Grant Mcconnell

Stehekin: a Valley in Time Grant Mcconnell

Imagine a valley of incomparable natural beauty, accessible only by boat, seaplane, or foot, and protected from the ambiguous benefits of modern civilization by craggy, snow-covered peaks and an alpine lake 55 miles long. Then imagine a small, close knit community of fiercely independent Americans whose economic system was based not on supply and demand but on ideas of need, ability, and neighborliness.

This was Stehekin at the end of World War II, not an exotic Shangri-La in some remote corner of the world, but a mountain valley located less than 120 miles from downtown Seattle, in the Cascade Range of Washington. Because Stehekin was and still is so remote and only accessible by boat or on foot, American pioneer values and lifestyles survived there long after they had vanished in the nation as a whole.

In Stehekin, McConnell has captured with warmth, thoughtfulness, and humor, the unique people and quality of life he found in the valley. This is also the story of the valley itself, of a sequestered beauty that better than most has weathered the ravages of time and progress. This book is a bittersweet account of a time and a place that was the American past.