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Enumclaw—the undiscovered Vail.
By Jd Black
1960—Vail, Colorado, or Park City Utah, if you’d rather. Tiny, muddy, ruins of once booming mining towns, full of arrowleaf, dandelions and poverty. Weathered, wooden ramshackle huts on their last legs. Twenty miles from food, forty from gas, and three inches from solitude. Though I was only six at the time, I still have wonderful, fond memories of the property my uncle bought at the end of the rutted, dirt track for $50 an acre. I miss those days. The last time I visited Park City and Vail, land value was reckoned in the five figures per square foot. The few old people who were wasting away in 1960 had to sell out when the taxes got too high. They were forced to retire to the Alps, or the Riviera, on the millions their properties fetched. When the skiers found Heaven and the resorts moved in, small-town charm faded away. I wish I had had the foresight my uncle had, and bought two acres with the $100 I had in savings back then. If I had, I would not have spent my life teaching school and dreaming of what might have been. And so I have had an eye out for the next Vail, a place where I could still find old western charm—a place as yet undiscovered, with wildlife, flowers, mountains, trails, and nary a craft store in sight. In 1987 I found it—Enumclaw, Washington. So I moved there. Enumclaw grew out of the forest, on logging, and when enough trees had been cleared, continued to grow on dairy farming. By the mid-fifties it had taken its place as the breeding ground of choice for world-class race horses. It still ranks first in the nation for the foaling of equine champions. Logging has slowed, and freeways have made Enumclaw a suburb of Seattle, but it is still just far enough out that the biggest event in town is the high school football team. The biggest business in town can advertise in spectacularly ungrammatical English, and no one notices. One can walk the main street, all four blocks of it, at 2 AM, in perfect security. Big enough for parks and Safeway, close enough to Seattle for opera and ballet, it boasts its own theatre company, two art galleries, and a jewelry store. There are still taxidermists, and farmer’s markets, and the feel of a truly rural, western town. And people still stop in the middle of the road to chat about the weather and the grandkids. But Enumclaw is also the gateway to Rainier National Park, and close to the best skiing in Washington—Crystal. It holds two annual street fairs, and has just attracted some of the nation’s most prestigious horse shows. The days of five-figure city lots are past, and the day of the bed and breakfast has officially arrived, last month. Enumclaw is clearly the next Vail, or the next Park City, if you prefer. For Vail and Park City are one- dimensional. Vail is two hours from Denver; Park City one from Salt Lake. They have only one claim to fame—mountains—which offer vistas in the summer, and snow in the winter. Enumclaw is near Seattle, and while offering the incomparable mountains, also offers the national park, the equestrian life, proximity to the waterfront of Puget Sound, the outlet malls, and entertainment. And, at least for now, it is still a family place. But while I would bet on investing in Enumclaw, I wouldn’t bet on the agrarian flavor lasting much longer. The parks have been upgraded. There are summer concerts in the park. And flower and garden shows each spring. In fact, my home boasts one of them. There is talk of opening a high-end craft store. The lumber stores are gone. Two shops offer ski and snowboard rental and instruction. The population is slightly older, and more affluent. The old school was closed, the old tavern burned (and six others remodeled), the new library built, and the new newspaper office is identical in every particular to the one in Park City. The future has already begun. Today would be the best day to visit, or to put one’s foot in the door.
JDBlack, aka Mr. Education, tour guide, outdoorsman, educator, grandpa, gardener, and bookworm.
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Contributor's Note
I am a teacher here. Funny name. Nice place. Windy in winter. Can bicycle to the lake. Indeed, bike paths are found all over the region.
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This intel was contributed by jdblack
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May, 2012
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