On May 28, 1897, the Methow Trading Company of Winthrop, Okanogan County, is formally incorporated under the laws of the State of Washington. Capitalized by Eastern investors, it is an expansion of a mercantile venture started in 1892 by Guy Waring (1859?-1936), considered the father of Winthrop. The company acquires land and plats the town in 1901. For several decades, under Waring as president, the Methow Trading Company supplies townsfolk, ranchers, and miners with the necessities of life and occupation. It establishes branches in other towns in the Methow Valley and in mining camps in the Cascades. Gradually these fail, until only the store at Winthrop remains. The company loses additional money on Waring's pet project, an apple ranch. In 1916 Waring gives up control of the company and in 1924 resigns altogether. The company goes into a long period of liquidation until its demise in 1934. The failure of Waring's ventures in Winthrop obscures his overall contribution to the survival of a precarious frontier town in the remote Methow Valley.
Fire District 6 proceeds with site clearing for new Winthrop station
- Details
- Court Creighton
- Local News
- Hits: 636
WINTHROP — Okanogan County Fire District 6 is in the process of clearing the building site at its property on Horizon Flats Rd, where the new Winthrop fire station will be built. The District is trying to do as much of the site clearing work as possible with volunteer labor in order to save taxpayer funds.
Back-to-back storms temporarily close SR 20 for the weekend, Nov. 13-16
- Details
- Court Creighton
- Local News
- Hits: 636
WINTHROP – The WSDOT has declared that the North Cascades Highway is closed as of Friday evening, due to heavy snowfall and risk of avalanche danger.
Starlink internet service begins public beta in the Methow Valley
- Details
- Court Creighton
- Local News
- Hits: 2274
WINTHROP – Beginning October 26th, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) went into a public beta - limited to northern latitudes of the US - with its low-Earth orbit satellite internet service, called Starlink. The hype was that it would be a low latency, high bandwidth, internet service to under-served areas such as the great expanse of rural America where terrain, distance or the plodding of a bureaucratic and outdated telco, prevent any decent connection to the internet, and, in many cases, no connection at all.
Methow Trading Company in Winthrop is incorporated on May 28, 1897
- Details
- Laura Arksey - HistoryLink.org
- History
- Hits: 1082
Civilized Discourse
- Details
- Court Creighton
- Site Info
- Hits: 923
This is a Civilized Place for Public Discussion
Please treat this discussion forum with the same respect you would a public park. We, too, are a shared community resource — a place to share skills, knowledge and interests through ongoing conversation.
These are not hard and fast rules, merely aids to the human judgment of our community. Use these guidelines to keep this a clean, well-lighted place for civilized public discourse.