Quincy, Washington
July 27, 2021
I am a big fan of these "new" maps from Google. I say "new" because they are new to me -- I don't know how long they have been available. But kudos to Google for providing Maps for free -- of course, they know a lot about me because I use Maps, but I am ok with the tradeoff.
A day I thought would be a boring drive to Hanford, Washington was anything but. I probably should know that by now -- the odds of a boring day on my walkabout are rather low. With towns like Shohomish, Startup, Gold Bar, Index, and Plain on my route, there were plenty of photo ops. I was diving US Route Derek Jeter which was fun also. And there were the majestic Cascade Mountains and Columbia River -- and the smaller but no less beautiful Wenatchee River.
And I was proud of myself for not getting sucked into the Helly Hansen outlet. Even discounted their stuff is expensive and Lord knows I don't NEED anymore clothes.
US Route 2 East from Seattle is a beautiful drive. Into the Cascades it is like driving into the Cascades in Oregon. As you descend in a valley from Stevens Point, you drive along the Wenatchee River. Beautiful
I never get used to how green everything is Here in the Pacific Northwest. (Except grass in some areas which is brown from lack of rain and irrigation. Plenty of irrigation going on up here!
Some other thoughts about Washington State:
- Stuck by number of small rivers and streams there are.
- Apples and wine grapes starting around Wenatchee
- The Columbia. River. Wow. It is wide snd it moves quickly!
- Washington state route sign is George Washington’s profile with a number in it
- 82 degrees in Quincy at 830 pm last night. It was a warm night in Hi Ho Silver
- Henry Weinhard beer is hard to find. Many places indicate Online that they carry it but none in stock. I was told by one liquor store it is because can/bottle/labor shortage. MolsonCoors that produces Henry Weinhard divert their limited resources to their most profitable brands.
- Seattle got to me. It was so big and hurried.
Yesterday I went through some towns with great names — Startup, Gold Bar, Index, Skykomish, Leavenworth and Plain. Here is some information on each one:
Startup
Startup is a census-designated place (CDP) in Snohomish County, Washington, United States. The population was 676 at the 2010 census.
Startup was homesteaded by F.M. Sparling in the 1880s.[5] In 1890 William Wait laid out a townsite which he called Wallace, but this caused confusion with mail being missent to Wallace, Idaho, and in 1901 the name was changed to Startup to honor George G. Startup, manager of the Wallace Lumber Company.[6]
The Startup post office was established in 1900.
Index
Index is a town in Snohomish County, Washington, United States. The population was 178 at the 2010 census.
Prior to settlement by White Americans, the Skykomish lived in the area between Sultan and Index. The Skykomish had a village along the north bank of the river named xɬ'xausalt, located at the present site of Index.[5]
Logging and lumber booms in the latter half of the 19th century led to the growth of minor settlements in the eastern part of what became Snohomish County in 1861. A gold strike in 1889 at nearby Monte Cristo fueled another influx of prospectors and settlers.[6] Index was founded in 1889 on the homestead of Amos Gunn in 1889, whose home was also a hotel for prospectors and surveyors.[7] The town was named for nearby Mount Index (later renamed Baring Mountain),[8] itself named for its resemblance to an index finger.[7][9] The settlement gained a post office in 1891 and saw major growth after the arrival of the Great Northern Railway. Gunn filed his town plat for Index on April 25, 1893, three months before a major fire on July 22 destroyed most of its buildings.[10]
Index was officially incorporated on October 11, 1907. Its population peaked during the decade at 1,000 and has since declined to 200.[7][11] The Index area had few jobs and services, with only a single restaurant and general store by the 1980s to serve a population of around 150.[12]
The Snohomish County Public Utility District had planned to build a hydroelectric power plant at Sunset Falls near Index in the early 2010s, but abandoned the project after it was opposed by environmentalists and local residents.
Plain
Plain is a small unincorporated community in Chelan County, Washington, United States.[1] It is located east of Coles Corner, Washington, near U.S. Route 2 and SR 207. Plain was serviced by the former SR 209, now called the Chumstick Highway, which connects Plain with Chumstick and Leavenworth along an old railroad grade.
A post office called Plain was established in 1913, and remained in operation until 1936.
Attractions and events
The town is the location of Plain Valley Ski Trails, a 25-km network of cross-country skiing and snowshoeing trails. A racing team, Plain Valley Nordic Team, is also based in the area.
Plain serves the start and finish for the Plain Endurance Runs, a pair of 100-mile/100-km ultramarathon races that began in 1997. The races are particularly challenging due to the fact that neither pacers, course markings nor aid stations are allowed per the race rules.[5] This resulted in only four total finishers of the 100-mile race during the first eight years of its existence.
Leavenwoth
Leavenworth is a city in Chelan County, Washington, United States. It is part of the Wenatchee−East Wenatchee Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,965 at the 2010 census.[6] The entire town center is modeled on a Bavarian village as part of a civic initiative that began in the 1960s. The area is a major, four-season tourist destination with festivals nearly every month and a multitude of events year round.
The construction of the Great Northern Railway through Tumwater Canyon in 1892 brought settlers to a townsite that was named "Leavenworth". Lafayette Lamb arrived in 1903 from Clinton, Iowa, to build the second largest sawmill in Washington state.
Leavenworth was officially incorporated on September 5, 1906. A small timber community, it became a regional office of the Great Northern Railway in the early 1900s. The railroad relocated to Wenatchee in 1925, greatly affecting Leavenworth's economy. The city's population declined well into the 1950s as the lumber mills closed and stores relocated.[7]
The city looked to tourism and recreation as a major economy as early as 1929, when they opened a ski jump.[8] In 1962, the Project LIFE (Leavenworth Improvement For Everyone) Committee was formed in partnership with the University of Washington to investigate strategies to revitalize the struggling logging town. The theme town idea was created by two Seattle businessmen, Ted Price and Bob Rodgers, who had bought a failing cafe on Highway 2 in 1960.[9] Price was chair of the Project LIFE tourism subcommittee, and in 1965 the pair led a trip to a Danish-themed town, Solvang, California, to build support for the idea. The first building to be remodeled in the Bavarian style was the Chikamin Hotel, which owner LaVerne Peterson[10] renamed the Edelweiss after the state flower of Bavaria.[11][12]
Leavenworth is home to the Leavenworth Nutcracker Museum, which opened in 1995 and contains more than 5,000 nutcrackers dating from prehistoric to modern.[13] Leavenworth hosts an annual Oktoberfest celebration.[14] Leavenworth's transformation into a theme town was inspired, and assisted, by Solvang, California. Later, the Washington town of Winthrop followed Leavenworth's example and adopted a Western town theme.[15]
In November 2007, Good Morning America went to Leavenworth for Holiday Gifts for the Globe where GMA helped light up the town for the Christmas Holiday. Leavenworth was named the Ultimate Holiday Town USA by A&E Network.[16]
Skykomish
Skykomish is a town in King County, Washington, United States. The population was 198 as of the 2010 census, down from an estimated peak of "several thousand" in the 1920s.[5]
Located in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, 49 miles east of Everett, Washington, on the South Fork of the Skykomish River, Skykomish was founded as a railroad town. Today, it is mainly a stopping point for recreational access to the surrounding mountains, including skiing at nearby Stevens Pass.
Being located in the far northeastern corner of King County, mountains deny Skykomish any road access to the rest of the county. Instead, U.S. Highway 2 (known in the area as the Cascade Highway) connects it with Snohomish County to the north and through Stevens Pass (17 miles east of town) to Chelan County.
History
The name "Skykomish" derives from the Skykomish or Skai-whamish tribe (originally considered a subdivision of the Snoqualmies) who inhabited the area before European settlement.[6] The townsite was settled in 1889 by John Maloney, a guide for the surveying team on the Great Northern Railway.[7] The town of Skykomish was officially incorporated on June 5, 1909.
From the 1890s to 1974, Skykomish was a maintenance and fueling station for the Great Northern Railway, which eventually became part of the Burlington Northern Railroad, and presently the BNSF Railway. It was also once the western terminus for electric operations (1928–56) on the Cascade Tunnel route all the way to Wenatchee. Here, steam or diesel locomotives were changed or coupled to electric locomotives.[8] The town gained a public library in 1945, operated by the King County Rural Library District and located in the city hall. It was replaced with a separate building in 1994.[9] Skykomish's population peaked at around 8,000 in the 1920s and shrank to under 300 by 1990 due to the loss of businesses and jobs.[7]
Waste disposal practices, common during that era, resulted in the contamination of its soil, its groundwater, and the Skykomish River by oil and heavy metals. BNSF (then BN) and the Washington State Department of Ecology began remediation discussions in the mid-1980s, and in 2006, agreed to a plan whereby the railroad would pay up to $50 million to clean up the area over a three-year period (completed in 2009). This effort involved massive excavations—essentially removing the contaminated soil and replacing it with clean soil—and the rebuilding of a levee. (The eventual total cost of the cleanup exceeded $100 million.)
Twenty two of Skykomish's buildings — both homes and business — were temporarily moved during the cleanup process. After the contaminated soil under them was removed, the buildings were moved back to their original locations on new foundations and utilities connections.[10] The town was restored with modern conveniences such as sidewalks and street lights, but the historic character of Skykomish was maintained. The greatest benefit of the cleanup to every resident and business in town was the installation of the new Waste Water Treatment system connected to every building.
In Skykomish, the GN&C Railway offers free train rides to the public as well as a railroad education program. The Railroad (which is 1/8 scale) operates May through October, every weekend plus holidays. We currently have over 2,700 feet of track. We are working on our second line and when completed we will have 4,000 feet of track..
The GN&C Railway has one locomotive (2-6-0) and plus ten riding cars, built by it's volunteers in addition to all the locomotives owned by our members that they use to give rides to the public.
In order to operate this railroad, a volunteer organization was formed, the "Great Northern & Cascade Railway". The Great Northern & Cascade Ralway is a Washington State Non-Profit Charity. Members of this organization will be in operational control of all of the aspects of the railroad. This will include the operation of the trains, building of additional track, turntable, and steam-up areas, construction of railroad equipment storage and support buildings, crowd management. All of the above construction is financed from by donations received from operations and the gift store.
And now to the photos:
The first “fish crossing” sign I have seen.
The remaking photos (79 of them) is a slideshow with the Foo Fighters - top of the cap to Washington state musuc.