ABOUT US — Aero Methow Rescue Service

Our Mission

Aero Methow Rescue Service cares for people in the Methow Valley by providing emergency medical and preventative health services.

Service Area

Aero Methow serves a large and diverse portion of western Okanogan County in the north central region of Washington State. Our primary response area includes almost the entire Methow Valley including the rural communities of Twisp, Winthrop, Mazama and Carlton. Our entire service area of nearly 2,000 square miles also extends westward into North Cascades National Park and north to the Canadian Border approximately 50 miles away. Though much of our service area lies within rugged wilderness where search and rescue resources are needed as well, it is safe to say that if someone is in need of emergency medical care anywhere within this vast geographic landscape, Aero Methow will provide it.

AMRS Facilities

Twisp Quarters

Twisp quarters is the main base of operation for AMRS. This facility includes administrative offices, a large training/meeting room, a rescue bay where our off-road UTV and other rescue equipment is stored and a 3 bay garage with 3 ambulances ready to respond to emergencies.

Property Purchased - 1995

Operations Building Built - 2005

Administration Building Built - 2010

Winthrop Quarters

Winthrop quarters is a satellite location where we have another ambulance strategically located for quicker response as Winthrop based volunteers respond from their homes. This facility also stores our community program trailers and an emergency response snowmobile/rescue sled.

Winthrop Garage Built - 1993

Land and Building Purchased from Winthrop - 2015

Mazama Quarters

Mazama quarters is a satellite location where we have another ambulance strategically located for quicker response as Mazama based volunteers are requested for responses in the northern part of our service area. This facility also stores an emergency response snowmobile and small equipment trailer.

Mazama Garage built - 2004

AMRS Fleet

Ambulances

AMRS has a fleet of 4 RAM 4500 type 1 ambulances and 1 Ford E-450 type 3 ambulance. Purchase of these top of the line emergency vehicles was made possible by generous donations from the Moccasin Lake Foundation as well as the Lost River Winery and the Estate of Red McComb.

Rapid Response Vehicles

AMRS has a fleet of 7 Rapid response vehicles. These vehicles are equipped with emergency medical equipment. Most of them are assigned to staff members throughout the valley to facilitate faster access to medical care for our patients while the ambulance is responding from one of our 3 stations.

Rescue Vehicles

AMRS has a fleet of rescue vehicles for responding to incidents off of roads in wilderness and recreation areas. The fleet includes a side by side UTV equipped with a patient transport platform and tracks for snow travel in the winter, 2 snowmobiles and 2 E-bikes for operations on narrow single track trails.

Funding Structure

Aero Methow Rescue Service is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Our financial information can be found on Guidestar.

About half of the operating expenses for AMRS are supported by local taxpayers through Emergency Medical Services levies in the Methow Valley and cities of Winthrop and Twisp.

We also receive insurance and private payments for the people we transport to hospitals. We provide medical care to anyone who needs it, regardless of their ability to pay.
We rely on the generous tax-deductible contributions of individuals, businesses and foundations to help fund the remaining costs for our emergency services, search and rescue, and community education programs.

The parent corporation of Aero Methow Rescue Service is Methow Valley Home Health Agency, a private non-profit corporation, with 501(c) (3) status with the Internal Revenue Service. The initial mission of Methow Valley Home Health Agency was to provide Home Health Care in the Okanogan Douglas District Hospital Boundaries. In 1970 Methow Valley Home Health Agency abandoned the Home Health Care division and assumed the operation of Aero Methow Rescue Service.

Aero Methow Rescue Service History

Dr. William Henry

Dr. William Henry is the founder of Methow Valley Home Health Agency. One night in 1967, Dr. Henry was asked to help a young mother who had been injured in a car accident. Emergency medical services as we know them today did not exist. He responded in his private car with his medical bag and called the local tow truck driver to come and help him. The woman was trapped under her car on the Loup Loup Highway, and Dr. Henry could only hold her hand while she died.
Determined that this would not happen again, Dr. Henry and a group of concerned citizens made a makeshift ambulance out of a donated Suburban. Dr. Henry trained volunteers in advanced first aid, bought the necessary equipment, administered the operation, and housed the ambulance at his medical center, the Twisp Medical Center (currently Methow Valley Family Health Center Clinic). In 1969, Aero Methow Rescue Service made the Seattle newspaper as an exciting new ambulance service in the small town of Twisp.

Our Logo

At the time of Aero Methow Rescue Service’s inception a member of the service owned a small plane, the corporation owned a snow cat, a volunteer had a Saint Bernard and a helicopter, was on order. Dr. Baker worked with Dr. Henry in the valley and in the Navy as a flight surgeon. Although the helicopter never became a reality, they initially planned to offer air ambulance services to the sick and injured. The logo, still used today, was developed with these components, a Saint Bernard snow cat with prop on his tail.