3 Best Sights in North Central Washington, Washington

At this engaging living history museum on the edge of the historic hamlet of Cashmere—midway between Wenatchee and Leavenworth—you can explore an excellent collection of Native American artifacts, as well as 20 pre-1900 Chelan County buildings that have been reassembled and furnished with period furniture and other historical objects. Surrounded by snowcapped mountain peaks, Cashmere is one of Washington's oldest towns, founded by Oblate missionaries back in 1863, when the Wenatchi and their vast herds of horses still roamed free over the bunch grasslands of the region.

The museum is made up of several downtown buildings that nod to Winthrop's colorful mining and ranching past, including "the castle," a late-19th-century log house built by one of the town's pioneer founders. Other structures include a country store, print shop, schoolhouse, women's dress shop, and an open-air display of vintage mining equipment. Although you can go inside the buildings in summer only, the grounds alone are worth a stroll and are open year-round.

Located in two connected early-1900s former government buildings, the city's well-designed history museum contains Native American and pioneer artifacts, exhibits on Washington's famed apple industry, and a display about the 1931 landing of the first-ever nonstop flight across the Pacific, which went from Japan to Wenatchee. Children enjoy the hands-on area and the model railway. The museum also displays works by Northwest artists.