Garfield county: the place no one knows

Most of us -- those of us who love to travel, at least -- have in the back of our minds an idea of a place that is totally remote. 

A place we've never been, a place no one we know has ever been, a place we hardly even hear about except as shorthand for legendary inaccessiblity.  A place not only remote physically, but also living in a time warp, still primitive or medieval culturally and socially.   There aren't that many left.  Timbuctu, maybe.  Yellow Knife.   Upper Congo Basin.  Tannu Tuva.

But while perusing last week's election results, I found such a spot closer to home.  Garfield county.

Garfield jumped to my attention as I reviewed, county by county, the voting results for each candidate and measure on the Washington state ballot.  Garfield's results were as far from the over-all state results as seemingly possible.

Democrat Inslee became governor, although losing most of the counties outside King (Seattle).  But he lost those counties by generally moderate percentages;  he lost Garfield, winning only 26.48 percent of the vote.  Democrat Cantwell was re-elected U.S. Senator with 60.19 percent of the state's votes.  She lost Garfield, winning only 36.47 percent.

Gay marriage won state-wide by 53.35 percent.  It lost in Garfield with only 28.59 percent.  Marijuana legalization won state-wide with 55.53 percent, carrying a number of generally conservative counties from east of the mountains.  Garfield, just 37.91 percent.  Charter schools squeaked by with 50.72 percent of the vote, cutting across usual liberal/conservative voting lines, and losing slightly in King county.  It attracted only 41.6 percent of the votes in Garfield county. 

Garfield county appears not only to be very conservative, but to be essentially opposed to anything that comes up for a vote.  Where is this place?  I actually had to dig out a state map to find out.

And there it was.  In the southeast corner of the state, bordering Oregon to its south, and just one small county away from Idaho to its east.  Garfield isn't the smallest county geographically -- there are six smaller.  But, with 2,266 residents, it is by far the smallest in population.  It has only one incorporated city, its county seat -- Pomeroy.  Pomeroy boasts 1,425 of the county's total population. 

But, you know ... unlike the Upper Congo, or even perhaps Tannu Tuva, Garfield doesn't sound like that bad a place.  Especially if you're respectably conservative.  As an unofficial website describing the city boasts: "The Republican party stood out in its ability to raise compaign money in Pomeroy."  I'm sure that's true. But I don't think that means that well-behaved liberals wouldn't be welcomed.  The website of the Pomeroy Chamber of Commerce (yes, there is one) states:

Here in Pomeroy you'll always be greeted with a smile! We have the appeal of a small farm town with possibilities that are endless.

The Chamber's website lists upcoming attractions:  "Holiday Bazaar," "Old Fashioned Christmas," "Chocolate Extravaganza," and "Twinkle Light Sale."  That's all within the next three weeks, and, before you urbanites say anything snarky and supercilious, ask yourselves whether any small town of about 1,500 that you know of has such an active Chamber of Commerce.

Pomeroy has a junior-senior high school with 184 students, and an elementary school with 156.  Test results well exceed the state averages, with 96.3 percent of tenth graders passing both the reading and the writing tests.

I'd never live in a place where I'd be considered the "County Liberal," but Garfield county might well be worth a visit, especially if I'm ever headed into Oregon to see the nearby Hell's Canyon area.  Local lodging, listed on the website, tends a bit toward the trailer court and RV park variety, and restaurant listings are heavy on coffee houses and drive-ins, but that may be part of the charm.

My investigation into the world of Garfield county reminds me that it isn't only red-staters who at times live in ideological and cultural bubbles.  It's also easy for us who rejoice at living in liberal bastions to forget that life in more conservative areas -- e.g., all the "fly-over" states -- can be just as happy and satisfying for those who choose to live there as (and often lived with greater community spirit than) anything with which we're familiar.  Not as culturally or intellectually challenging, as a city like Seattle, perhaps, but all choices of lifestyle have their trade-offs.