Abandoned Towns
Aerial view of the narrow, wooded Salmon Creek valley at the Ruby townsite

Silver mining town

Ruby

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 state park heritage site with no buildings left.

48°29′57″N 119°43′32″W · ≈1,840 ft

Aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).

State heritage site

Part of the townsite is Old Ruby State Park Heritage Site, which Washington State Parks bought in 1977. State Parks says no structures stand and the only development is an interpretive sign kept by the Okanogan County Historical Society. A December 2025 Islands article describes a sign and a few foundations. We found no posted hours or fees for the site.

Overview

The county seat that lasted eleven months

Ruby grew up fast. The land west of the Okanogan River had been part of the Columbia, or Moses, Reservation, and when it opened to mineral claims in 1886 prospectors found silver on Ruby Mountain and Peacock Hill. On January 6, 1887, two men named Singleton and Fuller claimed ground on Salmon Creek and organized Ruby City. By 1888 some 70 buildings lined a single street squeezed into the narrow valley. The mines had names like First Thought, Fourth of July and Last Chance, and the Arlington outproduced them all.

When Okanogan County was formed in 1888, its commissioners picked Ruby as the county seat. Voters moved it to Conconully later that year; Wikipedia counts Ruby's term as about eleven months. A local paper, the Ruby Miner, boosted the district, and the camp had a reputation as a wide-open place with little law. Sources put the population at about 700 (Wikipedia) or more than 1,000 (Washington State Parks).

The Panic of 1893 wrecked the price of silver and the mines closed. When the mayor of Ellensburg came through in August 1899, every building was still standing and nobody lived in any of them. Fire, avalanches, time and vandals took the rest. Mining came back now and then from the 1920s until 1940, but the town did not. In 1977 Washington State Parks bought part of the townsite, and it is now Old Ruby State Park Heritage Site.

Video

Looking for Ruby in the pines

A YouTuber walks the townsite on a sunny day, along the dirt road that was once Main Street. He points out cabin-sized depressions in the ground a few dozen feet off the road and a corner of stacked stone, the clearest foundation he finds, then stops at the red interpretive sign by the road. Old photos of the town, a single street of buildings packed into the valley, are cut in for comparison. The narration says only a few dozen people were left by the fall of 1894, a figure our other sources don't give. He calls the road a Forest Service road.

Play “Exploring the Ghost Town of Ruby - The Once Booming Silver Mining Town of Okanogan County, WA” from YouTube
“Exploring the Ghost Town of Ruby - The Once Booming Silver Mining Town of Okanogan County, WA”, by Ghost Towns and Mines of Washington on YouTube. The player loads from YouTube when you press play.

Timeline

Silver, a county seat and the Panic

  1. President Hayes creates the Columbia (Moses) Reservation, which takes in this country. It is dissolved in 1884.
  2. The reservation land opens to mineral claims. Prospectors find silver on the slopes of Ruby Mountain and Peacock Hill.
  3. Singleton and Fuller claim land on Salmon Creek and organize Ruby City. A mining district is set up the same year.
  4. About 70 buildings line the main street. Okanogan County is created on February 2, and Ruby is named county seat in March. Voters move the seat to Conconully later that year.
  5. Ore goes by wagon and rail to a smelter in Helena, Montana. The Arlington becomes the district's largest producer.
  6. The Panic of 1893 collapses the price of silver. The mines shut down.
  7. Ellensburg mayor Austin Mires finds Ruby deserted, its buildings intact but empty.
  8. Mining resumes off and on from the early 1920s. A concentrating mill is built at the Arlington in 1936, and mining stops in 1940.
  9. Washington State Parks buys parts of nine blocks of the old town from four sellers for $44,300.

What's left

What you'll see

Not much. Washington State Parks says no structures remain and the only development on its land is an interpretive sign kept up by the Okanogan County Historical Society, standing among tall ponderosa pines. The Islands article of December 2025 describes a sign and a few foundations. The state bought only parts of nine blocks of the old town, so some of the surrounding land may be private.

The 1905 USGS Okanogan sheet below prints Ruby at its top edge, with a string of buildings along the road and Salmon Creek, Ruby Hill to the south and roads climbing to the mines on the slopes. On the 1957 Okanogan sheet the name has become "Ruby (Site)" in the same narrow valley.

  • Interpretive sign (Okanogan County Historical Society)
  • A few foundations
  • Ponderosa pine woods on Salmon Creek
USGS topographic map of the Salmon Creek valley at Ruby
USGS The National Map, topo. Salmon Creek Road runs through the narrow valley at the townsite.
Aerial view of the wooded Salmon Creek valley at Ruby
Aerial imagery, same area. The road follows the creek between steep wooded slopes.

Historic maps

Ruby on USGS maps, 1905–1957

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

USGS topographic map around Ruby, 1905
Okanogan sheet, 1905, 1:125,000 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

Okanogan, on the Okanogan River, is the closest town with services. Conconully Road runs north out of town toward Conconully, and Salmon Creek Road turns off it to the townsite. From Wenatchee, follow US 2 and US 97 up the Columbia to Okanogan.

USGS topographic map from Okanogan north along Conconully Road to the Ruby townsite on Salmon Creek

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

From downtown Okanogan18.6 miabout 36 min
  1. From downtown Okanogan, take 2nd Avenue South (SR 215), Pine Street, North 5th Avenue and 6th Avenue North out of town.0.7 mi
  2. Continue on Conconully Road.15.1 mi
  3. Turn left on Salmon Creek Road to the townsite.2.7 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

  • The route follows county roads all the way; a ghost town directory rates the road 2WD.
  • A video posted October 2023 shows a dirt road through the townsite, with room to park beside the interpretive sign. We found no other dated report on the road.
  • We found no posted rules, hours or parking fees for the heritage site.

Photos

Have photos of Ruby?

We haven’t added photographs of Ruby yet. If you’ve visited, share your photos and a field report below.

Visitor reports

Been to Ruby?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

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Nearby

Other sites near Ruby

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Washington index.

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. Washington State Parks, "Old Ruby State Park Heritage Site History" (Field Guide Blog, undated), read October 2026: the reservation, the 1886 opening, the 1887 founding, mines, more than 1,000 people, county seat, Helena smelter, the 1899 visit, the 1936 mill and 1940 end, the 1977 purchase, the sign and no standing structures.
  2. Wikipedia, "Ruby, Washington", retrieved October 2026: silver on Ruby Mountain and Peacock Hill, the 1887 district, about 700 people, 70 buildings in 1888, the eleven-month county seat, the Ruby Miner, the Panic of 1893, coordinates.
  3. Ghosttowns.com, "Ruby": road, climate, best time, remains; the camp's lawless reputation, avalanches, fire and vandalism.
  4. Islands, "South Of The Washington-Canadian Border Is An Abandoned Mining Town Cloaked In Mystery And Rugged Beauty", by Dave Bowling, December 3, 2025: a sign and a few foundations; the site as a state park heritage site.
  5. Ghost Towns and Mines of Washington, "Exploring the Ghost Town of Ruby - The Once Booming Silver Mining Town of Okanogan County, WA", YouTube, posted October 1, 2023: the video on this page; the dirt road, house-site depressions, a stone foundation corner and the interpretive sign.
  6. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026.

Photo and map credits