Waterville -- Meteorites Find This Tidy Town To Be A Convenient Landing Strip

WATERVILLE, Douglas County - This is a Thornton Wilder, Grant Wood, Grandma Moses kind of town, where a two-headed calf and a church replicated in Popsicle sticks are among the county museum's star attractions.

It's also Meteorite Central.

In farm fields near here were found two of the five meteorites known to have fallen in Washington state, the Withrow Meteorite and the Waterville Meteorite. Both, about the size of small bread loaves, are in the Douglas County Museum, just off U.S. 2, the town's main drag.

Perhaps it stands to reason that space debris would hit here first. At a half-mile above sea level, Waterville, population 995, is the highest-elevation incorporated community in the state. A tiny ski area, Badger Mountain, is just five miles away. On a plateau above the Columbia River northeast of Wenatchee, this place feels close to the sky.

Glaciers that once covered this part of the state might have concentrated meteorites in the area, a University of Washington geologist believes. Waterville has been the center of more than one recent meteorite-hunting expedition, some funded by a NASA outreach program.

But space-age is hardly the description that comes to mind when you drive down the broad, nearly empty street bordered by historical shop fronts and encounter a couple of wheat farmers who've stopped their pickups to chat in the town's main intersection.

That's if there isn't a dog sleeping in the middle of it.

Waterville has charm, though. It might be Washington's tidiest town. Pioneer Park has lushly watered lawns, with horseshoe pits and picnic tables beneath leafy shade trees. A historical marker commemorates the town's 50th anniversary - which was in 1939.

A major landmark is the Waterville Hotel, a gabled brick edifice built in 1903. It was recently restored and reopened with original fixtures like clawfoot tubs, and an elk head on the lobby wall.

But again, it's not the big city: A recent hotel guest told how he and a companion were spending the evening a half block away at the town's main watering hole, Knemeyer's Saloon ("Families welcome until 8 p.m.").

Around 11 p.m., the bartender called out to him. The hotel owner was on the phone saying it was time for them to come to bed because he was locking up for the night.

And you just don't stay out late, not in Our Town, he might have said.

But they were rested for their next day of sightseeing. There's that two-headed calf, to start. . . -------------------------------

If you go

-- Waterville Historic Hotel, $42 to $74 per night, 102 E. Park St., P.O. Box 692, Waterville, WA 98858, or www.watervillehotel.com. Phone toll-free: 888-509-8180. -- Douglas County Museum, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday, closed Mondays, free admission, 124 Walnut St., Waterville; 509-745-8435.