Scotch Creek Basin, bordered by Schalow Mt. on the west and by Dunn Mt. and the Lime belt on the east, provided an ancient Indian trail to the Sinlahekin valley and north to Canada. Contorted sediments in the landmark Barnett Bluff are evidence of powerful earth movements that brought limestone on the east in contact with metamorphic rocks on the west. In wet years, Fish Lake and Schalow Pond feed water from the north; Scotch Creek flows into the west side of the basin. Settlers homesteaded the basin in the late 1800's. The basin proposed for a dam and reservoir in 1903, was also the site of a fatal shooting in 1901 in a water dispute.