Havillah, Washington — Farming at 3,500 Feet

Havillah sits high in the Okanogan Highlands near the Canadian border.

At roughly 3,500 feet, agriculture has to negotiate with snow, a short growing season and dry summers in ways farms in the irrigated valleys below do not.

Homesteaders raised cattle and sheep and grew wheat, oats, barley and hay where conditions allowed.

A Lutheran congregation became one of the community's durable institutions.

Winter recreation eventually found a use for the same snow that complicated farming.

Havillah remains dispersed, with ranches and homes spread through high country rather than gathered into an urban center.

The valley towns below can order water through irrigation systems.

Havillah depends much more heavily on what the sky decides to deliver.