Emergency Biohazard Cleanup Near Twisp Historic District Twisp, WA

Twisp is a town in Okanogan County, Washington, at the confluence of the Twisp and Methow rivers, and it carries the nickname "Heart of the Methow Valley."

Henry C. Glover platted the town on July 30, 1897 under the name Gloversville; when Glover became postmaster in 1898 the place was renamed Twisp, and Amanda P. Burgar platted the adjacent town of Twisp in 1899.

The name Twisp is thought to come from the Okanagan placename txʷəc'p, which may translate to "wasp" or "yellowjacket," or to the sound a wasp makes.

Twisp was incorporated on August 6, 1909.

Shortly after midnight on July 24, 1924, a fire swept through wooden downtown Twisp and burned down two houses and 23 buildings.

Twisp was evacuated in August 2015 during the Okanogan Complex Fire, and three firefighters were killed on August 19, 2015 while battling one of the complex's fires near the town.

The former U.S. Forest Service ranger station in Twisp, largely abandoned after the Forest Service moved its headquarters to Winthrop, was bought at public auction in 2009 and reinvented as TwispWorks, a campus of artists, makers and nonprofits that also hosts the Methow Valley Interpretive Center.

The 2020 census counted 992 people in Twisp, up from 919 at the 2010 census.

The town covers 1.18 square miles at an elevation of about 1,614 feet, in the foothills where the Methow Valley rises toward the North Cascades.

The Methow Valley around Twisp draws roughly half a million visitors a year for cross-country skiing, white-water rafting, hiking, climbing and other outdoor recreation.