Chelan’s South Lakeshore — Rooted in Apples, Built to Adapt | Tom Burnett & Bub Watson

There are some stories about Lake Chelan that can only be told by the people whose families lived them. On this episode of Small Towns Unscripted, we sit down with lifelong Lake Chelan orchardist Tom Burnett, along with returning guest Bub Watson, to reminisce about growing up, farming, raising families and adapting to generations of change along Lake Chelan’s South Shore and Twenty-Five Mile Creek. Tom takes us back to the beginning. His grandfather came from a wheat-farming family near Pomeroy and, before settling in Chelan, hauled oranges in California, hauled apples and worked for Sears in Wenatchee. He eventually purchased the family ranch near Twenty-Five Mile Creek, where six children were raised and four generations of the Burnett family would follow. The original orchard looked nothing like today’s high-density plantings. Trees were spaced roughly 40 by 40 feet, with Winesap, McIntosh and Rome Beauty among the varieties. Before local packing sheds, apples sometimes had to be hauled all the way to Seattle. Tom’s grandfather later became one of the original board members of the Tree Top cooperative, and the family became longtime Blue Chelan growers. Tom and Bub remember the good old days of Twenty-Five Mile Creek, including a time before the county finished blasting through the rock and completing the road into Chelan. Tom attended the small Twenty-Five Mile Creek school from kindergarten through eighth grade, when children living up the lake learned together in their own community. We also touch on the tragic 1945 school bus accident and the generational impact it had on South Shore families. More than 80 years later, it remains part of the history and memory of families forever affected by that day. The Robinsons. The Davidsons. The Hales. The Watsons. The Burnetts. And many others. These families didn’t simply own property along the South Shore. They built lives, raised children, farmed, helped their neighbors and created a community long before Lake Chelan became the destination it is today. Tom and Bub also take us through decades of change in the apple industry. Tom took over the family orchard right out of high school after his father’s health forced him to retire relatively young. Bub began planting orchard in 1978. Both remember horticultural meetings, new pruning techniques and constantly adapting to changing markets. They watched the industry become increasingly difficult. That helped begin a cycle familiar to generations of growers: pull established orchards, borrow against the farm, plant higher-density blocks and chase new varieties—sometimes discovering the market had changed again by the time those trees reached production. They also remember when your packing shed was part of your identity. Blue Chelan, Trout and others weren’t simply businesses. Growers had tremendous loyalty and pride in their sheds, along with plenty of friendly competition. We talk about the people whose labor made these orchards possible and how the workforce evolved, including Roberto, who has worked alongside Tom for 38 years and witnessed multiple transformations of the same land. Some South Shore water rights reach back to the homesteading era. The Watson family’s First Creek water rights date to 1893. Tom and Bub remember open irrigation ditches, gravity-fed systems and the transition to pumps and modern irrigation. That water didn’t just grow apples—it helped protect farms and homes. Tom experienced his first major wildfire around 1970, and irrigation water repeatedly proved invaluable when fire threatened the South Shore. It’s a reminder that small towns can disagree about almost anything, but when fire, tragedy or hardship arrives, neighbors have a remarkable way of becoming family again. Tom also talks candidly about the economics of today’s apple industry and what ultimately led his family to leave commercial orchard production and take the property in a different direction. Unfortunately, the Burnett story isn’t unique. Generational orchard families throughout the Chelan Valley face similar decisions as labor, operating expenses, replanting costs, land values and difficult apple markets put increasing pressure on the traditional family orchard. For Tom, leaving commercial orchard production wasn’t the end of his connection to Twenty-Five Mile Creek. He went on to spend roughly 25 years at Twenty-Five Mile Creek State Park, running the concession, helping visitors and remaining connected to the community where he grew up. This episode is about apples, but it’s really about much more. It’s about family, farming, water, fire, neighbors, change, survival and adaptation. Most of all, it’s two old friends remembering a Lake Chelan that fewer and fewer people today had the opportunity to experience.