LEAVENWORTH

A short history of Leavenworth

The area near the confluence of Icicle Creek and the Wenatchee River in modern-day Leavenworth is within the traditional territories of the indigenous Wenatchi and Yakama peoples. The tribes had settlements on both waterways, including the villages of scəm̓ ̓áw̓s and sĭnpŭsqốĭsoḣ near modern-day Leavenworth, which was also a camas and root-gathering area. The Wenatchi and Yakama were signatories to the 1855 Treaty of Walla Walla; an Indian reservation for the Wenatchi covering 36 square miles (93 km2) around a fishery at the confluence was promised in the treaty but never surveyed by the federal government. Most members of the Wenatchi relocated to the Colville Indian Reservation and Yakama Indian Reservation in the early 20th century, while few remained in the Leavenworth and Cashmere area.

The first non-native settlers in the area were John Emig and Nicholas Kinscherf, who staked their homestead claims near Icicle Creek in 1885. A community named "Icicle Flats" was established by other settlers on the south side of the Wenatchee River in 1891. According to surveyor Albert Hale Sylvester, the "Icicle" name was derived from the indigenous name "Nasikelt", which translates to a narrow canyon or gorge. The Great Northern Railway purchased land on the north side of the river for a division point and railyard for its route across Stevens Pass in October 1892, which prompted residents to move across the river. A new town was established there in 1893 and named Leavenworth for Charles Leavenworth, a Portland-based land investor with the Okanogan Investment Company who surveyed the site and laid its streets. Leavenworth was a relative of U.S. Army colonel Henry Leavenworth, the founder of Fort Leavenworth and namesake of Leavenworth, Kansas. The Stevens Pass route, which connected Seattle to Wenatchee, was completed in January 1893 and was the final section of the transcontinental Great Northern Railway.

By February 1893, the new town of Leavenworth had grown to approximately 700 people and over 40 businesses, including hotels, general stores, and saloons. Lafayette Lamb arrived in 1903 from Clinton, Iowa, to build the second largest sawmill in Washington. The settlement had three major fires at the turn of the 20th century that destroyed several buildings. Leavenworth was officially incorporated as a city on September 5, 1906. A small timber community, it became a regional office of the Great Northern Railway in the early 1900s. The railroad relocated to Wenatchee in 1925, greatly affecting Leavenworth's economy. The city's population declined well into the 1950s as the lumber mills closed and stores relocated.

The city looked to tourism and recreation as a major economy as early as 1929, when they opened a ski jump. In 1962, the Project LIFE (Leavenworth Improvement For Everyone) Committee was formed in partnership with the University of Washington to investigate strategies to revitalize the struggling logging town. The idea to create a "Bavarian-Swiss" alpine theme town came from two Seattle businessmen, Ted Price and Bob Rodgers, who had bought a failing cafe at Coles Corner in 1960. Price and Rodgers had chosen the theme based on the latter's experience in Bavaria while deployed by the U.S. Army during World War II; the cafe was renamed The Squirrel Tree and expanded with a motel and gift shop. Price was chair of the Project LIFE tourism subcommittee, and in 1965 the pair led a trip to a Danish-themed town, Solvang, California, to build support for the idea. Before the Bavarian village concept was adopted, community leaders had initially favored a Gay Nineties theme. The partners had also considered a Native American theme for The Squirrel Tree.

The Project LIFE members acquired properties in Leavenworth and were joined by architects Earl Petersen, who designed Solvang's Danish buildings, and Germany-born designer Heinz Ulbricht. The first building to be rebuilt in the Bavarian style was the Chikamin Hotel, which had been damaged in a fire and reopened as the Edelweiss Hotel (named for the state flower of Bavaria) on July 1, 1965. Several buildings were renovated later that year after business loans were secured to prepare the city for the 1966 Washington Autumn Leaf Festival. By 1970, Leavenworth was hosting several annual festivals and had formed a design review board to enforce and maintain the standards set by Project LIFE.

On July 28, 1994, the Rat Creek Fire was ignited in the Icicle Creek basin and grew to 24,371 acres (9,863 ha) over the next three weeks as it moved towards northeast Leavenworth. It was one of 34 fires in the Hatchery Complex Fire that were ignited in late July by thunderstorms and other causes. The city was placed under an evacuation alert for several days as the fire surrounded parts of the valley and shut down U.S. Route 2. The evacuation alert in Leavenworth was lifted by August 10, coinciding with the reopening of U.S. Route 2. Later fires in 2001, 2004, and 2012 burned areas around Leavenworth. The Wenatchee River underwent a major flood in December 2025 and crested at a maximum of 17 feet (5.2 m); a widespread power outage in Leavenworth, caused in part by high winds, resulted in the initial cancellation of holiday events. The city's holiday lights and Christmastown festival were both rescheduled after power was restored.

Adapted (trimmed) from the Wikipedia article Leavenworth, Washington, revision 1380839586 by its contributors, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.