Ghost Towns of Washington

In the old West, ghost towns often formed from catastrophe, when natural or economic disasters led occupants to abandon their homes and buildings in search of better options. But in the new West, one purposefully-built ghost town will a  center of opportunity . New Mexico will soon be home to a 20-square-mile mock city, complete with highways, houses and commercial buildings. Structures will be erected to model various styles, old and new, to make it more realistic. Its Stephen King-esque name, The Center, seems fitting of a city that will be home to no one. http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-09/tech-firm-plans-science-ghost-town-test-renewable-energy

Bloedel Donovan Lumber Mill railroad tressel remnants Skykomish. Julius Harold Bloedel (March 4, 1864, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin – 1957, State of Washington) moved from Wisconsin to Fairhaven, Washington (later Bellingham) in 1890, where he became president of Fairhaven National Bank. He engaged in several frontier business ventures, including the Samish Lake Lumber and Mill Company, Blue Canyon Coal Mines, and, as mentioned, the Fairhaven National Bank. He partnered and worked closely with the Bellingham pioneers. Although many of these operations folded eventually, Bloedel's financial know-how managed to keep him afloat through a series of boom-and-bust economic trials. In August 1898, he founded the Whatcom Logging Company with fellow frontier businessmen John Joseph Donovan and Peter Larson, which would later become known as the Bloedel-Donovan Lumber Mills.

Maloney General Store Skykomish WA 1915 and 2011 Maloney's General Store built in 1893.  John Maloney. Not one to miss an opportunity, he quickly staked a claim near the top of the pass, realizing that the many men who would build the rail line and clear the pass would need supplies, housing, and a post office. Initially his claim was known as Maloney’s Siding, but in 1893, soon after the rails were joined a mile upstream, the community was named

Skykomish Hotel 1905 and 2011.  Don Flynn owned the Skykomish Hotel from 1990 until the Stevens Pass company purchased a lease-option on it in September. Shortly after buying it, he claims, he encountered the ghost of a prostitute named Mary, who in the 1920s supposedly was murdered by one of her customers in room 32.  Many people of reported paranormal experiences.  The Hotel, constructed in 1904, remains a valuable state and national historic landmark, but unfortunately, the fully leased structure was not able to reopen following completion of environmental remediation in February 2010, as it was returned to owners seriously injured and without operational utilities.

History Link.org Beginning in May 1915, the community of Moncton, located along the northern shore of Rattlesnake Lake, experiences one of the slowest floods in King County history. Throughout the summer, the lake is fed by seepage from an upstream dam, causing it to slowly rise. By the end of the year, Rattlesnake Lake has inundated the town, which is later condemned. Not There Long In 1906, the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway was built through the Cedar River watershed to provide access for the water department workers and their families who lived in nearby Cedar Falls. In a short time, a new community was built on the rail line a half mile north of the generating station at Cedar Falls. Located along the shores of Rattlesnake Lake, the new village was named for one of its settlers, a Mr. Moncton. Whereas the Seattle Water Department owned worker homes in Cedar Falls, private individuals owned most of the houses at Moncton. The idyllic setting along th...

As of the Fourth of July snow depths still were impressive in Glacier Basin and at Poodle Dog Pass. A winter avalanche widened the trail to some ten feet at the steep, exposed rock area by Glacier Falls. Roughly fifteen feet of snow remained in the basin. On the Poodle Dog side ice axes were recommended for descending, and the upper trail was hard to find. Several feet of snow remained at the creek crossing, along with a blown down log across the trail at the beginning of the rock slide. SITE CLEAN UP UPDATE from Monte Cristo Preservation Association Cascade Earth Sciences of Spokane Valley, WA, contractor for the Forest Service, completed its annual high water sampling the last week of June. They helicoptered in a ton and a half of supplies and operated out of the townsite. In the middle of September their crew will return to take low water samples, creating baselines to help evaluate the success of the cleanup. At this point it appears we may be able to use the new access r...

Irondale, WA steel plant now up on GTW http://www.ghosttownsofwashington.com/Irondale_Plant.html

From canyon to cave, the Sasquatch legend persists.         By: Roddy Scheer, Nick O’Connell, Tina Lassen and John Levesque with Sarai Dominguez, Cayla Lambier, Jennifer Lee and Anna Samuels SEATTLE MAGAZINE May 2011 Rumors have circulated for years that Washington’s Cascades are the native habitat of Bigfoot (aka Sasquatch). Some certainly emanate from events that occurred (or not) one evening in 1924 in a canyon—ever since known as Ape Canyon (elevation: 4,200 feet)—southeast of Mount St. Helens. A group of miners shot at a mysterious 7-foot-tall apelike creature that was milling around the makeshift cabin they had built in the canyon to assay a nearby claim. That night, as the miners tried to get some shut-eye, their cabin was reportedly pelted with rocks, logs and other forest debris by a band of at least three of the “Big Foot” ape creatures—the miners later measured footprints at up to 19 inches long. In the morni...

Durham, Wa now up at http://www.ghosttownsofwashington.com/Durham.html

Hyde Coal Cumberland Mine now up on GTW.  http://www.ghosttownsofwashington.com/Hyde_Mine.html

Wall Street Mine Liberty, Wa http://www.ghosttownsofwashing ton.com/Liberty.html

Remants of the South Willis mines located in the Wilkeson, Wa area now up on GTW. http://www.ghosttownsofwashington.com/South_Willis.html

Remnants of a Carbonado mine fan house and power house now up on GTW.   http://www.ghosttownsofwashington.com/Carbonado_T5L0.html

I have been doing some exploring again in the Carbon River area along Burnett, Wilkeson, and Carbonado.  I had heard a rumor of Burnett having a cemetery at one time.  I could not find any records of the cemetery existing today or location.  I finally ran across a small piece of information I found fascinating. Ten graves (or more) were exhumed and moved in 1954. There was an epidemic of tyhpoid and to protect the community graves were removed.  Who and where is unknown. The small listing below was left at that time. Mary Barber was a child and the relatives in California had her body exhumed to be there. A local resident was paid to upkeep her grave site for many years before she was moved.  He built a picket fence and took flowers annually on her death date. All stones and graves are gone and this cemetery is now non-existent. I cannot find any other information on the exhumation.  I have seen the movie Poltergeist.........hm...

Remnants of Crocker coke oven plant near Orting, Wa. http://www.ghosttownsofwashington.com/Crocker.html

This is an older article from 2008 Forbes about ghost towns being put up for sale and the buyers intent. http://www.forbes.com/2008/07/25/ghost-abandoned-towns-forbeslife-cx_cc_0725realestate.html

2011 most-endangered list by the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation. Read more: http://blog.thenewstribune.com/politics/2011/05/24/old-city-hall-one-of-three-pierce-county-sites-on-washington-trusts-2011-most-endangered-historic-places/#ixzz1NOHpJo7s

Sunset Mine Snohomish County WA http://www.ghosttownsofwashington.com/Sunset_Mine.html

Liberty, WA -  http://www.ghosttownsofwashington.com/Liberty.html

Blewett and the Black Jack Mines   http://www.ghosttownsofwashington.com/Blewett.html  

Washington Soldiers Home Cemetery Orting, WA Washington Soldiers Home Cemetery is a 20 acre site located in Orting, WA. The soldiers cemetery, on the hill just above the Soldiers Home, is filled with a history of our nation with gravestones for soldiers dating back to service in the Civil War. http://www.ghosttownsofwashington.com/Orting_Soldiers_Home.html

Some abandoned ghost towns are now tourist attractions, while others might be dangerous or illegal to visit. Meet some of the most fascinating ghost towns from around the world. http://www.oddee.com/item_96462.aspx

The Lone Pine Cemetery is historically significant for its direct connection to the early pioneer settlers of the Tekoa and Lone Pine area. Although specific details of the establishment of the cemetery are not known, the location of the cemetery indicates patterns of early development by Euro-American settlers. The Lone Pine area originally developed as a stage coach stop between the communities of Farmington and Cheney. Stories persist that the area was named because of a single pine tree that stood on a hill in a vast barren landscape. As an obvious marker on the landscape, the location became a logical stopping point. Eventually a log cabin was built to serve as a post office, stage depot, general store and school house. In 2009, the Department of Archaeology & Historic Preservation, under the abandoned cemetery provisions (RCW68.60) formally warded care and maintenance of the cemetery to the friends group. Records of early burials in the cemetery are sketchy or non existe...

The first episode of "Coal" delivers a riveting  story line (the mine could go bankrupt if they don't get enough coal out) and illustrates the dangerous lives these guys lead. "It took us four years to find a mine to get into," said executive producer Thom Beers, the grandfather of tough-guy TV who also makes the docu-reality cable series "Deadliest Catch," "Ice Road Truckers" and "Ax Men." "We got offered mines, but they were big mines and big corporations. As you know from our shows in the past, it's all about the personal stakes." David Hinckley of the New York Daily News writes that “ the most engaging moments of ‘Coal’ are the ones it spends in the mine, where the working environment looks even harder, dirtier and more dangerous than most of us spoiled above-ground workers imagine.  It's somber stuff and grownup stuff, which is worth noting because most Spike programming is aimed at younger dudes. Sure, a...

Centralia Pennsylvania is a modern ghost town in the US.  An underground coal mine fire earased the town in a matter of five years.  From 1979 to 1984 nearly all the residents of Centralia vacated the town.     It is not known for certain how the fire that made Centralia essentially uninhabitable was ignited. One theory asserts that in May 1962, the Centralia Borough Council hired five members of the volunteer fire company to clean up the town landfill, located in an abandoned strip-mine pit next to the Odd Fellows Cemetery. This had been done prior to Memorial Day in previous years, when the landfill was in a different location. The firefighters, as they had in the past, set the dump on fire and let it burn for a time. Unlike in previous years, however, the fire was not extinguished correctly.  This is one of several conflicting theories. Attempts to extinguish the fire were unsuccessful, and it continued to burn throughout the 1960s and ...

The creators of "Deadliest Catch" and "Ax Men" , and "Ice Road Truckers" bring a new series to Spike to air Wednesday.  A new show about the life and realities of coal mining. "Coal" focuses on the operations of Cobalt, a small independent mining venture in West Virginia.  The series centers on co-owners Mike Crowder and Tom Roberts, who confide they have invested their life savings in the mine. Also featured are several miners, including the father and son duo of Christian and his protege son, Andrew Jr. Spike TV spokeswoman Sharon Levy said this series is unique in that it reflects life and death drama unfolding underground. "Danger Runs Deep" is the subtitle for the series.   "Coal mining is an integral part of the American economy and the lifeblood of communities across the U.S. and the world," said Levy. "This series is going to shine a light on the brave men and women and their families who endure the rigors ...

Ainsworth Alpine Attalia Baird Blewett Bodie Bolster Bordeaux Bossburg Chesaw Curlew Disautel Doty Dryad Elberton Fairfax Franklin Frankfort Goshen Grisdale Hanford Havillah Hot Springs Kennedy Kopiah Krain Lester Liberty Malone McCormick Melmont Molson Monohon Monte Cristo Nagrom Old Torodah Orient Osceola Pinkney City Queets Ruby City Seabeck Sheridan Sherman Skagit City Tono Trinidad Trinity Vail Walville Wellington Weston

Newcastle was most likely named after Newcastle upon in England, as it was originally a coal mining town founded in the 1870s. Coal was discovered along Coal Creek in 1863. The surveyors Philip H. Lewis and Edwin Richardson made the discovery while surveying the area for the General Land Office.  By 1872 75-100 tons of coal per day were being produced at Newcastle. About 60 men worked at the mines.  By 1876, the Newcastle mines produced 400 tons a day and employed 250 men. http://www.ghosttownsofwashington.com/Coal_Creek_-_Red_Town.html

Clipper Mine   - Pierce County The first official report of the internal resources of the Carbon River mining district was made by VV. J. Wood, M. E., in January, 1898, for the Leola Mining Company, of Tacoma, whose prospects had been located by I. H. Wilkenson. The Clipper Mine is located in the Carbon River Mining District.  Clipper was part of the Surprise group of mines. It was a "Hard Rock" or "Lode" mine.  The mine was developed around 1901.  Clipper mine sits at about 3800 feet.  The mine goes in about 1200 feet and has several  crosscuts or horizontal branches.  These crosscuts only go in about 10 to 30 feet.  This mine contains no vertical shafts. http://www.ghosttownsofwashington.com/Clipper_Mine.html

Robert Peloli - Wilkeson, WA by Tim Nyhus November 2010 The year was 1943 and Robert Peloli was 20 years old when a photo was taken of him riding on a coal cart outside the entrance to the Skookum Slope Mine in Wilkeson, WA.  He recalls a man with camera being there on the day the photo was taken outside the mine.  In many ways this photo would come to symbolize the mining era of Wilkeson.  He is affectionately and factually known as the last living coal miner living in Wilkeson. http://www.ghosttownsofwashington.com/The_Last_Coal_Miner.html

Ghost Towns of Washington Photographing and documenting remnants of Washington States mining and lumber industies past. Most outdoor enthusiasts go hiking, fishing, or mountain climbing, ghost towner's have an enthusiasm of their own.  Ghost Towner's  seek out towns that once existed or will  cease to exist in the future.  Photographing and documenting these remnants of the past. It was not long ago we decided to embark on a series of fascinating self guided weekend expedition to ghost towns in the foot hills of  western and eastern Washington.  We set out seeking the thrill of adventure and undiscovered treasures. What we discovered was much more than we bargained for. These ghost towns revealed their stories of disaster, sacrifice, and the rich history of the all but forgotten people who shaped many of our communities. We decided to create this site as a tribute to Washington's early mining and lumber communities. Their history and ...