As I drive down the winding ribbon of Squilchuck Road on my way into town, no matter what time of year, the scene is beautiful. Like a stage, created to change with each act, this one is decorated with rows of apple and pear trees, neatly aligned on both sides of the roadway that provide a visual display: lush greenery in spring and summer, turning to bustling activity in fall - tractors, four-wheelers and jostling wooden boxes - during picking time. Then, as the trees drop leaves, some turn to yellow and orange, and the anticipation of the final act hangs in the air. Trees and houses and land all wait to be dusted with nature’s white frosting. And we head up the hill to ski.

 

At the last bend in the road, just before the bottom of the hill, I look Southeast where the teal blue of the Columbia River sparkles in the morning sunshine reminding me of journeys and connections and stories this waterway holds as it meanders from Canada to the Pacific Ocean. My route takes me up Skyline Drive where an expansive view of the valley spreads out before me, from Quincy to the Southeast to Entiat, North, framed in the gentle brown hills punctuated by sagebrush, a Ponderosa Pine or two, and the jagged remnants of ancient volcano rock and sandstone. I’ve come to love this scenery now, although at first it seemed naked and sparse, lonesome. Now, it provides a quiet respite, space to stretch out and to breathe, a shelter from the chaos of traffic and five lanes of freeway that I came from not long ago.

 

And so we love this valley for its beauty. We who live here are drawn to the beauty of four seasons, the enterprise displayed in our orchards and vineyards and hospitals and restaurants and schools and factories. We enjoy many opportunities for work and play, and so our economy is dependent upon the occupations that support all that we have in this valley.

 

We enjoy the splendor of our valley, the strengths and the magnitude of what we have to offer here, all the things that sing to us about who we are.

 

We love to truly welcome visitors to our valley, to share our plenty, and we care about each other and our quality of life in this valley. We have beauty, pure, real, natural, unadulterated beauty, unspoiled by neon signs and inhospitable freeways, and overwhelming visual chaos.