One of the longest-standing civic organizations in the Methow Valley is celebrating its 75th birthday this week. Formed in 1949, the Kiwanis Club of Winthrop was brought into the worldwide network of community service by their sponsor club, Twisp Kiwanis, which had formed years earlier. Twisp was first, but Winthrop endured, and when the Twisp […]
VALLEY LIFE
Valley Life: Mazama
When Goat Creek built up steam with spring runoff, it gathered substantial debris on its way down the mountain. Lower Goat Creek Bridge — a vital link for winter and summer users on Founders Trail — did not withstand the fury of the water loaded with large woody debris. Logs, sticks, branches and other forest […]
Valley Life: Twisp
A quintessential summer ingredient to fill the calendar, the summer gathering comes in many flavors. From organized festivals, reunions, birthdays, and backyard yard games, social gatherings bring people together in shared experiences, honor shared values, and to relish in late nights and warm air. Recently, a reunion of valley folk comprised of former Peace Corps […]
Valley Life: Lower Valley
I met Max Judd in October of 2014, when the utility poles along Highway 153 were still burnt from the Carlton Complex Fire. That fall, everything still felt in disarray, except for Max’s small garden of corn next door to the post office. I found great comfort in those orderly rows of tall stalks, tassels […]
Valley Life: Winthrop
Many a mystery has been unscrambled on the back pages of this publication. I hope that the great Malaga missing newspaper saga will be the next one. “Ah, Málaga!” you are thinking: Spain, Pablo Picasso, Guernica, Costa del Sol. I regret to inform you that the town involved in what my editor calls “the Malaga […]
Valley Life: Mazama
The journey over the mountains to the west side is so pleasant in the summer. The long drive “around” and over Stevens Pass in the winter is just a fading memory — only to be resurrected when the snow flies and the North Cascades Highway barrier goes up. From here at the very end of […]
Valley Life: Winthrop
Geva McAdow, Little Star School’s beloved Managing Director, will be moving on after a decade of service to the school. In her years at Little Star, Geva filled almost every role, from assistant teacher to lead teacher, program supervisor to high-level management and strategy, a press release said. “Many of the beautiful connections you see […]
Valley Life: Twisp
As purple thunderheads rolled in one afternoon last week, I struck up a friendly conversation with a neighbor in our driveway and we began swapping lightning stories. The tales we’d grown up hearing about the threat of lightning lead us down a trail of questioning, asking if these stories were credible or hyperbole. I also […]
Valley Life: Mazama
Guess what weighs as much as six blue whales: the amount of trash picked up on Washington state highways in 2022. In the 1950s and early 1960s, it was not uncommon nor frowned upon to toss litter from beer cans to trash from to-go food out the window. (My dad was notorious for such a […]
Valley Life: Winthrop
On the Fourth of July, 2006, about a year and a half after my husband, baby daughter and I had moved to the Methow Valley, we were passing through Twisp on our way to visit friends in eastern Washington when we noticed what appeared to be a parade on Glover Street. Our daughter was then […]
