9 Towns Relying On Your Summer Road Trip

Leavenworth, Wash.
When the railroad company pulls its headquarters out of town and the local timber industry slowly dies away, what's a little Cascade Mountain town supposed to do? If you're Leavenworth and your only other option is a slow death, you improvise. In 1962, the town put Project LIFE (Leavenworth Improvement For Everyone) into effect and turned its town into a Bavarian village. With the Cascades already doing a great impression of the Alps, Leavenworth decked out its town in Tudor Revival architecture and decked out everything from the motels to the McDonald's(MCD) in Gothic fonts and edelweiss. Now teeming with Nutcracker museums, beer gardens and Oktoberfest celebrations, Leavenworth is a boon for tourists traveling Route 2 and willing to stop in for a bratwurst or a Hefeweissen.

-- Written by Jason Notte in Boston.

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