Six and one half miles west of Chesaw on the old stage coach road from Republic to Oroville and Conconully is the legendary Hee Hee Stone, an Indian belief.

There have been many mysterious legends connected with the Hee Hee Stone, handed down from generation to generation.

Tales of the Hee Hee Stone were once filtered through smoke of Indian tribal councils and chiefs, and even today the stories of this rock, most sacred piece of ground in Northeastern Washington to the Indian tribes, are still sifted out in pipe smoke around fireplaces on winter evenings.

Once a shrine, the stone is now a crumbling ledge of rock, difficult for history buffs to locate. This is the spot, one legend goes, why the Hee Hee Stone is an Indian belief.

The Siwashes ( generic term for all Indians ) have always lived here. The Indians along the Okanogan became infected with some distemper, not unlike leprosy, and it threatened to destroy the whole Indian nation. The priest of the Siwashes talked every day with the Great Spirit who told him to tell his people that he would send a spirit to talk to them, and that on a certain day all of the people should gather at the place named to receive the messenger of the skies.

The place designated was the same stone which is so sacred to the Siwashes. On the day appointed by the Siwashes, Indians came from hundreds of miles and gathered here, all dressed in there buckskins and colors, to see whether or not the priest, who was also the medicine man, had told the truth or was only dreaming. At ten o’clock in the morning the priest pointed toward Mt. Bonaparte and thousands of eyes looked in that direction. Soon an image began to appear in the southern skies which assumed the form of an angel, and before the astonished Siwashes could fall to the ground and pray the heavenly spirit had alighted upon the Hee Hee Stone.

"She" was radiantly beautiful and immediately began to talk to the afflicted people. She told them that their cry for help had been heard by the Great Spirit and that she had come to help them. She motioned all who were suffering from the epidemic to come near her and be healed. Within a short time the afflicted were transformed into a host of shouting Siwashes, rejoicing in the perfect health that had been given them.

Their Indian priest explained to them that she would come again sometime in the future, but that they must use the means that she would provide if they wanted to retain their good health which she had given them. She then distributed camas seed among them, which became an important staple of the Indians and urged that they be planted everywhere, the roots of which when eaten would prevent a return of the disease from which they had suffered. She wished them be of good cheer, to deal fairly with one another, and that some time she would come again. While the shouts that greeted this announcement were echoing over these hills, she was caught up in the air and disappeared in the southern skies in the direction from which she had come, and ever since she has been known to the Siwashes as Queen Camas, the divine spirit from the sky that heeled our people.

The Indians have never ceased to worship this rock, invariably leaving something upon it as they pass by. Now, is it a wonder, that the Siwashes for thousands of years have worshipped this rock? It’s a real old Indian belief and still is.