Caption: An old land mark (sic) that was razed in Marcus recently was the Immigration Station which was used by the railroad as a railway station since the removal of the regular station to the town of Kettle Falls three months ago. Marcus oldtimers remember boom days for the railroad thirty years ago when the Immigration Service had three and four interpreters, a doctor, and several inspectors to handle the large number of Hindus, Chinese and European immigrants coming into this country from Canada on this line.

My father's family made its way into the United States from Ireland via Canada around the turn of the century. Though my grandfather and grandmother entered the country by boat through Massachusetts, many immigrants found there way into this country through small back woods immigration stations, such as the one shown in this photograph, the old Marcus Railway station.

In the photograph, the station is being dismantled, another casualty to the progress that was known as the Grand Coulee Dam.

So much of this area, its history and culture, was lost when Coulee Dam was buillt in the late 30's, early 40's. In its place was left the Roosevelt Lake, home to a modern, surreal Atlantis consisting of the communities that were drowned when the dam was made operational.

Just below my maternal grandparent's home was a road that used to cross the valley, but now led underwater. We used to bring our cars down to the spot where the road just started to disappear under the clear waters. There, my father would wash the cars, while I and my brother walked the shallows, looking for Minnows.