Lucerne, Washington — Dock Is the Front Door

Lucerne sits on Lake Chelan without a highway connection to the outside road network, which gives its dock a job most docks never have.

People, groceries, fuel, building materials and visitors arrive by water. For Holden Village farther up Railroad Creek, Lucerne is the transfer point between lake transportation and the mountain road inland.

The arrangement continues a much older Lake Chelan pattern. Steamboats once linked mines, orchards, resorts and isolated settlements along a lake where steep mountains made road building difficult.

Most communities have several ways in. At Lucerne, the front door floats.