Published February 2003

Task force leads way
to revitalized Darrington

By Kimberly Hilden
SCBJ Assistant Editor

Ann Rankin remembers arriving in Darrington in the early 1950s, the bride of a World War II veteran. It was a heady time for the logging town, which boasted 921 residents and a can-do community spirit that created the Timber Bowl Rodeo, purchased a town fire truck and built a fire hall and an athletic field.

“It was a very energetic, creative group of people with great enthusiasm. They did a lot of fine things,” Rankin said during a recent interview.

But over time, circumstances changed for the town located some 30 miles northeast of Arlington as its primary industry, lumber, experienced regional downsizing. By 2000, population stood at just 1,136, an 11 percent decrease from the boom days of the early 1960s, when the population stood at 1,272.

“With the demise of the industry, it’s kind of like we haven’t regrouped,” Rankin said.

But the town is beginning to do just that under the Darrington Economic Development Task Force, a volunteer ad hoc committee formed this past summer with the help of the Snohomish County Economic Development Council and the U.S. Forest Service.

Made up of local businessmen and business women, educators and concerned residents, the task force is a big step in the right direction for Darrington’s future, enabling ideas to be harnessed and a consensus to be reached on just where it is that the town wants to go.

“The only way that little communities like this survive is if citizens in the community really care and are proactive,” agreed Rankin, herself a task-force member.

Already, the group has developed a Web presence (www.darringtonwa.org), complete with links to local businesses, and is busy drafting a town business plan, with an eye toward maintaining a high quality of life and attracting family-oriented businesses that offer opportunities for diversity and creativity.

Along with encouraging cottage industry, the task force sees a need to capitalize on Darrington’s existing assets, including events such as its rodeo, bluegrass festival, classic rock festival and annual archery competition, which attracts visitors from across the nation and the globe.

The key is not only attracting people to Darrington, but also finding ways to keep them in the area for a weekend or more, spending money at local restaurants, shops and lodging facilities, one task-force member noted recently.

In January, members of the task force divided into subcommittees to focus on such issues as business development, downtown restoration, tourism, industry, infrastructure and education. Their job: get more input from the community to be used for the business plan, which is expected to be completed by March.

But it will take more than a plan to jump-start Darrington’s economy and nurture its quality of life — it will take the commitment of its community.

Rankin, for one, isn’t worried. There are a lot of independent thinkers — and committed doers — in her town.

“Honestly, you could go into the coffee shop any day and strike up a conversation and find out that someone there had been involved with either the clinic, the school district, the hospital district,” the longtime resident and former school board member said.

“I think that this task force is maybe the genesis of regrouping again and moving forward,” Rankin said. “... Hopefully, too, this task force will be nurturing a whole generation of entrepreneurs.”

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