Capturing the Wild Great Northern Route
A photographer describes the thrill of documenting the newly opened Great Northern railway path, from the roaring falls of Spokane to the desolate, ghost-haunted ruins of McCartysville.
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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.
There are few things in this world more interesting than the natural scenery along the Great Northern railway. Travelers through the great mountain ranges find a natural and universal interest that is heightened when it is known that such scenery has been observed by very few. It was my good fortune to make a trip over the Great Northern railway from Spokane to Puget Sound. Armed with a very fine Kodak camera, I secured a collection of about fifty views along the new route. I captured the main falls at Spokane while the river was full of leaping, foaming water. Near the summit, where the road bends in a large horseshoe around the beautiful little valley of the Bear Creek, the ruins of the notorious town of McCartysville remain. Before the railroad, this camp was the post for prospectors going into the Summit mines. Gambling, drinking, and carousing among rough men with plenty of gold developed an abandon that soon led to frequent quarrels and bloodshed until McCartysville was the synonym of murder, rapine, and lawlessness. The old town is now silent and deserted, serving only as a home for coyotes and an object of interest to be pointed out to passengers on the Great Northern trains.
“McCartysville was the synonym of murder, rapine, and lawlessness of every description.”
The Great Northern's expansion into the Pacific Northwest was a cornerstone of the region's late-19th-century boom, transforming mountain wilderness into transit corridors. McCartysville, once a lawless mining camp in the shadow of the Cascade tunnel, is now a forgotten footnote in Washington history, mirroring the way current infrastructure development often erases the remnants of earlier, rougher boomtowns.
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