The pioneering spirit that defined this community for half a century is nearly gone. Mary Dell Daniel, at 91 still keeping her friends in stitches with her stories, will tell you about the droughts and floods in Oklahoma in the 1930s that made her appreciate Western Washington's temperate climate and beauty. It's not completely gone. Despite the ever-present traffic, unincorporated Startup doesn't have a McDonald's or a school or even a traffic light. Phone numbers here are given in four digits.
People still use the railroad tracks, the river and the post office to navigate.
Work boots, symbols of a simple life, hang between two pulleys in Startup. At a time when strip shopping centers are defining rural communities, and housing developments peer through the woods, Keck and Roesler and Daniel and Gatzke remind us not to take for granted the places and things that haven't kept pace. Startup isn't where you start up the mountain, and it isn't linked to the Internet, at least not yet. Wallace initially drew gold prospectors, but they didn't get rich. Timber made the town prosperous.