Fake German Villages

I thought I might talk a bit about why there exist fake German villages in America for McCain to do photo ops at.

The fake German village in Washington state where I live is called Leavenworth. And it’s history is as follows:

A sawmill and a healthy logging industry eventually fell apart, however, when the Great Northern Railway Company pulled out of Leavenworth. The re-routing of the railroad and the subsequent closure of the sawmill sadly converted the town from a bustling, thriving hub of commerce into a hollow, empty community. For more than thirty years, Leavenworth lived on the brink of extinction.

But in the early 1960’s, everything changed. In a last-chance effort to turn their precarious situation around, the leaders of the community decided to change Leavenworth’s appearance, hoping to bring tourism into the area. Using the beautiful backdrop of the surrounding Alpine hills to their advantage, the town agreed to remodel their hamlet in the form of a Bavarian village.

A lot of my friends refuse to go to Leavenworth because they say it’s too kitschy. So is Bavaria I say. Talk about garden gnomes.

One thing that strikes you when you go to Leavenworth is that everyone who’s in on the ruse is in their 60′s. It’ll be interesting to see if the next generation will carry on the tradition. Currently, it looks like the younger members of the town have an adverse reaction to wearing lederhosen. And who can blame them?