor of outdoor and local history articles for the East County Journal in Morton, Washington but there one thing that's certain he can never go home... read more