Winthrop is a town in Okanogan County, Washington, United States. It is located on the North Cascades Highway, east of Mazama and north of Twisp. The town's population was 504 at the 2020 census. Winthrop lies at the confluence of the Methow and Chewuch rivers near the eastern foothills of the Cascade Mountains.
The town was founded in 1890 after the Methow Valley, the homeland of the indigenous Methow people, was opened to white settlement. Winthrop was named for author and explorer Theodore Winthrop, who visited Washington Territory in the 1860s. The town was incorporated in 1924 and continues to operate under a mayor–council government.
Winthrop adopted an Old West theme for its downtown architecture in 1971 to prepare for the opening of the North Cascades Highway. The town is a regional tourist attraction and is also a base for outdoor recreation.
History
Prehistory and early settlement
Native Americans, including the Methow people, were the first inhabitants of Winthrop, with evidence of human habitation at least 8,000 to 10,000 years before present. They lived along the banks of the Methow and Chewuch rivers, where they harvested camas root and berries, fished, and hunted. The Methow had seasonal camps and returned annually to the upper valley in the summer once they acquired horses in the 18th century. The Columbia Plateau peoples, including the Methow and Syilx, established routes over Cascade Pass to trade with Coast Salish tribes in modern-day Skagit Valley. The population of the Methow people and other Columbia Plateau tribes were devastated by smallpox epidemics by the 19th century. The tribes under the leadership of Chief Moses were assigned by the federal government to the Columbia Reservation in 1879, which included the Methow Valley.
The Columbia Reservation was dissolved by the federal government in 1883 to allow for white settlement of the Methow Valley, which was opened on May 1, 1886. The Methow people were then moved further east to the Colville Indian Reservation. The first white residents of the valley were brothers Tom and Jim Robinson, who had a hunting camp at the confluence but later left. A homestead near the modern-day town was claimed in 1887 by James Sullivan and Louisa Sullivan, who built the first hotel in the area; they were followed in 1888 by Walter Frisbee, who established a trading post and blacksmith shop. The Chiliwist Trail between the Okanogan and Methow valleys was the main transportation corridor for the area but was unsuited to wagon travel; it was replaced in 1891 by a pair of new roads funded by settlers in the area that allowed for stagecoach service connecting to Brewster on the Columbia River.
Founding and development
The town of Winthrop was founded in 1890 by local settlers. The namesake, according to U.S. Congressman John L. Wilson, is author and explorer Theodore Winthrop, who had published the memoir The Canoe and the Saddle in 1862 after a visit to Washington Territory. The town's first trading post and general store was opened in January 1892 by Guy Waring of Boston, who moved with his family to the confluence of the Chewuch and Methow rivers a year before. He took over the Winthrop post office, which had been established on June 18, 1891, and unsuccessfully attempted to rename the town "Waring" despite local backlash. Waring left the Methow Valley for several years during the economic depression to raise $15,000 in funds for a new venture, the Methow Trading Company. His company acquired almost all of the buildings in the town and opened various businesses, including a sawmill, gristmill, and a hotel. Waring built a spacious new home, named the "Castle" by local residents, on a hillside overlooking Winthrop; it now serves as the home of the Shafer Museum.
Gold was discovered northwest of the Methow Valley near in 1892 and caused a gold rush that brought 1,000 people to the small settlement of Barron. Winthrop remained the main hub of the upper valley with an industry centered around cattle ranching, logging, and supplying nearby mines. Waring opened the Duck Brand Saloon in 1891 and instituted unusually strict rules that required drunk patrons to leave and prohibited bartenders from talking to patrons. The saloon was among the only structures to survive a major fire in 1893 that destroyed the town but closed in 1910; it was later converted into the town hall. Owen Wister, Waring's former roommate at Harvard University, wrote The Virginian, considered the first American western novel, after honeymooning in Winthrop in 1892 and 1898. Waring continued to expand his business with branch stores in several mining towns as well as Pateros and Twisp.
Most of the Methow Valley was incorporated into the Washington Forest Reserve by an executive order signed by President Grover Cleveland on February 22, 1897. The order prevented further settlement and development of the area around Winthrop, but residents protested due to the area's existing use for agriculture; it was modified in 1901 to remove the valley from the protected area. The townsite of Winthrop was formally platted by the Methow Trading Company in 1897 and approved by the county government in 1901. A rival town to the south named Heckendorn was platted in 1904 and had several businesses that eroded Waring's monopoly on the upper Methow Valley. A new road along the Methow River from Pateros to the town and upper valley was completed by the state government in 1909 using convict labor and modern construction methods. In the 1910s, Winthrop gained telephone service, a newspaper named the Winthrop Eagle, a school, and a bank. Waring left the area in 1917 after losing control of the Methow Trading Company and a failed attempt at ranching. He sold his "Castle", which was used by a local Episcopal Church and later as a private residence. The U.S. Forest Service opened a ranger station in the town that same year.
Incorporation and growth
Winthrop was incorporated on March 12, 1924, and included the downriver settlement of Heckendorn and a plot of land across the Methow River. The town was threatened by major floods of the river in 1916, 1933, and 1948 that destroyed homes and bridges. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service opened the Winthrop National Fish Hatchery on the Methow River in 1942, which produced salmon and trout to be stocked at local lakes and released into the river. The area around Winthrop developed into a destination for outdoor recreation in the middle of the 20th century with the opening of several dude ranches and resorts. The Sunny M Ranch was established in the 1930s west of the town and expanded under various owners into the Sun Mountain Lodge, which opened in 1968 and encompasses and a luxury hotel.
Plans to build an open pit mine for copper as well as a ski resort, named Early Winters Ski Resort, near Mazama were announced in the 1970s but never realized. The town later annexed southwest of the Methow River that would include new residential areas and an industrial zone.
Westernization project
The first plans to build an automobile route across the North Cascades from Bellingham Bay to the Columbia River were approved by the state legislature in 1893. Construction of the final across the mountains did not begin until 1961 and was opened to traffic on September 2, 1972. In anticipation of the new highway and the projected tourist traffic through the town, a large-scale remodeling project was approved in 1971 with funding from local businesses organized by sawmill operator Otto Wagner and his wife Kathryn. A two-block section of downtown was rebuilt to use 1890s Old West architecture, including false fronts and a wooden boardwalk; by September 1972, 22 buildings had been remodeled. The early design work was contracted to Robert Jorgensen, one of the designers of the Bavarian theme town in Leavenworth, and the project was estimated to cost over $350,000. A design review board was established to maintain the architectural theme, enforced by a "Westernization" ordinance. The wooden façade of the Winthrop Emporium, a major tourist store, was destroyed in a fire in November 1993 and rebuilt the following year. The town's landmark bell was saved from the fire.
Geography
Winthrop lies in western Okanogan County at the confluence of the Methow and Chewuch rivers in the Methow Valley. The town is in the eastern foothills of the Cascade Mountains at an elevation of . According to the United States Census Bureau, Winthrop has an area of , all land. , there are approximately 722 parcels in the town, of which 258 are single-family homes and 279 are undeveloped. The Okanogan–Wenatchee National Forest and state-managed Methow Wildlife Area surround the Methow Valley. The area includes sandstone formations as well as features that were formed by volcanic activity.
Climate
Like most of northeastern Washington, Winthrop has a humid continental climate (Köppen Dsb), with cold, snowy winters and very warm summers with cool nights and little rainfall. In the winter, temperatures in the Methow Valley regularly drop below , but are also able to reach as high as due to warm Chinook winds. Winthrop and Mazama recorded the coldest temperature ever measured in Washington state at on December 30, 1968. Winthrop also has the coldest average month in the state, with January minimum temperatures at . The hottest temperature recorded in Winthrop was on June 30, 2021, during a regional heat dome event.
Western Okanogan County is prone to wildfires in the summer, which can shut down the North Cascades Highway as well as local businesses reliant on tourism. The 2021 wildfire season included two major fires in the Methow Valley that caused long-term evacuations and smoke inundation. The Cedar Creek and Cub Creek fires both started in early July and were contained by September after burning a combined . By late July, the air quality index in Winthrop had reached as high as 429—the worst in the United States—and was compared to Mordor from The Lord of the Rings by a National Weather Service office. The following month, Illinois-based Instant Brands donated 2,000 air purifiers to the town to be distributed to residents. A wildfire in late June 2026 resulted in an evacuation notice to be issued for central Winthrop by the county government.
Economy
The economy of Winthrop, like other areas of the Methow Valley, historically relied on mining and logging alongside agriculture but later transitioned to tourism and outdoor recreation. Winthrop is known for the American Old West design of all its buildings, making it a tourist destination. The town theme idea was inspired by the example of Leavenworth, Washington, which in turn was heavily based on Solvang, California. The town had a total of 109,000 visitors recorded in 2017; during the COVID-19 pandemic, an estimated 477,000 visitors stayed overnight in the Methow Valley and contributed $69.7million to the local economy despite travel restrictions. Among its businesses is Three Fingered Jack's, a saloon that opened in 1972 and was fined by the state government for using the term "saloon", which was not legalized for bars until 1979.