Stehekin, Washington
Encyclopedia
Stehekin is a small unincorporated
Unincorporated area
In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...

 community in Chelan County, Washington. It is part of Wenatchee
Wenatchee, Washington
Wenatchee is located in North Central Washington and is the largest city and county seat of Chelan County, Washington, United States. The population within the city limits in 2010 was 31,925...

East Wenatchee
East Wenatchee, Washington
East Wenatchee is a city in Douglas County, Washington, United States along the northern banks of the Columbia River. The population at the 2010 census was 13,190, a 129.1% increase over the 2000 census....

 Metropolitan Statistical Area
Wenatchee metropolitan area
The Wenatchee–East Wenatchee Metropolitan Statistical Area, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, is an area consisting of two counties in Washington, anchored by the cities of Wenatchee and East Wenatchee...

. Located at the northwest end of Lake Chelan
Lake Chelan
Lake Chelan is a narrow, 55-mile-long lake in Chelan County, northern Washington state, U.S. It is the largest natural lake in Washington state...

, it lies just south of the North Cascades National Park
North Cascades National Park
North Cascades National Park is a U.S. National Park located in the state of Washington. The park is the largest of the three National Park Service units that comprise the North Cascades National Park Service Complex. Several national wilderness areas and British Columbia parkland adjoin the...

 at 48°18′34"N 120°39′19"W. It is within Lake Chelan National Recreation Area
Lake Chelan National Recreation Area
Lake Chelan National Recreation Area is a U.S. National Recreation Area located about south of the Canadian border in Chelan County, Washington. It encompasses an area of approximately including the northern end of Lake Chelan and the surrounding area of the Stehekin Valley and the Stehekin...

, a unit administered by the National Park Service
National Park Service
The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...

. Stehekin has about 75 permanent residents, though its population swells during the summer with vacationers and seasonal workers. The name "Stehekin" comes from a Columbia-Moses word meaning "the way through."
Sights to see in Stehekin include the Buckner Homestead Historic District
Buckner Homestead Historic District
The Buckner Homestead Historic District, near Stehekin, Washington in Lake Chelan National Recreation Area incorporates a group of structures relating to the theme of early settlement in the Lake Chelan area...

, Purple Point-Stehekin Ranger Station House
Purple Point-Stehekin Ranger Station House
The Purple Point-Stehekin Ranger Station House is a National Park Service ranger residence located in the Lake Chelan National Recreation Area of northern Washington. The building was built at Purple Point above Lake Chelan in the small, unincorporated community of Stehekin, Washington...

, Stehekin Pastry Company, the one-room Stehekin School
Stehekin School
The Stehekin School is a log structure built in 1921 as a school for the community of Stehekin, Washington. The property includes two outhouses and a separate kindergarten cabin. The school was used from 1921 to 1988, when a new school was built....

, 312' Rainbow Falls, and Harlequin Bridge. Stehekin is a great location for hikers and bikers in the summer, and snowshoers and skiers in the winter. Stehekin is a mecca for photographers year-round.

There is no road access to Stehekin, though several miles of road exist there. It is reachable by passenger ferry
Ferry
A ferry is a form of transportation, usually a boat, but sometimes a ship, used to carry primarily passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo as well, across a body of water. Most ferries operate on regular, frequent, return services...

, by foot over the Cascade Pass
Cascade Pass
Cascade Pass is a mountain pass over the northern Cascade Range, east of Marblemount, Washington, U.S....

, the Lady of the Lake, or private boat from Chelan
Chelan, Washington
Chelan is a city in Chelan County, Washington, United States. The population was 3,890 at the 2010 census. It sits on the southeast tip of Lake Chelan, where the lake flows into the Chelan River....

, or by floatplane
Seaplane
A seaplane is a fixed-wing aircraft capable of taking off and landing on water. Seaplanes that can also take off and land on airfields are a subclass called amphibian aircraft...

. The vehicles in Stehekin have been barged there on Lake Chelan.

In addition to access by Lake Chelan, visitors come to Stehekin by horseback, hiking, and flying into Stehekin State Airport (Identifier 6S9). The airport is only open July, August, and September, and is noted by Washington State as being one of the state's most challenging airports. While only 1230 ft (374.9 m) msl, there are mountains on the sides and trees at each end of the 2630 ft (801.6 m) runway. The airport is often a base for firefighting, at which times it is closed to public use. The ranger station is next to the airport, but everything else is a hike. Trout
Trout
Trout is the name for a number of species of freshwater and saltwater fish belonging to the Salmoninae subfamily of the family Salmonidae. Salmon belong to the same family as trout. Most salmon species spend almost all their lives in salt water...

 and sockeye salmon
Sockeye salmon
Sockeye salmon , also called red salmon or blueback salmon in the USA, is an anadromous species of salmon found in the Northern Pacific Ocean and rivers discharging into it...

 are popular targets for fishing in Stehekin.

In 2003, much of the upper (northern) half of the Stehekin Valley Road was washed out by the nearby Stehekin River
Stehekin River
The Stehekin River is a river located in Washington state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. It is the main river flowing into Lake Chelan. Miners arrived in Stehekin River Valley in the late 19th century. They were followed by homesteaders in the early 20th century...

. Thus, access via Cascade Pass
Cascade Pass
Cascade Pass is a mountain pass over the northern Cascade Range, east of Marblemount, Washington, U.S....

 has become extensively more difficult, adding as much as 10 miles (16.1 km) to the already strenuous trek.

Another town with a similarly small population and similar access is Holden Village
Holden Village, Washington
Holden Village is a year-round Lutheran Christian center in the North Cascade mountains of the U.S. state of Washington. Formerly the site of one of the largest copper mines in the United States, the Holden mine, Holden is accessible only by the Lake Chelan passenger ferry, the Lady of the Lake, or...

, surrounded by the Glacier Peak Wilderness
Glacier Peak Wilderness
The Glacier Peak Wilderness, created by the US Forest Service in 1960 by efforts of the , four years before the 1964 wilderness legislation of the Congress, is located within portions of Chelan County, Snohomish County, and Skagit Counties in the North Cascades of Washington...

 and located 12 miles (19.3 km) up the Railroad Creek Valley from Lucerne, a boat landing on Lake Chelan.

Climate

Telephone Service

Between March 15 and 28 of 2007, WeavTel, a telecommunications company based out of Chelan at the head of the lake began normal operations of standard-delivery residential and business telephone service. Stehekin, previously served only by highly expensive satellite and radio telephones, finally joined the Washington Telephone Grid after decades of isolation. The move was not widely accepted amongst residents, however business owners agreed that there is a benefit to having normal telephone service. The service is currently limited to the Lower Stehekin Valley, around Stehekin Landing and the village proper, however, WeavTel is applying for permits to extend the service into the Upper Valley using underground fiber-optic cables. The move was made possible under Federal and State grants that provide support for any telecommunications company willing to extend service to rural areas. Although most other areas of North Central Washington have standard service, most of the areas outside of Wenatchee benefit from the grants as well. One of the first calls, a test call, was placed from Stehekin's Silver Bay Resort.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK