Cle Elum

A former railroad, coal, and logging town, Cle Elum (pronounced "klee ell-um") now caters to travelers stopping for a breath of air before or after tackling Snoqualmie Pass. Outside town is the ever-growing, world-class Suncadia Resort, one of Washington's finest destination resorts. It's actually closer to Roslyn, a former coal-mining town just 3 miles northwest of Cle Elum. Roslyn gained notoriety as the stand-in for the fictional Alaskan village of Cicely on the 1990s TV show Northern Exposure. Today, Cicely's Gift Shop on the town's main drag sells memorabilia, and the radio-station set can be viewed a block away at the old Northwestern Improvement Co. building. Roslyn is also notable for its 26 ethnic cemeteries, established by communities of miners in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and clustered on a hillside west of town.