Auto-Vue Drive-In Theatre

West of Colville, Washington, the Auto-Vue Drive-In Theatre opened in June 1953 and has operated seasonally ever since, serving as a rare surviving example of a once-common American summer pastime. Set beside U.S. Route 395 at the base of Rattlesnake Mountain, it accommodates roughly 220 to 235 vehicles and continues to show first-run double features from May through October. As drive-ins dwindled, it became the last operating drive-in in Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho by 2013 and one of only a handful still running in Washington by 2024. After a threatened closure during the shift from 35mm to digital projection, local effort and improvised solutions helped it reopen in 2016.

Washington · United States