Leavenworth, Washington
GLO Record of the Week for the Week of December 22, 2019
This week's General Land Office featured record is a dependent resurvey of Township 24 North, Range 18 East of the Willamette Meridian, Washington (pictured below). A majority of this township was originally surveyed in 1892. Sections 1 through 4, and 9 through 12, which were not surveyed in 1892, were eventually surveyed in 1907. Surveyors returned to the township once again in 1940 to resurvey the entire township, resulting in this record of the week plat.
Leavenworth, Washington, is a completely Bavarian-themed town east of Seattle. Founded in the late 1800's, long before it was Bavarian-themed, it was a gold mining and timber milling town originally called Icicle Flats. The Leavenworth railroad station can be seen in Section 6 in the survey plat. This railroad brought settlers to the area who were eager to cash in on the bountiful resources. However, after many successful years of industry, the railroad was rerouted through Wenatchee, Washington, in the 1920s. Because of the loss of the railroad, Leavenworth was nearly abandoned for 40 years.
Hotel Edelweiss, 1969 (source: flick r)
To prevent complete abandonment, town leaders sought to shift their main income from gold and timber development to tourism. In the 1960s, Seattle businessmen Ted Price and Bob Rodgers proposed adopting a Bavarian theme for the entire town. This idea was approved and the first building to be converted to a Bavarian style was the Chikamin Hotel, which was renamed Hotel Edelweiss (pictured above).
As the conversion continued through the 1970s, the town began hosting multiple annual festivals to further increase tourism. These festivals, which still take place today and are among the most popular seasonal festivals in the United States, include the Autumn Leaf Festival and Maifest, the annual spring celebration festival. But no festival in Leavenworth is as popular as the Christmas Lighting Festival.
Leavenworth, Washington, during the holiday season (source: flickr )
The Leavenworth Christmas Lights festival celebrates Christmas in this winter wonderland in the Pacific Northwest annually. Visitors can expect to see more than half a million Christmas lights on display throughout the town and Waterfront Park, where the town Christmas tree is. Activities include the Christmas Bazaar, craft fairs, meet-and-greets with Santa and Mrs. Claus, and a visit to the Nutcracker Museum, a two-story building with the most extensive collection of nutcrackers. Kids are also invited to participate in the Christmas Cookie Crawl in which vendors across the town give free cookies to children.
Visitors at the Christmas Lights Festival (source: Facebook )
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