Goose Prairie, Washington — Place People Liked Because It Was Hard to Reach

Goose Prairie is a remote mountain community near the Bumping River, where isolation became part of the attraction rather than a problem to solve.

Homesteaders and ranchers arrived in the early twentieth century, but the area's best-known resident came looking for something less developed. U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas kept a cabin at Goose Prairie and wrote extensively about wilderness, conservation and the Cascades.

Other writers, conservationists and outdoor enthusiasts were drawn to the same qualities: forest, mountains and considerable distance from ordinary urban life.

Goose Prairie remains a collection of cabins and homes rather than a conventional town. Mountain roads provide access through national-forest country, and winter can make the mileage from Yakima feel optimistic.

Its reputation came from people who valued the fact that very little happened to it.