The small town, cradled in the folds of the North Cascades, looks like a model Old Western town on the outside. Visitors' footsteps echo on rustic boardwalks running down Main Street.
Businesses present false fronts of rough hewn lumber, often left unpainted.
The sharp chimes of steel striking iron testify to a blacksmith hard at work. But step inside and you'll find a fully functioning town complete with electricity, computers and espresso bars. Indians were hunting and fishing, picking berries and digging camas roots out of the rocky soil of the Methow Valley for thousands of years before the first settlers arrived in 1883. The first arrivals were miners, lured to the site by the discovery of gold. They stayed long enough to build a rough mining camp at the confluence of the Methow and Chewuch rivers.