This town used to be one of those places only the locals knew about. You know what we mean . . . the kind of secret spot you head for on your day off. Sweet, quiet, special.
Roslyn is still that kind of place. But these days, there`s a slight twist. It`s recognized by TV viewers as Cicely, Alaska, home of Dr. Joel Fleischman, a young New York doctor who is working off his medical scholarship by doing backwoods service.
Roslyn is where exteriors for ”Northern Exposure” are filmed. And now that the CBS show has been renewed for two years, tourists are beginning to find it.
Success hasn`t spoiled Roslyn. It`s still sleepy. It`s still cute and more than a little quaint. The locals still couldn`t care less about the TV hubbub. Besides, there`s still a lot going on here that has nothing to do with the show.
Roslyn seems far away from Seattle because it`s on the other side of Snoqualmie Pass. But it`s only 80 miles, and that 1 1/2-hour drive is part of the experience.
Interstate Highway 90 heads east, climbing into Washington`s heavily forested Cascade Mountains. This route is one of the most beautiful highways on the North American continent. And, appropriately, it looks like a slice of Alaska.
Masterpiece of nature
The Cascades rise in a wall of jagged peaks. In summer, it`s a tapestry of greens as the dark firs and spruce blend with the brighter hardwoods and the muted brush. In winter, the route becomes a frozen wonderland. (Note: If you decide to visit in winter, call 206-976-ROAD to check on pass conditions.) Past North Bend (home of another, now canceled, TV show, ”Twin Peaks”), start watching on the right. You`ll spot trestles of the abandoned Milwaukee Road rail line. The bridges and snowsheds cling to the side of the mountains looking like something from the 1890s.
The pass tops out at a fairly benign 3,022 feet. That`s Exit 52 (meaning 52 miles from downtown Seattle) and there you`ll find a collection of small ski areas. Well into April, there`s usually enough snow for sledding.
In summer, there`s mountain biking at Snoqualmie Summit ski area, where they have bikes for rent. For more information, call 206-232-8182.
Once over the pass, it gets much drier because you`re in the rain shadow of the Cascades.
There`s a great bike ride beyond Roslyn, heading east to a little wide spot in the road named Thorpe. In the 25 miles to Thorpe, the evergreen forest abruptly gives way to semi-desert.
You come around a curve and down a hill and suddenly, the ponderosa just stops, as if somebody had drawn a line on the ground. The landscape from this point on is a rolling golden grassland backed by basaltic cliffs whose sides fracture in crystalline lines. It`s stark and beautiful.
If a bike trek seems a bit much, you can also drive the route, taking I-90 or a series of back roads (ask for directions locally; it`s too
complicated to explain here).
In addition to the scenery, there`s the fruit stand in Thorpe. Actually, the fruit stand pretty much is Thorpe (Exit 101 off I-90). Upstairs is an antiques store where you can make an occasional find. Downstairs is a selection of local produce from the Wenatchee and Cashmere fruit-growing areas . . . apples, peaches, pears, plums and bulk bags of the sugar-covered, jellied candy (called Aplets & Cotlets) which have become the region`s signature sweet.
Meanwhile, in Roslyn . . .
Eventually, after all this wandering, you`ll want to get around to Roslyn itself. Roslyn is a collection of small, boxy, wood frame houses, a single main street (Pennsylvania) that looks like an Old West movie set, and lots of funky history.
The town was founded 107 years ago by six men in search of coal. Along the way, one of them named the place after his sweetheart`s hometown in New York State.
At its peak in the 1930s, Roslyn mined 600,000 tons of coal a year and had 17 bordellos, 23 taverns and 6,000 residents. Today, the head count is down to 869 (plus 664 dogs).
Roslyn`s claim to fame is that Bing Crosby`s brother, Everett, was born here (they have a letter in the local museum to prove it). The town`s main news flap (before television) was when someone discovered good ol` Joe, the crackerjack coal miner, was actually 19-year-old Gloria who had passed herself off as a man for 11 months. Seems that back then, in the 1940s, it was against state law for women to work in the mines.
All this information and lots of neat historical doodads can be thumbed through and otherwise peered at in Roslyn`s museum. The museum, at the end of Pennsylvania Street, is small and packed with old photos, mining tools, dolls, stereoscopic photos, shelves of clocks and shoes and much more.
The rest of Roslyn is . . . well . . . Roslyn. A sign in one shop says
”Open noonish to fiveish most afternoons” and that pretty much sums up main street business practices.
”City folk come expecting everything to open at 9 a.m. and a few get ticked off,” says Maria Fischer, a third-generation local. ”But that`s just the way things go here.”
You can do one of Roslyn`s three self-guided walking tours (pick up maps at the museum). They`re easy and fairly short and cue you in to all the good stuff . . . like how The Attic gift shop was once a bordello.
The town`s shops are also far better than you might expect. The Junque Palace overflows with the kind of antiques you thought got all picked over years ago: great bottles, an old dance hall piano, Goldwater for President pins, a milk bottling machine, old mining tools and some truly strange stuff, like huge nail clippers for dehorning cows.
The Attic is a series of rooms filled with everything from local jams and locally picked and packaged herb teas to handmade dolls. And you can get a picnic basket ($24.95) with a huge deli sandwich, tea cookies, fruit leathers, all kinds of chocolate-dipped nibbles and a bottle of regional root beer. The gift baskets are also worth a second look.
Want more to do? Hit the Brick Tavern (model for Holling`s Bar in the TV show). It`s 102 years old and claims to be the oldest continuously running tavern in the state of Washington.
Like everything else, the Brick is living history. The Moroccan mahogany back bar was shipped around Cape Horn. The running-water spittoon that stretches ankle height along the bar still functions (miners couldn`t smoke because of the chemicals in mines, so they chewed up a storm).
Don`t miss the jail in the Brick`s basement. It was built as a set for the 1980 movie ”The Runner Stumbles.” And have someone serve you the Brick`s famous popcorn; it`s sprinkled with brewer`s yeast and made in a circa-1920 popper.
Hungry? Try the Roslyn Cafe. It has killer sandwiches and if you like incredible desserts, order the deep-dish cobbler. Enjoy a locally brewed lager, then walk across the street to the Roslyn Brewery to see where it`s made.
On the edge of town (again, ask for directions) is the Roslyn Cemetery. This was the big tourist draw before ”Northern Exposure.” It`s divided into ethnic and fraternal sections . . . Serbs, Italians, Slavs, Oddfellows, Elks, Masons and something called Cacciatori D`Africa.
There are 26 sections, each with its own style of headstone. The most interesting stones are on the high ridge, where the older ones bear photos of those they memorialize.
Two miles down the road is the Old No. 3 tavern in the town of Ronald. When the coal mines closed in 1963, all the miners came here and tacked their hardhats to the ceiling. Since then, everybody`s been tacking stuff overhead: Bandanas, suspenders, a leg cast, some antlers, a few animal heads. But mostly hats . . . 1,050 of them as of the last count in 1988.
The Old No. 3 also serves some of the best hamburgers in the Northwest.
As for ”Northern Exposure,” don`t expect to trip over TV cameras and stars if you come for a visit. Filming is only allowed midweek and the cast takes May and June off.
Aside from a few props (a couple of moose antlers tacked to buildings and several shelves lined with ”hot set” tape in the pharmacy), there`s little sign that filming takes place here.
In a town where residents really do have antlers nailed to their trucks, it`s hard to tell the difference, anyway.
