Need Small Town Suggestions. Metaline Falls?

[seismo07]

Hi Mr Small Town. I moved to Ione Washington, 14 miles south of Metaline Falls, two years ago from Southern California. I too, was tired of the rat race. I love Ione. It is spread out and varied. There are lots of places to live outside of town with lots of open space. I am on five acres along the Pend Oreille River 5 miles south of Ione proper, about 25 miles south of British Columbia. Lots of wildlife. I have a home based business also and have satellite internet. While cell phone service isn't the greatest here, I believe Verizon is soon putting a tower here somewhere. We can get service with an antenna attached to our window, or walk out to the end of our driveway. Just outside of our area, cell phones work pretty normal without any help. There are around 450 people here and the beauty is unsurpassed. Call me biased, but... Anyway, Metaline Falls is also very nice and pretty and they do have local dial up internet, not sure about satellite. Cell phone is very localized, so I'm not sure if you can use any big name services.

[Mounty]

I went through there a few weeks ago. The location is spectacular, but the town itself looks very poor and uncute. Average household income is about 18000$ if I remember correctly. It has about 200 people and is far far away from civilization (Spokane). You might also consider proximity to the nearest hospital which is I think is in Newport about 30 miles away.

[NCWmark]

Another possibility is North Central Washington. Because of all the dams, the electricity is affordable and the Public Utility Districts have all rolled out fiberoptics for pretty much everyone. As far as recreation... mountains (the Cascades), lakes (Chelan, Roosevelt, Banks, etc), rivers (Wenatchee, Columbia, Methow, Okanogan, etc) and desert areas are all plentiful and within about a half hour drive from almost anywhere in the region.

Pictures of North Central Washington

[northwest_waterbaby]

how rural are we talking about? Look into Port Angeles, Forks & Sequim in Northwest Washington. I lived in Metaline Falls. I too like the small towns, but it is so far away form everything. I only knew people in Chewelah, a little over an hour away. I must say it is gorgeous though! I'll always be partial to the northwest though.

[Small and solar]

Originally Posted by Dean-O

Hey! we have DSL and satellite internet and our local library is a wy fi hot spot (whatever THAT is). My cell phone works everywhre, but I have AT&T. I remember my realtor's never working anywhere he took me to see land, don't know what service he had...

--Kettle Falls, WA

Good information. Who was your Realtor? would you recommend them?