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Winthrop, Washington:

	Has anyone ever heard of Winthrop, Washington? We certainly hadn’t, but this “frozen-in-the-early-1900’s” town on I 20, half way between North Cascades and Glacier NP is a must see.  We were literally driving through the desert of central/eastern Washington (as a sidebar here, the Eastern side of the Cascades really are as dry as the Western side are wet – it is crazy, well actually, it’s             ), and we unknowingly arrived in Winthrop.  It literally still looks like those 2 block towns in old western movies, but it is immaculately maintained, seems fairly wealthy, and offers the gambit of services, shopping, and great food, including incredible candy shops (if you can handle the bees).  By they way, there is a working blacksmith’s shop in town which we wanted to buy out of it’s entire stock, but we thought all the iron work might look weird on the car!

Apparently, “Ol’ Man”  Waring, some crusty Yalie, started the town, and it became somewhat infamous because he was a very religious man who “despised” liquor, but opened a bar (to cut off the need for other bars to spring up), and then he would kick out any patrons who actually got drunk.  Notwithstanding this “dubious” beginning, the town’s first postmaster ended up naming the area Winthrop, after Thomas Winthrop, a Harvard grad, who had passed through on travels.   Apparently, in the 1970s, to thank the town for allowing his timber company to prosper in the area, Ottis something-or-other and his wife kicked in some serious cash to restore the town to its origins (late 1800s).  All the town merchants kicked in, and the finished product is quite charming and worth a visit if you are in that area of the world.

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