Fancy meetin' you here
Hi there! My name is Natalie and that cute little dude in the picture with me is Weston. The cabins were purchased back in 2023, with the vision of turning the property into a vacation rental oasis. Of course, with potential, comes lots of work. With the help of many friends and family, the dream is coming true step by step.
Avery has been a happy place, for both my son and I, for a very long time. It's always been the perfect place to reset from the city grind. I commonly refer to it as "my little slice of heaven."
The hope is for the families and friends that stay here to get lost in the beauty of the surrounding nature and feel connected to another without the distractions of everyday life.
Avery, The Milwaukee Road, and the fire of 1910
About the town
The town was, from the years 1909 to 1980, a division point on the Pacific Extension of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad ("Milwaukee Road"). It was also once the western terminus for the easternmost of two electrified mountain sections on the route; the other ran in Washington from Othello, through the Cascade Range to the Puget Sound. Electric operations ran from 1914–74 on this section east to Harlowton, Montana. Trains stopped at the Avery Depot, now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Here, steam or diesel locomotives were changed or hooked up to electric locomotives.[citation needed]
With ongoing financial problems which worsened in the 1970s, the lack of funds for maintenance led the Milwaukee Road soon abandoned its right-of-way in the West in 1980, but the tunnels and grades east of Avery are now a rail trail route for hikers and bicyclists, the Route of the Hiawatha Trail.
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During the Great Fire of 1910, a 28-man firefighting team died near Setzer Creek outside of Avery. The U.S. Army's 25th Infantry Regiment (known as the Buffalo Soldiers) helped build a back fire that saved Avery. During the fire, many found refuge in the newly-constructed railroad tunnels between Avery and the St. Paul Pass Tunnel (a.k.a. Taft Tunnel) to the northeast.
Avery's population was 450 in 1960.