Suncadia, Washington — Landscape Became the Product

Suncadia occupies upper Kittitas Valley land shaped for generations by coal, timber and railroads.

Those industries valued the landscape for what could be removed from it.

The resort economy reversed the calculation.

As extraction declined, former timberland became the site of a planned community with golf, trails, lodging and vacation homes.

Interstate 90 put the property within practical reach of Seattle-area residents.

Land once priced by timber volume or mineral potential could now be priced by views, recreation and proximity to a golf course.

Suncadia is not an old mining town reinventing itself.

It is a newer community built after the region discovered that the mountains themselves could be the product.