Maple Falls, WA

Maple Falls sits along the Mount Baker Highway in eastern Whatcom County, near the North Fork Nooksack country and the northeastern flank of Sumas Mountain. One of the early settlers was Herbert Everant Leavitt, a Quebec-born carpenter who came west after working in California. The highway grew from a nineteenth-century wagon route toward the mountains, and State Route 547 now carries traffic northeast toward Sumas and the Canadian border.

Mount Baker School District serves the community, while Kendall and larger Whatcom County towns handle many shopping, medical, and employment needs. Maple Falls’ daily map includes forest roads, homes, small businesses, school buses, heavy winter weather, and the recreational pull of the Mount Baker region. Hiking, fishing, snow travel, and drives toward the mountains are part of the local setting, though residents also deal with the practical realities of distance and mountain weather. Maple Falls is a gateway community in the literal sense: the road through it points toward both the border country and the Cascades.