Riverside was the head of navigation on the Okanogan River during the steamboat era until 1914, when the railroad arrived. The shrill whistle used to open the drawbridge, the rattle of freight wagons, and the ringing of freight bells serving the north half of Okanogan County were familiar sounds there. Many business houses lined both sides of Main Street, and $1,250,000 of produce crossed the dock in 1902. In 1905, the first Okanogan County Fair was held there. Johnson Creek took its name from a man who came there about 1860 and grazed cattle on the hills for several weeks on his way to the Cariboo mines.