Help me find a lovely little Washington town? (Seattle, Vancouver: house, to buy)

[Cinebar]

Originally Posted by cjg5

Roslyn, Cle Elum and South Cle Elum, Salmon La Sac, Winthrop, Omak, Chelan, Waterville, Easton, Orondo, Entiat, Ellensburg, North Bend, Snoqualmie, Teanaway, Cashmere, Monitor, Leavenworth, White Salmon, Trout Lake, Naches, Morton, Liberty (okay not really, Liberty is nearly a ghost town with just one small general store and only a few residents, it's an old mining town, but neat area none the less), and then there are the more desert areas such as Vantage, George, Quincy, Othello, Euphrata, Coulee City, Soap Lake, Electric City, Grand Coulee, etc.

You might also like some areas in and around Walla Walla.

Morton? I live very close to Morton and I'm not sure I would necessarily have it on the list.

It's a decent little town, but there is a lot of unemployment (this county, last I looked, has around 15%) and not much at all in Morton - unless you want to work your butt off in one the two sawmills in the town. Not to mention getting hurt or killed - I worked in one of the mills and ended up losing a good part of my right hand and a young kid got killed in the same mill a few months back.

The closest towns that would have any meaningful employment (and not much there either) would be Chehalis/Centralia and they would be about a 40 mile commute (one way).

Much of the downtown area is in the shadow of a mountain during the winter months - where the sun never comes up over the mountain which is just to the south of the town and parts of the downtown is in the shade of that mountain for several months a year - even on a brilliantly bright winter day - and it is very cold in that winter shade!

During the summer months, though, the town is kind of pretty, with all the businesses putting out huge hanging baskets of colorful petunias. And then there is the Logger's Jubilee every August, which is kind of a big deal.

There seems to be a bit of a meth problem there, though.

Before moving here, I was trying to find a place around Goldendale. Lots of sun there! The downtown area, back six and seven years ago, was pretty much dead and had been turned into kind of a strip mall for second-hand stores, which was fine with me! They also had a radio station and had the station piped to speakers along the main street - so you could hear music as you walked around.

I think the OP mentioned something about horses - I think the Goldendale area is big on that kind of stuff, but I couldn't swear to it.

Probably not much employment there, either, unless someone is willing to go across the river to The Dalles, which really doesn't have much either, now that I think about it.

[Bill Loney]

Originally Posted by Kaib13

Thanks Inkpoe. I know what you mean, Wenatchee looks great! I'm glad to hear it's not as touristy as I'd thought. I'll look into Camas too.

Camas doesn't get very much snow. Wenatchee is a much better bet. Even parts near Yakima or up in Pend Oreille County

[Cinebar]

I used to live in Clark County and there's gotten to be such a huge case of urban sprawl throughout there, I guess I wouldn't exactly consider Camas "lovely," if just for that reason.

There are a couple of other towns in the Gorge, though - Stevenson and White Salmon - that the OP might want to take a look at.

[amerideaf]

Oh, my! Thanks for providing lots of town names so I will explore these towns within few months.

[cjg5]

Okay fair enough. I've only really been through Morton a few times during the summer en route to Rimrock Lake for camping. Seemed like a nice place lol.

[restless in woodland wa]

personaly i feel camas is a nice up and coming area and allot of 30s aged middle to upper class profeshional people are moving into this area with there young families and making it there home for life.
next camas has some of the best schools in all of clark county as well as some of the best highest rated tearchers in the in tire state of wa.
further more camas really is not camas any more and instead is becoming a part of the bigger vancover well at least out on the eastside.
with this said i personaly like camas and have considered moving out to the camas area from cowlitz county city of woodland.
but i will not due to the fact it is clark county as a hole sucks and they have some of the highest utilty rates in the in tire state of wa and there is no reason for this other than clark county is stuck under bonavile power admit and there gready and want taxs and mores taxs.
also when the rate payers were to resive a refund on utilty costs due to over charge clack county kept the money in there rainy day fund instead of giving it back to the buiness and the public again greed over the people.
yet cowlitz county did the right thing and gave it back to the consumers and buniess.
next as i said like realy like camas and did consider moving there in a couple .
but i am not going to due to utlity rates and due to the fact it is in clark county a county i would much rather not be in any time soon.
lastly when i do move out of cowlitz county woodland it will be up to western wa some were on the op with in the rain shadow area.
restless in woodland

[Cinebar]

Originally Posted by cjg5

Okay fair enough. I've only really been through Morton a few times during the summer en route to Rimrock Lake for camping. Seemed like a nice place lol.

I think I would pick Packwood over Morton.

Again, though, not much in employment. Plus, it is very isolated for any kind of shopping and services. I think Packwood is 50 miles from me..... which would put Chehalis/Centralia 75-80 miles away, which would be the closest to any real choice of grocery stores and other shopping. I know you can get to Tacoma by going out that highway that goes between the Shell mini mart and the motel but I'm not sure how far you have to go before you start hitting any stores or other businesses.

Packwood does have that herd of elk that wanders around town, though!

Of course, the Packwood elk also create a major danger on the highway - a county deputy got killed a couple of years ago when he hit one while responding to a domestic violence call.

[amerideaf]

Camas is next to a bigger city of Vancouver, WA so it could not meet to the OP's request.

[amerideaf]

I found an older forum about "Small Washington Town"

[willow9713]

Check out Longview or Long Beach