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Home / Washington Business - January 2006 / Community Profile - Cle Elum: Growing Community Struggles to Maintain Small-Town Feel |
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Community Profile - Cle Elum: Growing Community Struggles to Maintain Small-Town Feel |
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Written On: January 2006 |
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Written By: by Shawn Sullivan |
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Traveling over Snoqualmie Pass to work each morning may not be the easiest commute, but as more people search for homes in small towns, they move farther and farther away from the shores of Puget Sound.
Cle Elum became a township in the early 1880s because of the logging industry, a new railroad built by Northern Pacific, and the discovery of nearby coal deposits. The coal industry supported Cle Elum until it collapsed in 1963, but it remains a significant part of the town’s ambiance—even more so today. Cle Elum’s size remained constant until Interstate 90 was built in 1971. Shortly thereafter, the town started growing and hasn’t stopped.
"When I first moved to Cle Elum in 1979, the price for a house with acreage was around $9,000," Dodie Kauzlarich, a local real estate agent for Re/Max, said. "That same house would sell for more than $200,000 today."
The rising cost of housing is primarily due to the exponential growth in the region. "When I first traveled to Seattle about 15 years ago, people always asked 'where is Cle Elum?'" Kauzlarich said. "Now people tell me how much they love it here."
Most of the people living in the town commute to King County’s east side—some as far as downtown Seattle. "We have seen a huge increase in the number of people living in Cle Elum and commuting to Seattle for work each day," Cle Elum-Roslyn Chamber of Commerce President Steve Locati said. "We are twice as far from Seattle as Monroe, but the reality is that it only takes 20 more minutes to drive from here." Most of the people choosing to commute relied on Cle Elum’s amenities and small town feel for their decision to relocate.
The town offers residents and visitors the opportunity to have fun year round through diverse activities and dining establishments. In the winter months, several local stores rent or sell ski equipment, snowshoes, sleds and snowmobiles to anyone with the desire to play in the snow. Guided tours are also available for people with little or no experience with the snow.
"With more than 600 miles of maintained trails at people’s disposal, we like to claim Cle Elum as the snowmobile capital of Washington," Locati said. "Most people come here because of our consistent snowfall, but also because we encourage and welcome snowmobilers."
Summer activities in Cle Elum are even more diverse with available guided horseback riding tours, fishing, hiking and hunting. "We have trails for every type of hiker or climber," Locati said. "We encourage hiking through our abundance of accessible public land, paved trails and forest service roads. We even have cliffs available for beginners and highly experienced climbers."
High altitude horseback excursions are also available most of the year for people who normally wouldn’t have the ability to see the top of the Cascades. Several of these camps will even board horses for people lacking space on their own property.
Cle Elum’s diversity also extends to the types of businesses within its city limits. It hosts businesses like a worldwide computer software exporter and a furnace register manufacturer that employs more than 100 people. "We have enough of a business infrastructure to be completely self-sufficient for several weeks if we get snowed in, but we never get snowed in," Locati said. "Cle Elum is home to almost all of the plows used to keep Interstate 90 open during the winter—that means we always get serviced first."
Generally, the only time the Washington Department of Transportation closes the pass is for avalanche control, which amounts to less than three days most years. With more than 50,000 cars and trucks making the trek across Snoqualmie Pass every day, DOT recognizes the necessity of keeping it open.
Cle Elum is a good place to fill up the gas tank. "Not only does Cle Elum have a major fuel stop for truckers, it also has the best pie in the state," Locati said. Cle Elum has restaurants that cater to almost any type of craving. "Many of the restaurants in town have been passed down from generation to generation, and the local bakery is renowned for the best baked goods in Washington because of its brick ovens," Locati said.
Along with the variety of restaurants, Cle Elum has its own small town version of Wal-Mart. Cle Elum Farm & Home Supply provides residents with everything from guns and ammunition to egg and muffin toasters. "We carry everything that Wal-Mart carries—except for groceries," owner Steve Dowen said.
One of the town’s more exotic companies is Pioneer Coffee Roasting Company, LLC, which takes Cle Elum’s small town approach to its coffee roasting—one batch at a time. The variety of goods and services found in Cle Elum is a sign of its continuous growth, but residents have mixed feelings about it.
Cle Elum’s biggest challenge came from a recent boom in construction of housing and commercial real estate. One of the largest sources of contention lies in the newly built Suncadia Resort Community, which is home to more than 6,300 acres of golf courses, housing and an inn with a mining theme. "Suncadia has been able to cooperate with residents and local businesses in working to keep the small town feel amidst the expansion of housing and services," Locati said.
"They have done a wonderful job of ensuring that 1,200 acres of land stay as a nature conservancy, and accomplished the daunting task of keeping as many trees as possible."
Some of the best designers in the country constructed Suncadia’s golf courses. The resort’s three 18-hole courses, one designed by [Arnold] Palmer Course Design Company and a second by Jacobsen Hardy Golf Course Design, welcome golfers at all experience levels. The best part of golfing at Suncadia is seeing herds of elk grazing the surrounding brush—an extremely common occurrence.
With so much growth surrounding Cle Elum, some fear the loss of the small town feel revered by many local residents, while others welcome the change. "We held a celebration for our first stop light," Kauzlarich said. "Who would ever dream we would have three."
Even with the recent boom in the residential housing market, people around the town go out of their way to say hello, smile and stop to let pedestrians to cross—even without a crosswalk. As Cle Elum comes into its own, it will continue facing the challenge of remaining small, despite booming growth.
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