Winthrop

History

Native Americans, including the Methow people, were the first inhabitants of Winthrop, with evidence of human habitation at least 8,000 to 10,000 years before present. They lived along the banks of the Methow and Chewuch rivers, where they harvested camas root and berries, fished, and hunted. The Methow had seasonal camps and returned annually to the upper valley in the summer once they acquired horses in the 18th century. The population of the Methow people and other Columbia Plateau tribes were devastated by smallpox epidemics by the 19th century. The tribes under the leadership of Chief Moses were assigned by the federal government to the Columbia Reservation in 1879, which included the Methow Valley. The Columbia Reservation was dissolved by the federal government in 1883 to allow for white settlement of the Methow Valley, which was opened on May 1, 1886. The Methow people were then moved further east to the Colville Indian Reservation. The town's first trading post and general store was opened in January 1892 by Guy Waring of Boston, who moved with his family to the confluence of the Chewuch and Methow rivers a year before. He took over the Winthrop post office, which had been established on June 18, 1891, and unsuccessfully attempted to rename the town "Waring" despite local backlash. Gold was discovered northwest of the Methow Valley near in 1892 and caused a gold rush that brought 1,000 people to the small settlement of Barron. Owen Wister, Waring's former roommate at Harvard University, wrote The Virginian, considered the first American western novel, after honeymooning in Winthrop in 1892 and 1898. A rival town to the south named Heckendorn was platted in 1904 and had several businesses that eroded Waring's monopoly on the upper Methow Valley. The town was…

Geography

Winthrop lies in western Okanogan County at the confluence of the Methow and Chewuch rivers in the Methow Valley. According to the United States Census Bureau, Winthrop has an area of , all land. The Okanogan–Wenatchee National Forest and state-managed Methow Wildlife Area surround the Methow Valley. The area includes sandstone formations as well as features that were formed by volcanic activity. Like most of northeastern Washington, Winthrop has a humid continental climate (Köppen Dsb), with cold, snowy winters and very warm summers with cool nights and little rainfall. In the winter, temperatures in the Methow Valley regularly drop below , but are also able to reach as high as due to warm Chinook winds. Winthrop and Mazama recorded the coldest temperature ever measured in Washington state at on December 30, 1968. Winthrop also has the coldest average month in the state, with January minimum temperatures at . The hottest temperature recorded in Winthrop was on June 30, 2021, during a regional heat dome event. Western Okanogan County is prone to wildfires in the summer, which can shut down the North Cascades Highway as well as local businesses reliant on tourism. The 2021 wildfire season included two major fires in the Methow Valley that caused long-term evacuations and smoke inundation. The Cedar Creek and Cub Creek fires both started in early July and were contained by September after burning a combined . By late July, the air quality index in Winthrop had reached as high as 429—the worst in the United States—and was compared to Mordor from The Lord of the Rings by a National Weather Service office. The following month, Illinois-based Instant Brands donated 2,000 air purifiers to the town to be distributed to residents. A wildfire in late June 2026 resulted in…

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  3,350
• Northern Flicker

  Colaptes auratus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  2,963
• Common Raven

  Corvus corax Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  2,710
• Black-capped Chickadee

  Poecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  2,387
• Spotted Towhee

  Pipilo maculatus Swainson, 1827 · Aves
  2,086
• Red-breasted Nuthatch

  Sitta canadensis Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  1,782
• Red-winged Blackbird

  Agelaius phoeniceus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  1,702
• Western Wood-Pewee

  Contopus sordidulus P.L.Sclater, 1859 · Aves
  1,571

Most recent

• M 2.77 — 2025-11-30
  8 km ESE of Loomis, Washington
• M 3.31 — 2025-11-21
  9 km ESE of Loomis, Washington
• M 2.85 — 2025-11-19
  8 km E of Loomis, Washington
• M 2.77 — 2025-11-15
  8 km E of Loomis, Washington
• M 2.52 — 2025-09-10
  4 km NW of Waterville, Washington
• M 2.6 — 2025-08-10
  47 km SSW of Princeton, Canada