The Next Best Place

The Tate family moved to the Methow Valley in 1989, a rural mountain refuge surrounded by thousands of acres of public land. There, Julie grew up exploring, backpacking, and fishing, determined to one day own a home of her own. Throughout the next two decades, however, waves of urban migrants flocked to the Methow for its mountains and natural beauty. Gas stations turned into organic food stores, Lycra-clad skiers replaced cowboys on the trails, and gritty bars turned into coffee houses and wine-tasting rooms. Drawing on her experiences in Hawaii, New Zealand, and elsewhere, anthropologist Julie Tate-Libby weaves together stories of a life lived close to nature, inevitable conflict between locals and their urban neighbors, and issues of class and otherness through a series of essays that reflect on the nature of place, belonging, and identity. Poignant, entertaining, and articulate, Julie's essays explore what it means to belong to a community and place... and what it takes to stay.