15 for ’26 Ride #15: Leavenworth, WA
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Check-in Location
Wooden carved nutcracker statue, 707 U.S. Highway 2, Leavenworth, WA 98826 (the statue is located in front of “A Book For All Seasons” bookstore, which is actually on Front St., parallel to U.S. Hwy 2)
Nestled in the foothills of Washington’s Cascade Mountains, the town of Leavenworth is proof you don’t have to travel to Europe to visit a Bavarian village. Complete with old world architecture, beer gardens, bratwurst, and bands playing oom-pah music, you’ll feel like you’ve been transported across the pond.
Leavenworth was originally named Icicle Flats in the 1880s. The name was later changed to honor Capt. Charles Leavenworth, an early settler who mapped the village. It was a boomtown throughout the early 20th century thanks to its lumber industry and rail transportation, but its fortunes declined after logging decreased and the rail lines were re-routed. In the early 1960s, town fathers developed plans to capitalize on its alpine ambiance and remade Leavenworth as a Bavarian mountain village, and the town now attracts some 2.5 million visitors each year.
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