Sunnyslope, Washington — Orchard Hills Became Wenatchee's North Side

Sunnyslope shows Wenatchee's growth in rows: first fruit trees, increasingly houses.

Irrigation turned slopes and terraces north of the city into orchard ground, and agriculture organized the landscape for generations. As Wenatchee expanded, residential development pushed into those parcels and former orchard land became valuable for homes, schools and businesses.

One landmark tells a different cultivation story. Beginning in the late 1920s, Herman and Ruth Ohme hauled water and planted evergreens across a rocky bluff, creating the alpine landscape that became Ohme Gardens.

Sunnyslope still looks unmistakably like Wenatchee Valley country. What climbs the hills, however, is increasingly housing rather than fruit.