Roslyn is a city in Kittitas County, Washington, in the Cascade Mountains about 80 miles east of Seattle and just north of Cle Elum. With a population of about 950, it is a small mountain town with an outsized place in Washington history and popular culture. The town was founded in 1886 by the Northern Pacific Railroad as a coal-mining company town, and its population peaked at around 4,000 by 1910 as the surrounding coal beds drew miners from across the country and abroad, making it one of the most diverse communities in Washington at the time. As coal declined over the 20th century, Roslyn transitioned toward forestry and tourism. Roslyn's origins as a company town are still visible in its compact grid of streets and its preserved commercial buildings, which give the town a character distinct from modern mountain resorts. The Brick Saloon, a saloon dating to the town's frontier years, anchors the downtown and remains a local landmark. Roslyn gained national recognition as the filming location for the 1990s television series Northern Exposure, which used its downtown to portray the fictional Alaskan town of Cicely. That legacy continues to draw visitors to its preserved, frontier-era streetscape, and the town balances its tourism draw with a settled, year-round community. The town sits at the edge of extensive Cascade recreation, with hiking, mountain biking, skiing, and lake access nearby. Its economy is built around tourism, recreation, and services for the surrounding area, and students attend schools in the Cle Elum-Roslyn School District. For residents, Roslyn offers a genuine small-town, outdoors-oriented lifestyle with a distinctive historic character, within reach of Seattle via Interstate 90 and the mountain passes.