The Gold Rush in the Cascades
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.
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.
North of Seattle at Getchell, one finds a typical logging hamlet of tents and lumber mills—the gateway for those journeying toward the Monte Cristo mining district. The Seattle & Lake Shore railroad is pushing fifty miles into the Cascades, aiming to open a region of gold and silver discovered three years ago by prospector J.L. Pearsall. Traveling by a springless wagon over twenty miles of rough mountain road, one encounters the 'blanket brigade,' a stream of men moving toward the new El Dorado. At Monte Cristo, in a deep gorge surrounded by 3,000-foot walls, the Colby-Hoyt syndicate has invested millions to extract ore from vast ledges, including the 'Independence of 1776.' With a smelter rising at Everett and elaborate tramways being built, the camp is currently an embryo of an industry that promises to last for generations.
“There is a boldness and swing in the enterprise that challenge notice.”
Monte Cristo was famously abandoned after floods destroyed the railroad, leaving behind a ghost town that serves today as a hiking destination. The 'boom' here captures a classic Washington cycle of venture capital (Rockefeller's syndicate) and the brutal, often futile attempt to tame the rugged Cascade topography.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.