Roslyn, Washington

We made it to Washington, and we are settled into a spot for the next couple of weeks. We are in Cle Elum, which is a cute little-ish town, with other even cuter and smaller towns close by.

Roslyn is about 5 miles from where we are staying. We were pretty excited to visit Roslyn, because it’s the town where Northern Exposure was filmed. We both watched the show in the 90’s when it was on, then about a year ago we watched the whole series on DVD.

If you watched Northern Exposure, you will remember this sign from the opening credits. The moose walked right by here.

They have a great old neon sign, and when we walked past, the food smelled delicious. We’ll have to go back.

Main street is only 2 blocks long, but the old store fronts on the buildings are great. We went inside a few of the stores and they are just as cool inside.

This is where Chris in the morning did the radio station stuff.

Dr. Flieshman’s office.

And of course, The Brick.

The Brick is actually the longest, continuously ran tavern in the state of Washington. It was built in 1889, and took 45,000 bricks. Hence the name.

The inside of the bar has been pretty unchanged since the beginning. The big bar itself, came from England when they opened. See the silver trough looking thing below the bar stools? That’s a 21′ water spittoon. The water still runs through it, like a mini river. I guess it probably doesn’t get used much anymore.

Roslyn began as a coal mining town. A huge vein of coal was discovered in 1883. By 1910 they had mined 2 million tons of coal. By the 1920’s diesel was replacing coal to power the trains, and the mines began closing. The last mine closed in 1963. In the 70’s the town started flourishing again as artists, and second home people began moving in.

in 1888 there was a big fire that wiped out most of the town. In 1889 they rebuilt, and most of the buildings were built with brick, or stone so they would be fire proof.

This giant mural of Marlon Brando was painted on the back of the movie theater. We talked to a woman who has lived in the town for 15 years, and she told us they are trying to raise money to restore the image.

You have to love a small town.

Everyone was super friendly, and you can really feel the small town vibe.

I went back a few days later, specifically to visit the Roslyn cemetery. You can read that post here. Roslyn cemeteries.