Mining in the Skagit Wilderness
Prospector J. C. Rouse details the rugged reality of life at the headwaters of the Skagit, where miners hope for a railroad to unlock hidden silver.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
J. C. Rouse, one of the pioneer prospectors of the Skagit region, has just returned from the mines at the headwaters. In 1883, he had to pack food and tools twenty-five miles on his back. Now, there is a fair trail for pack animals to Marble Mount, the end of the stage road. 'The ores are silver-bearing galena,' said Rouse. 'The district is about twenty-five miles south and west of the Ruby district. L. W. Getchell owns several good properties there and is having surveys made for patents. The Boston is the principal mine, with two tunnels of sixty and forty feet. Several miners are preparing to stay on the mountain all winter. We expect a railroad to come through the district soon, up the Skagit and Cascade rivers, crossing through Cascade pass.' Rouse also reported an interesting discovery: a marsh where an outlet at either end forms both the Skagit and a stream flowing into the Fraser at Fort Hope.
“At that time and for three years afterwards he had to pack everything, food, tools, etc., twenty-five miles on his back.”
The dream of a railroad through the Cascade Pass to connect the Skagit to the Methow was a recurring booster fantasy in the 1890s. Today, that route remains largely wilderness, a stark reminder of how infrastructure plans often succumbed to the brutal topography of the North Cascades.
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