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State hub · Washington
Washington's ghost towns come from mines, coal, rails and water. Silver strikes in the Okanogan from 1886 founded Ruby, Conconully and other camps, and the Panic of 1893 and the fall in silver prices ended most of them. In the Cascades, Monte Cristo boomed on gold and silver from 1889 and had more than 1,000 people in 1894, and Liberty grew from the Swauk Creek gold rush of the 1870s. Railroad coal towns such as Melmont died when the Northern Pacific stopped burning coal, and Wellington was abandoned after the Great Northern opened a new Cascade Tunnel in 1929.
Water and war emptied others. Almota on the Snake River went under the reservoir behind Little Goose Dam, and Seattle cleared Barneston to protect the Cedar River watershed. In 1943 the federal government evicted the farm towns of Hanford and White Bluffs for the Manhattan Project. Our index holds 178 sites, with the largest groups in King and Okanogan counties. What survives ranges from Liberty's 1890s buildings and the snow sheds at Wellington to a few foundations in the woods.
Town guides
Our complete guides, most-read first: history, what's left, current access, photos, maps and directions.
GuideKing County
A railroad town on the west side of Stevens Pass where an avalanche swept two snowbound trains into the valley in 1910 and killed 96 people. Nothing…
GuideSnohomish County
A gold and silver camp of the 1890s that ran on Rockefeller money and its own railroad. Floods and poor ore finished it. Today it is a four-mile walk…
GuideKittitas County
A gold camp from the 1890s where log cabins still line a single short street. About a dozen people live there, which is why locals call it a living…
Okanogan County
A town that boomed and emptied within a year of its founding in 1900, then moved half a mile up the road. Its old townsite is now an open-air museum.
GuideBenton County
White Bluffs’ residents were removed in 1943 for the Hanford Site. Its surviving bank is on Department of Energy land, outside independent public…
GuideKing County
A company coal town on the Green River where 37 miners died in a mine fire in 1894. It emptied by 1919. Foundations, a grated mine shaft and a small…
GuideOkanogan County
Nighthawk supplied mines across the river and sent freight inland. Its hotel, schoolhouse and mining buildings survive near the Canadian border.
GuidePierce County
Melmont supplied coal to the Northern Pacific. Its school basement and explosives shed survive beside a trail, with access changed by the Fairfax…
GuideOkanogan County
A silver camp of the late 1880s on Salmon Creek that held the county seat for less than a year and emptied after the Panic of 1893. The townsite is a…
Watch
Mining camps, Cascade mountain cabins, and an outdoor town museum. Explore the history, maps and access notes before you go.
Where to start
Open attractions, living towns and true ruins, with their current status.
Kittitas County
Gold camp of the Swauk Creek rush of the 1870s, with 12 residents in 2023. Its 1890s hotel, grocery store, stage office and log house are part of a historic district on the National Register.
Snohomish County
Gold and silver town of 1889 with over 1,000 people in 1894; mining stopped in 1907. Reached by a four-mile walk on a gated road from Barlow Pass, with a small campground at the townsite. Bring water: the streams carry arsenic.
King County
Great Northern railroad stop where an avalanche killed 96 people on March 1, 1910, the deadliest in US history. Abandoned in 1929; concrete snow sheds remain on the Iron Goat Trail off US 2 near Stevens Pass.
Okanogan County
Mining town of 1900 near the Canadian line that dropped from about 300 people to 12 within a year. Old Molson is an outdoor museum of pioneer buildings, and the schoolhouse up the road is a museum too; both by donation.
Okanogan County
Mining supply town platted in 1903 in the Similkameen valley that declined after mining ended around 1950. Its hotel, schoolhouse, mining office and mill still stand, and about five people live there.
Okanogan County
Silver camp of 1886 with about 700 people at its peak, briefly the county seat in 1888, and emptied after the Panic of 1893. The townsite is now Old Ruby State Park Heritage Site. Washington State Parks (2025) says no buildings stand; an interpretive sign kept by the county historical society marks it among the pines.
Benton County
Columbia River farm town evicted in 1943 for the Hanford Site. The First Bank of White Bluffs building stands inside the fence and can only be seen on the Department of Energy's free tours, which run May to September.
Pierce County
Northern Pacific coal town of 1900 whose mines closed by the early 1920s before a fire took the rest. The old schoolhouse basement and a dynamite shed remain beside an old rail grade on school district land.
Near a city
Driving distance and time from downtown, routed over OpenStreetMap roads. Dirt roads are usually slower than the estimate.
Directory
Every town, camp and settlement in our Washington index, with its county. A ◦ marks sites already on the map.
No sites match. Try fewer letters or another county.
Plan a trip
Cascade sites like Monte Cristo and Wellington can hold snow late into spring: a hiker reported about a foot of snow at Monte Cristo in April 2025. In the Okanogan, Old Molson has no snow removal. Late spring to fall is the season for most trips.
Forest Service trailheads such as Barlow Pass and the Iron Goat Trail's Wellington trailhead need a Northwest Forest Pass or America the Beautiful pass. At Monte Cristo the Forest Service warns that surface water carries arsenic and heavy metals that filtering and boiling will not remove, so carry all you need.
With the Fairfax Bridge closed, the trail to Melmont can only be reached from Carbonado. Hanford-era sites like the White Bluffs bank are open only on Department of Energy tours, with registration opening in spring.
Patented mining claims and cabins line the road to Monte Cristo, and Melmont sits on school district land, so stay on the trail. Leave artifacts where they lie: on federal land, the Archaeological Resources Protection Act covers digging and collecting.
FAQ
Liberty keeps several 1890s buildings in a historic district and still has a few residents. For a hike, Monte Cristo and the Wellington end of the Iron Goat Trail combine history with the Cascades. In the Okanogan, Old Molson is a free outdoor museum of pioneer buildings.
Franklin is about an hour and 10 minutes from downtown by road. Melmont, Monte Cristo, Liberty and Wellington are each about two hours away, and Melmont, Monte Cristo and Wellington also take a walk from the trailhead.
Only on a Department of Energy tour. The free tours of pre-war sites, including the White Bluffs bank, ran from May to September in 2026, with registration opening April 1. Watch tours.hanford.gov for the next season.
No official count exists. Our index lists 178 sites, 142 of them with coordinates.
No. The Forest Service warns that surface water in the area contains arsenic and other heavy metals above drinking water standards, which filtering and boiling will not remove. A cleanup reopened the townsite in 2016, and the warning is still on the Forest Service page.
Abandoned