Hidden river valleys meld into high, grassy plains. Soon you're gazing at a cluster of long-abandoned pioneer farm buildings next to a reed-lined pond that could as well be a mirage. Farther yet and you're in the ruins of a mining village that one hundred years ago was anxious and optimistic with the vices and dreams of half a thousand pilgrims.

The search for gold was fairly successful but temporary, and farming and ranching took over to support the newcomers. Today's orchards and commercial crops sustain a relatively sparse population. Long-time residents here are hardworking, content in their remoteness, and favor the outdoors. Here's what really invited my attention: Out in the hills you can still buy a spread for under a grand an acre, build your own homestead without hardly nobody watchin', and even stake a mining claim if that suits you. Now that's progress!

It was early morning in late summer as I departed the town of Tonasket for the hills. There had been talk of wildfires over in the Pasayten and down on the Colville Reservation, but thus far the only heat was the August sun on my shoulders in the open-topped car.

I set out northward for Loomis, which rests within orchard-fringed hills here the Sinlahekin River joins the Similkameen Valley below Palmer Lake. The town tells much of the story of all the small settlements that began in the Okanogan country in the late 1800s. The cattle companies arrived in these valleys and at first coexisted with the local tribes. As populations grew, pioneers began farming the land, disregarding the natives' long-standing presence. Gold miners who had trickled in from spent claims up north on the Fraser River found pockets of rich ore all about the north-central part of the state. From the 1880s to the mid-twentieth century, mines succeeded and failed; towns boomed and busted.

Away up the rocky draws and creases in the Similkameen are the ghosts of several once-productive lodes. Eventually, the Indians traded away rights to the land, the cattle ranches downsized, the mines closed, and apple orchards are now the less-contentious wealth of this peaceful and sensuous country.

-from Backroad Trip 10, "In Search of Gold: High on the Okanogan Highlands"