Places to treasure amid golden wheat fields of Palouse

It's fall in the Palouse, when the sun burnishes the rolling landscape of Washington's wheat country. But there's a lot to the region besides farming.

Here's a scenic Palouse drive that includes a small-town artisans' center in Uniontown; a little museum of 100-year-old newspapers in the town of Palouse; and a sweeping view of the countryside from Steptoe Butte.

You could visit these three places in an easygoing day if you start from Spokane to the north or from Pullman, which sits amid these sights.

Uniontown

The little community of Uniontown is the home of the Dahmen Barn and its artists.

Surrounded by a fence made of old farm-equipment wheels, 19 artists maintain working studios at the restored dairy barn. (The second Saturday of each month there's a demonstration, a class or a performance.)

"All the work that's been done here, restoration and everything, has been done by volunteers," said Julie Hartwig, who's managed the daily business and the store at the barn for the last two years.

"And not a day goes by without someone stopping in to see if I need anything done. It's pretty amazing."

At the shop, you'll find pottery, jewelry, photos, paintings, birdhouses and purses, all made by local artists.

If you plan your trip to the barn on a Friday or Saturday, Sage Baking Company in Uniontown is open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. The rustic breads and rolls will remind you in a delicious way that you're in the middle of wheat country.

Small-town Palouse

Back on the road, take State Route 27 to the little town of Palouse.

Not only is the drive gorgeous — there's a reason why they call it the Palouse Scenic Byway — the little town of Palouse seems to be thriving.

It's home to a quilt shop and an antique shop, a grocery market and a gallery, a couple of restaurants and the Roy M. Chatters Newspaper and Printing Museum.

Bob West helps run the museum, acts as a guide and answers the obvious question: Why a newspaper museum in Palouse?

"Well, there was a paper just down the street, and it closed," said West. "They were just gonna take all the equipment and take a sledgehammer to it, I guess, so my dad donated this building for the museum."

The museum was dedicated to J.B. and Olga West when it opened in 1976.

According to the museum's Web site, Roy M. Chatters was a nuclear engineer from Washington State University who retired and began collecting antique printing equipment. His dream was to open a working museum.

"What we have here is letterpresses," said West, showing off an old Linotype machine — which produced one solid line of type at a time, using a keyboard, a complicated system of molds, spacebands and molten metal heated to more than 500 degrees.

"I'm afraid I can't work it, but it's quite an amazing piece of machinery," West said.

Born and raised in Palouse, West said his family ran the grocery store. As a kid, he helped with the press at the paper.

"Imagine that, I fed it one piece of paper at a time," West said, chuckling, patting the metal contraption.

In the back is a unique collection of newspapers from the Palouse, from a time when towns like Tekoa, Garfield and Oakesdale all had their own papers.

"This is my favorite," said West as he pulled out a stack of the Palouse Republic from 1905. "A lot of things happened in Palouse that year."

Printed on pages now the color of wheat straw, story after story tells of drowning and murder and railroads and schoolhouses to be built and mills soon to open.

"Many people come here looking for news from their family in the old days," said West. "I guess I've become the town historian of sorts."

The museum suffered extensive damage during a 1996 flood and was closed for a couple of years until the Washington State Historical Society came to the rescue with a grant.

"It was all volunteers who cleaned it up and got it going again," West said.

Just across the street from the museum sits the Bank Left Gallery and Tea House. The gallery features ceramics, jewelry, glass and photography. The French white chocolate cake is perfect with a cup of afternoon tea or coffee.

Steptoe Butte

Leaving Palouse, head north through farmland to Steptoe Butte, a massive outcrop of ancient rock looming in the middle of farmland.

Once there even was a hotel atop the butte, the Cashup hotel built by a pioneer settler in the 1880s (it never made money and was abandoned; it burned down in 1911).

Now the butte is protected within Steptoe Butte State Park. The drive to the 3,612-foot summit (the general elevation around the butte is about 1,900 feet) can be nerve-wracking as the narrow road winds its way around and around, in tighter and tighter turns.

At the top is a sweeping panorama. The quilted pattern of green and gold fields, tiny towns and creeks, trees and hills, spreads for dozens of miles.

In the distance are Idaho's craggy Bitterroot Mountains and the rounded Blue Mountains of southeast Washington.

If you can time it right, sunset is particularly stunning from this lofty perch. It's a great spot to wrap up a day in the Palouse.