1 - The Wenatchee Valley

Bordered by Burch Mountain on the North, The Wenatchee Mountains on the West, Wheeler Hill and Stemilt Hills on the South with the Columbia River in the center we have the Wenatchee Valley. From the North, West the Wenatchee River joins the Columbia and this is where the original town was started with a trading post owned by a man named Miller. The Indians camped by his trading post and also up the Wenatchee River at Mission now called Cashmere. The original Indian cemetery can still be seen just South of Tiny’s Fruit Stand at Cashmere. The Army sent an explorer into the back country by canoe and he went up the Wenatchee to Ingalls Creek He tells of a mountain of gold but before he could get back an earthquake shook it down and was lost ever since. I personally doubt this but they did find some gold up there but no one has ever found anything like a mountain of it.

With water to grow crops in the Columbia Basin and our trees (apple) cut down and replaced by people and houses our climate is not the same. Our weather these last few years is not as cold and we haven’t gotten as much snow. Maybe we will in the future, but the river hasn't frozen since in the 1950’s. This year it snowed in February once and never rained enough all summer to measure. The ski lift twelve miles south of town on Mission Ridge had to manufacture snow to keep going since the 1950’s. The world class ski jump at Leavenworth hasn’t been held and the wooden frame rotted and fell down. Years ago they held world class ski jumps in February and the last year they held them they had to haul snow in to hold the event.

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