MAJOR METHOW VALLEY MILESTONES
8,000 BC – First Year Round residents arrive (remains of pit houses still exist)
Mid-1700’s – Horses first arrive, valley residents become more seasonal
1811 – NW Fur Company explores Columbia River
1849 – Ft. Colville trading post received 349 grizzly bear pelts in one season
1858 – Chinese immigrants begin placer mining at the mouth of the Methow River
1871 – Methow Tribe ordered to move to Colville
1885 – Gold discovered at the head of Twisp River
1888 – First cattle ranch in the Methow Valley
1890’s – Silver boom south of Twisp
1894 – Steamboat service begins between Wenatchee & Pateros
1901 – Winthrop platted as a town
1905 – First creamery in North Central WA opens in Twisp
1909 – Road completed past Mazama (West)
1912 – Methow Valley Journal begins & first bank opens
1915 – USFS ranger station built in Winthrop
1920 – Electricity arrives in Methow Valley
1921 – Nearly all irrigation ditches are completed
1924 – Fire burns downtown Twisp, 23 buildings lost
1939 – USFS Smoke Jumper Base established
1948 – Major Flood strikes Twisp & Methow Rivers
1968 – -40° F temps devastate Winthrop orchards
1968 – Sun Mountain Lodge opens
1970 – Black Canyon Fire (14,500 acres)
1972 – North Cascade Highway opens (St Hwy 20)
Early Winters Ski Area proposed
A Second Major Flood
1989 – $22 mil restoration of Sun Mountain Lodge
1991 – Big Valley Ranch (845 ac) purchased by Wa State Department of Wildlife
1993 – Winthrop Emporium & Twisp Methodist church burn
1994 – Winthrop Methodist church burns
1995 – New Liberty Bell High School opens
1996 – Freestone Inn opens
1996 – Record-breaking snowfall
2001 – Thirty-mile fire kills 4 firefighters
2011 – Spring Creek Pedestrian Bridge completed
2014 – Carlton Complex Fire: 268,764 acres, WA State’s largest wildfire, 293 homes & cabins lost, plus 260 outbuildings/garages
2015 – Okanogan Complex Fire: 3 firefighters killed (in the Twisp River Fire). NEW record-WA State’s largest wildfire, approx 800 sq miles!
EXCELLENT METHOW VALLEY HISTORICAL INFORMATION:
Visit the wonderful Shafer Museum, located just above town on Castle Avenue (509-996-2712)
And check out these four excellent local books:
Lost Homeland, by Richard Hart (New Fall 2017!)
The Smiling Country, by Sally Portman
Bound for the Methow, by Kit McLean and Karen West
MAZAMA: The Last 125 Years, by Doug Devin