The Trail Into the Slate Creek Gold Camp
Miners were shoveling snow off high Cascade claims while a volunteer crew, bankrolled in part by Seattle merchants, pushed a pack trail up the Skagit.
Anacortes, May 24.—Special.—Late news from the Slate creek mines is to the effect that the former road builders of Col. Hart's party are now mostly working on the bonded properties, shoveling off the snow. Activity is centered about the Eureka, Excelsior and Mammoth groups. These are near the summit of the Cascades, almost 7,000 feet above sea level, and above and north of Slate creek pass. The camp at Lost river, on the east side of the range, is losing some of its features. Col. Hart's assay office will be moved across the summit to the west side, where the mines are.
The trail up Skagit canyon is being opened as fast as circumstances will allow, George F. Kyle superintending the work. The Skagit county commissioners opened the trail north from Marblemount, the end of the wagon road in Skagit county, to Goodells, a point across the line into Whatcom county, and the volunteers, under Mr. Kyle, are opening the trail through the canyon. It is this part of the route for which Seattle merchants made such generous contributions to have opened, and Mr. Kyle is seeing that the supplies are wisely used.
Travel up the valley is increasing and when the trail is opened for pack animals it is expected that considerable freight will be taken in from this side, although the wagon road on the east side of the range approaches much nearer the mines than does the road on the west side. On the other hand, the west side has a decided advantage in distance. A daily stage connects with the train at Hamilton and runs through to Marblemount the same evening, and as soon as the trail through the canyon is opened, a pack train will be put on. As the distance from Marblemount to the mines is only fifty odd miles, and people leaving Seattle can now get to Marblemount in twenty-four hours, it is expected that the time between Seattle and Slate creek will not exceed two and one-half days.
“As the distance from Marblemount to the mines is only fifty odd miles... it is expected that the time between Seattle and Slate creek will not exceed two and one-half days.”
The late-19th-century mining rush tied Seattle's merchants to remote mountain camps through trails, stages and freight. Today the same terrain is more likely to draw hikers than stamp mills, but access to the Cascades is still an economic and civic question.
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