The Pontiac Ridge areas begin several miles southwest of Chesaw and extends to Beaver Canyon on the south, and Toroda Creek on the east. Timber and abundant bunch grass were two main attractions that lured homesteaders to the Pontiac Ridge Country.
Around the turn of the Century, the Great Northern promoted homesteading in hopes of increasing railroad travel. Charles Mooney of Pontiac, Illinois, helped arrange for these promotion programs to be held in his home town and thus laid the ground work for his move to the Northwest. When the Mooneys arrived in 1903 and 1904, their only neighbors were D. J. Wood family. In time when the available homestead locations had been exhausted, practically the entire population in the area hailed from Pontiac, Illinois, thus the reason for naming their new community home stomping grounds, Pontiac Ridge.
Settlers raised grain, gardens, beef, pigs, goats and chickens, and milked cows, among other miscellaneous ways to scratch out a living.
Besides agriculture, timber and mining were the main industries. Several sawmills were operated in the area.
One of the better known mines is the iron mine called the Magnetic Mine on Buckhorn Mountain. Originally Buckhorn was called Copper Mountain because of the ore there. The Crystal Butte Mine located on the south end of Buckhorn even had a stamp mill on Meyers Creek in the early days.. Other mines in the area were Apex, Roosevelt, Gold Ax and the Iron Ring.
The first schoolhouse, a log building, was built in 1906. People who live on Pontiac Ridge today can go both directions to do their trading, either Chesaw and Oroville or Curlew, Republic and even Tonasket.