Apple Country: The Orchards of the Wenatchee Valley
Near Leavenworth, Washington
Downstream from Leavenworth, the valley opens into warmer benchlands with good drainage, long sunny days, and the semi-arid climate of the eastern Cascades rain shadow. These are ideal conditions for tree fruit. Irrigation from the Wenatchee River began in eighteen ninety-one, mainly for orchards, and canals built across the dry slopes converted thousands of acres into orchards.
The Wenatchee Valley became known as the Apple Capital of the World, a title the city of Wenatchee still claims today. Washington State now produces roughly sixty percent of the apples grown in the United States, and the heart of that production runs along the Columbia River and its tributaries, with the Wenatchee drainage among the most productive. Many varieties are grown in the valley today, and new ones are continually being developed and planted.
Around Leavenworth itself the narrower canyon limits large orchard acreage, but the town sits close enough to the apple district to share its seasonal rhythms. Harvest comes in the fall, and the orchards on the benchlands above the valley floor light up with the color of ripening fruit. Apple storage and packing facilities once lined the valley roads, and the work of the harvest still defines the agricultural economy of this part of the state.
