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Show dllOMdl on Bavarian tfiamad If you believe in miracles, then you might think the town of Leavenworth, Wash., (pap. 2,074) has received more than its fair share of magic dust. In the 1960s, the community in the eastern foothills of the Cascade Mountains was living on Info of the brink of extinction; die commerce all but dried up, once-thrivi- ng its people moving away. The logging industry was going downhill," says Pauline Wnson,75,a move of Leavenworth. "The mill Edbe, and the high school newspaper called the YMtr, mountains surrounding the snow-capp- ed forested hamlet. Enter the late Heinz Ulbricht, a designer from Bavaria who had moved to the West Coast in the 19601 and heaid about die Leavenworth undertaking. Ulbricht ottered to help, transforming some of the fiwr hiiMingi, inrhiding Alpine Electric a busi-ne- w owned by Wksoo and her late husband, Owen into die Bavarian motif. Shop owners nervously pulled out many years began to mortgage their before, and die railroad chat homes and renovate store- originally built the town moved to Wenatchee." The final straw for the central Washington town was a highway-wideniproject that cut travel time to Wenatchee to just under Chain stores a half-hou- r. like mushrooms, popped ip folks from neighdrawing boring towns to shopk Thar was die death of fronts into chalets with ng the town, Watson says. "The fruit industry was all that was up here. We had 25 empty building spaces ... it was definitely dying. But adversity often fosters ingenuity. An idea surfaced no ones sure just whoar where it came from of turning Leaven worth into a Bavarian village. The alpine influence was too stung for die people of Leavenworth to ignore, what with the town newspof the oldest in the state called the aper-one Pages American Profile blooming window boxes. The experiment in small-tow- n revitalization worked. Today, more than 30 years later; die alpine village draws mote rhan 1 million tourists a year from all over the world and has become a pillar of tourism in the Pacific Northwest. "The big joke is mention a word to Leavenworth and theyll make a festival out of it, quips the Watson, who with Inn her AlpenRme sister and two of her children. Leavenworth's bounty of events indudes Maifcst, the Autumn Leaf Festival, Oktoberfest, Bavarian Eat, Qirisddndlmarkt, and the popular Christmas Lighting FestivaL The town even put an ad in the paper looking for a town crier. Liimiini'th la tha fathHIa of tha Caacada Hoantalna.. We match to a diffeient dtummet;" Watson says. Leavenworth is alshome to the Nutcracker Museum, which houses one of the largest collections of nutcrackers in the world. A bakery called the Gingetbread Factory another house popular tourist attraction, is a century-ol- d decorated to lode like a gingerbread house. Its exterior is painted a warm gingerbread brown with trim made to look like icing, while candy canes stretch from the top rtf' each porch pillar to the HwrkwhnmJ cVfign mnflirw, TrniV a tmvi-painadorned with peppermint candies on the hardwood floor greets visitors. The bakery is the brainchild of CatolAnn Seaman, 43, who decades ago made frequent pilgrimages to Leavenworth as a college student. Seaman started by selling her gingerbread houses on a street comer in Seattle. In 1988, she made the move to Leavenworth to open up her store. Over die years, she has expanded to include a gift shop, espresso cafe, and a foil lunch menu. The bakery has shipped baked goods to Germany, Spain, Portugal, and Canada, but business comes from the die bulk of its mail-ordEast Coast. Mmy requests come from tourists who have visited Leavenworth on their vacations. One cfmy brothers cells me, You live a vacation," Seaman aays. "We are our own little bubble." ml er iMiCufamttmfmlamwrbrfimGnmdjMKtm, Cafe GEXXIXWEREa co-ow-ns v- .'! V ' .T. , 3" 7 . Leavenworth is 135 miles of Seattle. For more infor-t- -; 7 madoacaB (509) or visit the Leavenworth k , 'Trrnt Si'iitniM 1, s I 1 t Chamber of Commerce website at wwwJtavenwonh.org. Miii . , "W- - 543-580- i V, . east' ,4;. '; ;"Tin inf fi ; j itfin T' |