A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed or ended for any reason. The town may have also declined because of natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, prolonged droughts, extreme heat or extreme cold, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, pollution, or nuclear and radiation-related accidents and incidents. The term can sometimes refer to cities, towns, and neighborhoods that, though still populated, are significantly less so than in past years; for example, those affected by high levels of unemployment and dereliction.
Skagit County is a county in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, the population was 129,523. The county seat and largest city is Mount Vernon. The county was formed in 1883 from Whatcom County and is named for the Skagit Indian tribe, which has been indigenous to the area prior to European-American settlement.
La Conner is a town in Skagit County, Washington, United States with a population of 965 at the 2020 census. It is included in the Mount Vernon–Anacortes, Washington Metropolitan Statistical Area. The town hosts several events as part of the annual Skagit Valley Tulip Festival held in April.
Mount Vernon is the most populous city in, and county seat of, Skagit County, Washington, United States. A central location in the Skagit River Valley, the city is located 51 miles (82 km) south of the U.S.–Canada border and in between Vancouver, British Columbia and Seattle. The population was 35,219 at the 2020 census, making it the 35th most-populous city in Washington, with a larger 62,966 people living in its urban area. It is one of two principal cities of and included in the Mount Vernon-Anacortes, Washington Metropolitan Statistical Area, covering most of Skagit County.
Sedro-Woolley is a city in Skagit County, Washington, United States. It is part of the Mount Vernon–Anacortes, Washington Metropolitan Statistical Area and had a population of 12,421 at the 2020 census. The city is home to North Cascades National Park.
Darrington is a town in Snohomish County, Washington, United States. It is located in a North Cascades mountain valley formed by the Sauk and North Fork Stillaguamish rivers. Darrington is connected to nearby areas by State Route 530, which runs along the two rivers towards the city of Arlington, located 30 miles (48 km) to the west, and Rockport. It had a population of 1,347 at the 2010 census.
Granite Falls is a city in Snohomish County, Washington, United States. It is located between the Pilchuck and Stillaguamish rivers in the western foothills of the Cascade Range, northeast of Lake Stevens and Marysville. The city is named for a waterfall north of downtown on the Stillaguamish River, also accessible via the Mountain Loop Highway. It had a population of 3,364 at the 2010 census.
The Sauk-SuiattleIndian Tribe is a federally-recognized tribe of Sauk people located in western Washington state. The tribe historically lived along the banks of the Sauk, Suiattle, Cascade, Stillaguamish, and Skagit rivers, in the area known as Sauk Prairie at the foot of Whitehorse Mountain in the North Cascade Range.
The Skagit River is a river in southwestern British Columbia in Canada and northwestern Washington in the United States, approximately 150 mi (240 km) long. The river and its tributaries drain an area of 1.7 million acres (690,000 hectares) of the Cascade Range along the northern end of Puget Sound and flows into the sound.
The Sauk River is a tributary of the Skagit River, approximately 45 miles (72 km) long, in northwestern Washington in the United States. It drains an area of the high Cascade Range in the watershed of Puget Sound north of Seattle. The river is a popular destination for fly fishing. It is a National Wild and Scenic River.
The Mountain Loop Highway is a scenic byway in the U.S. state of Washington. It traverses the western section of the Cascade Range within Snohomish County. The name suggests it forms a full loop, but it only is a small portion of a loop, which is completed using State Routes 92, 9, and 530. Part of the highway is also a designated and signed Forest Highway, and is known as Forest Route 20.
State Route 530 (SR 530) is a state highway in western Washington, United States. It serves Snohomish and Skagit counties, traveling 50.52 miles (81.30 km) from an interchange with Interstate 5 (I-5) southwest of Arlington past SR 9 in Arlington and Darrington to end at SR 20 in Rockport. Serving the communities of Arlington, Arlington Heights, Oso, Darrington and Rockport, the roadway travels parallel to a fork of the Stillaguamish River from Arlington to Darrington, the Sauk River from Darrington to Rockport and the Whitehorse Trail from Arlington to Darrington.
The Upper Skagit Indian Tribe is a federally-recognized Indian tribe located in the state of Washington. The tribe is the successor-in-interest to approximately eleven historic tribes which had many permanent villages along the Skagit River in what is now Skagit County.
Barlow Pass is a mountain pass on the west side of the Cascades in Washington on the Mountain Loop Highway between Silverton and Darrington. It is a popular trail head for access to the old mining town of Monte Cristo and has a branch off to hike up to Gothic Basin, which is about a mile in.
The Snohomish County Centennial Trail is a 30-mile-long (48 km) rail trail in Snohomish County, Washington, connecting the cities of Snohomish, Lake Stevens, and Arlington to Skagit County along the corridor of Washington State Route 9. The trail, administered by Snohomish County Parks and Recreation, is on the former right-of-way of the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway and comprises a 10-foot-wide (3.0 m) non-motorized trail and a 6-foot-wide (1.8 m) equestrian trail. The first segment of the corridor was opened in 1989, the centennial of the statehood of Washington, and the final segment between Arlington and the Skagit County line was opened in 2013.
Monte Cristo is a ghost town northwest of Monte Cristo Peak, in eastern Snohomish County in western Washington. The town was active as a mining area for gold and silver from 1889 to 1907, and later became a resort town that operated until 1983.
Skagit City was a town on the western bank of the South Fork Skagit River, less than a mile southeast of where the river forks north and south, in the U.S. state of Washington. The Barker's Trading Post along the river, opened in 1869, was partially or fully responsible for drawing people to settle at the townsite, which became an important river transportation center during the late 1800s, most notably in 1872. The city prospered until shortly before the 1880s, after river access to the upstream community of Mount Vernon, Washington was established and Mount Vernon began to prosper. By 1906, only one business remained in the entire town, and soon after World War II the town disappeared entirely.
Galena is a ghost town in Snohomish County, Washington. Galena is located in the Cascade Mountains, northeast of the town of Index. North of Galena lies Mineral City.
The Everett and Monte Cristo Railway was built to transport gold and silver ores from mines in the central Cascade Mountains to a smelter in Everett, Washington. After the first mining claims were staked in 1889, entrepreneurs began exploring the possibility of building a railroad to exploit the find. Construction began in April 1892 and the first train reached what became the town of Monte Cristo in August 1893. The mining boom ended in 1903. Poor ore quality and quantity played a role in the decline, but the failure of the railway to maintain service to Monte Cristo in the face of floods, landslides, winter snows, fires, and other disasters was also a factor in the collapse of the industry. Nonetheless, the railway hauled out approximately 300,000 tons of ore over the course of its operations.
Mineral City is a ghost town in Snohomish County, Washington.
