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Old newspapers, pinned to the places they wrote about — the streets you can still walk today.
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A syndicate of titans, including John Rockefeller, is pouring money into a remote mountain region northeast of Seattle.
“A town is now being built in the mines, and by the middle of summer we will have there one of the liveliest mining camps in the world.”
Contractors use dynamite to carve a path for the new Everett and Monte Cristo railroad, blowing away a solid granite promontory.
“The huge mass of rock seemed raised almost gently and then to fall back like the 'flop' of a kettle of boiling mush; yet it weighed hundreds of tons.”
A rockslide kills five workers on the Monte Cristo road, leaving no survivors and bodies missing in the river below.
“Just how the accident happened will never be known, for there is no survivor to tell the story.”
A federal commissioner orders a new hearing in the fight over whether a mining claim swallowed a Snohomish County townsite.
“The protestants claim to be residents of the government townsite of Monte Cristo, and say that the townsite was settled long before the making of an application for patent by Hendricks.”
A grueling journey into the rugged heart of the Cascade Mountains to document the boom town of Monte Cristo, where millions in infrastructure are being poured into a dream of mountain-sized ore.
“There is a boldness and swing in the enterprise that challenge notice.”
A construction crew building the mountain railroad into the Monte Cristo mining district was caught in a landslide triggered by an untimely explosion — one body recovered, four carried off by the current.
“The body of one Italian was found, and the others were carried down the river by the strong current.”
Joe Pearsell, the prospector who opened the Monte Cristo mines, describes finding faded red survey stakes and 1850s sluice boxes in a country so savage he thinks it will only be tamed by tourists once the railroad arrives.
“I have traveled through many rugged regions in this country, and have been lost for four months in the mountains of Idaho, but I have never seen such a terrible country to penetrate as the Cascades in the vicinity of Monte Cristo.”
A rugged, unreachable mining camp in the Cascades races to build a railway and town before the winter snows.
“As the inscription on the hairless head of the historic small boy ran, 'there is nothing here.'”
A widow with two children was lured to the mining camp with the promise of a house that didn't exist.
“She arrived at Monte Cristo, and found nothing on the lot described but four sticks of lumber.”
A detailed look at the massive capital investments and engineering feats transforming the Snohomish County mountains into a mining powerhouse.
“It is on the broadest scale, backed by ample capital, and, taken as a whole, is comparable rather to the development of the iron mines of the East.”
A mechanical superintendent reports on the massive, singular challenges of building a tramway into the isolated mining camp of Monte Cristo.
“The development of this mining camp is the most gigantic proposition of its kind ever undertaken.”
A railroad contractor denies reports of violence against immigrant workers, highlighting the tension between the press and laborers.
“The story was made up out of whole cloth.”
Everett & Monte Cristo crews expect to reach the boomtown by December, with a tunnel breakthrough only weeks away.
“Everything along the line looks favorable, and nothing but heavy rains can delay us.”
A hardworking man ends his life in a mining town, leaving behind a brief note and a young family.
“Do not bother about me. Bury me close by. I am no use to you any more.”
Mining experts and investors declare the remote mountain camp to be among the most promising in the United States.
“There are in Monte Cristo the earmarks of one of the greatest mining camps in the United States.”
A young prospector slips and falls to his death while exploring the treacherous cliffs near the Monte Cristo mining district.
“He was letting himself down by means of a rope, but in some way he slipped, and rolled and bumped down to the bottom.”
F. W. Wilmans returns from the boomtown with word that the mines need hundreds more men and a 6,000-foot tramway with a grade over 45 degrees.
“There is employment for 600 more. Work is going on well at the mines.”
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