Monte Cristo Ghost Town, North Cascades
A couple weeks ago I found myself in a small mining ghost town in the North Cascades - a town with an amazing and eerie history that sits abandoned less than a dozen miles away from the nearest highway.
Trail Information
- Begins at Barlow Pass trail head
- 8+ miles, round trip (additional trails past the town)
- Two main bridges along the trail washed out in 2003 and 2006
- Four mines as still open and accessible according to the Monte Cristo Preservation Association
- 700 ft of elevation gain
** additional trail information can be found at the Washington Trail Association
Background
- Monte Cristo was established in 1893 as a gold mining town
- It was named for the book The Count of Monte Cristo and its Dumas Street for the book's author Alexandre Dumas
- John D. Rockefeller helped to finance the railroad built between the town and Everett
- Friedrich Trump, Donald Trump's grandfather, owned a brothel in the mining town
