THE LEGEND OF 
theVirginian an all season resort

In the fall of 1891, New Englander Guy Waring and his family came to the remote Methow Valley to sell supplies to miners and a few farmers who homesteaded in the area. His family pitched a tent at the forks of the Methow and Chewuch Rivers, while Waring established Winthrop's first retail business and successfully insured the future site of the town.

On March 1, 1893, Waring's general store caught fire and burned to the ground. Heavily in debt, he left the valley to return three years later, in 1896, with funds to start over. Waring promised to build his wife a proper house if she would accompany him.

Owen Wister, a Harvard classmate, was a houseguest in the Waring's new home, presently the Shafer Museum. Wister was later to write "The Virginian," often praised as the first true western novel. Characters and events were drawn from life stories told by Methow Valley miners and homesteaders.

The town was eventually named after the Colonial Governor John Winthrop of Massachusetts.