MARBLEMOUNT — Steve and Corina Sahlin, who raise goats, chickens and rabbits on 51⁄2 acres east of Marblemount, repeat an opinion of the “big cities” heard often in what locals refer to as “upriver.” Places like Sedro-Woolley and Mount Vernon, they say, are too noisy and frenetic to give them the quality of life they want.

“To be closer to a natural environment is important to me on a lot of levels, rather than be immersed in the conveniences of the city and have to commute to be in the wild,” Steve Sahlin said.

“I feel humbly blessed that I landed here.”

“Look around you,” Corina Sahlin said as she surveyed her sunny green lawn, surrounded by tall forest trees.

“Isn’t it paradise?”

A town in decline

Despite the locals’ devotion to the rural lifestyle of Marblemount, there’s an unmistakable downside to living there. It’s hard to find work. People often get by with several part-time jobs, helping out at a hotel and a convenience store, or holding down a part-time job and living in a trailer for a nominal rent.

In mid-July, gas prices peaked at $4.25 a gallon. At the two gas stations in town, regular unleaded was $4.65. The locals figured they spent $20 or $30 for a round-trip commute to jobs downriver.

The traditional job sector in town is a shadow of its former self. With national forests, a national park and increasing government regulation, mining and logging have been severely curtailed.

Longtime resident and ex-logger Ralph Dexter strikes a contrast with the current state of the timber industry. In 1947, Dexter says there were 18 logging outfits between Marblemount and Birdsview.

With the booming resource industries of the past came a livelier community. Dexter, 79, fondly recalls the monthly dances at the community hall. “You could dance with your neighbors’ wives,” he said.

“I don’t like it the way it is. I like it the way it was.”

Farming has been compromised, too, mostly by the current economy. The rising costs of feed, fuel and fertilizer are stripping many farmers of their profits.

Duane French is an out-of-work mechanic who helps on his family’s farms, which are scattered between Marblemount and Rockport.

“There’s no income in the farm. They’ve been doing it for generations. There’s no profit in it. It’s just there,” French lamented one day in July when he planned to harvest hay.

French said he would favor some type of economic stimulus plan for Marblemount to attract tourists, even though he knows some of his neighbors would much rather see the town stay small and quiet.

Some, like French, say increased tourism could be the way to save Marblemount. Others say Marblemount squandered its chance long ago.

“They should have done it a long time ago, when they first opened this highway,” said Gretchen Stewart, an aide at Rockport State Park. She was referring to the opening of the North Cascades Highway in 1972. “The businesses didn’t join together as a team, as a unit back then, and that was blown years ago.”

Some say business leaders bickered rather than getting organized to pull off events such as the popular blues festival in Winthrop.

“That speaks to exactly where we’re at right now,” said Dan Brauer, a 20-year resident and a retired elementary school teacher who worked in Concrete.

“Everybody is suspicious of everybody.”

Especially when an ambitious newcomer arrives.

A tourist destination

Shortly after Marshall Cooper arrived in 1994, he wanted to execute his grand plan for Marblemount: a 30- or 40-room hotel on the west end of town, with a restaurant and a cocktail lounge.

Locals opposed the plan. A petition was circulated to block another hotel and another liquor license in Marblemount.

Ultimately, the Skagit County Planning Office rejected Cooper’s application for a building permit.

“The whole town was against me,” Cooper recalled. Some longtime business owners, he said, “thought they owned the whole town, and they didn’t want any competition.”

Nobody has roots in Marblemount that go deeper than the Clarks.

Matilda Clark Buller arrived in 1890 and is credited with giving the town its name, after a miner came to her roadhouse to tell her he discovered a “mountain of marble.” Today, great-grandson Don Clark and his sister, Judi Brooks, operate Clark’s Skagit River Resort, built in 1953.

Clark wouldn’t say whether dissent among business owners was holding back Marblemount.

“The base question is whether Marblemount missed the beat. No, not totally,” Clark said. “Part of the problem is, Marblemount has had promises made that haven’t been fulfilled.”

Marblemount is the western gateway to North Cascades National Park. Clark said Marblemount was never able to capitalize on its status because decades ago, federal officials reneged on promises to include more tourist attractions in the park. One early idea, Clark said, was to build a tram to Ruby Mountain, to give those who weren’t avid hikers the stunning alpine views the area is world-famous for.

The tram and other accommodations would compensate Marblemount for the logging jobs that would be lost when the forest became park land — at least that was the promise from the federal government, Clark said.

“Marblemount as a community was lied to by the federal government,” he said.

Visions of prosperity

Still, dreams of a more lucrative future persist. After all, haven’t other towns with similar backgrounds become successful?

“Marblemount should look like Winthrop, as far as I’m concerned,” said Brauer, the retired teacher.

As a tourist destination, Marblemount would appear to have certain advantages over Winthrop. That town is on the same highway as Marblemount 88 miles to the east, but is farther from Seattle, separated from the bulk of the state’s population by a mountain range. Still, the town with the Old West theme has managed to evolve into a tourism hub, with gift shops, restaurants and a full calendar of events.

“If you stand out there (on the sidewalk), you see literally hundreds of people who check out all the stores,” Brauer said. “When they get to Marblemount, they blow through.”

Cooper doesn’t like the comparison.

“I think Marblemount’s got more to offer than Winthrop,” he said. Cooper listed Marblemount’s draws — hiking, camping, mountain climbing, rafting, canoeing, hunting, fishing. ... The list went on.

“Winthrop doesn’t have all that.”

Cooper, like Clark, wants the government to commit to Marblemount. Cooper is executive director of the North Cascades Business Association, which applied to the Skagit County Lodging Tax Advisory Committee earlier this month for $8,000 to support the association’s visitor center and Web site, http://www.marblemount.com.

Last year the association, then known as the North Cascades Chamber of Commerce, had most of its $10,500 funding request rejected by the same committee. The $1,500 the chamber did receive went to the annual Civil War re-enactment, held in May.

Business Association officials noted on the application that it may fold altogether in 2009 if it isn’t funded.

Skagit County Finance Administrator Trisha Logue, who administers the lodging tax grants, said committee members don’t want to disburse any funds until they see the results of a study on how the county can reach its full potential for tourism. Those results are due in February.

This may be an opportunity for Marblemount civic leaders to get the attention they crave. The study will focus on several upriver draws — the scenic North Cascades Highway, the dams and the national park. The report will include recommendations on where to focus promotional efforts in the county.

There’s another robust funding source that Marblemount can tap. The county commissioners doled out more than $3.5 million earlier this year for projects designed to create jobs or spur economic development.

Clark argues that the upriver communities are the only places in the county that are economically distressed, so they should get all of this money, which the state sets aside for distressed counties. Until the commissioners decide to send all of these funds upriver, Clark said, “We’re not going to be very successful.”

As it is, the county commissioners are careful to distribute the funds evenly across the county.

Commissioner Sharon Dillon represents the Third District, from Sedro-Woolley east. Her district is making strides economically and does not have much of a case for extra handouts, she said.

In any case, Dillon said, not everyone who lives upriver wants to see economic development.

“It’s rural and they like being rural. ... That’s the setting people up there like to live in,” Dillon said.

To grow, or not?

Clark is about to submit an application to the county for a new resort on the family’s 125 acres. The plan was in the works 12 years ago but got hung up on new county and state growth-management regulations.

Clark is somewhat skeptical that the plan will ever be realized, but he’s still willing to speak hopefully about creating what he calls Marblemount’s first true “destination facility.”

“People will plan on remaining longer in the area and obviously spending more money on the local businesses. That is the only way this area will prosper,” Clark said.

“We’re at the end of a road that closes every year (because of snow). If we don’t become a destination community, we won’t be able to get out of this economic hardship we’re faced with.”

The Sahlins, meanwhile, are more or less content the way things are.

The family makes ends meet by stringing together several money-making ventures. Steve Sahlin’s day job is to restore salmon habitat on private land. He also grows and sells bamboo. Both jobs are seasonal.

Corina Sahlin hand-knits felted purses and hats on her own spinning wheel. She gets her material off her two angora rabbits.

Besides producing milk, cheese and eggs, Corina Sahlin also grows just about every known vegetable in a large garden not far from where the goats are pastured.

“A certain degree of diversity has definitely helped us to make it here,” Steve Sahlin said.

There’s been another key to the Sahlins’ success. Marblemount might need a food co-op, the Sahlins say, or a more vital community center. But it doesn’t lack a sense of community.

“The community part of it has been a big part of our success here,” Steve Sahlin said.

After Corina Sahlin milks her three goats in the morning, she takes them out to pasture in her neighbor’s lawn. As she crosses the property line, there’s no way to tell where her land ends and her neighbor’s begins.

The Sahlins have gotten to know three other couples, all within a four-minute walk of their home, who help with building projects and otherwise look out for each other. The neighbors milk the goats when Corina cannot. In return, she gives them milk and cheese. The Sahlins and their neighbors also are digging a swimming hole.

They won’t speak ill of the business owners’ ambitions, but Steve Sahlin will say he doesn’t want Marblemount to resemble another small tourist town in north-central Washington.

“I don’t want it to become Leavenworth, I can tell you that,” he said.

Ralph Schwartz can be reached at 360-416-2138 or .