Ghost Towns of Washington

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