North Cascades

MARKETING THE WILDERNESS: DEVELOPMENT OF COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISES

Major area of mining in the vicinity of today's park including
Ruby and Slate Creeks to the north, upper Thunder Creek, Cascade River
and Bridge Creek, and Railroad Creek further south.

MINERAL RESOURCES: MINING

Historical Overview

The aftermath of gold rushes elsewhere in the Northwest brought prospectors to the North Cascades in search of minerals. Major gold rushes in the eastern plateau country of Washington Territory (1855 Colville rush) and in southern British Columbia (1858 Fraser River rush) produced their share of discouraged miners. The unsuccessful efforts of these gold-seekers led them back to Washington Territory where they explored other waterways accessible from Puget Sound, including the Skagit River, for signs of gold. Several accounts from 1858 describe men navigating up the "Skat-Skat" River, panning its banks along the way. In the summer of that year, a Whatcom (Bellingham) newspaper, The Northern Light (July 24), wrote that two men had recently returned from a trip on the upper "Skat-Skat" River. Simeon Sawyer and Joshua Jones reportedly ascended the main branch of the river, working their way past the natural log jams that were present in the lower river, and reaching a point 75 miles upstream. They panned for gold and found "several particles. Despite their glowing report that . . . the appearance of the hills and gulches on the Skat-Skat . . . look . . . favorable for rich deposits of gold . . . ," other prospectors did not rush to join them.

It was twenty years before another party of prospectors returned to the remote upper Skagit valley. When these men found gold in seemingly large quantities on Ruby Creek in the late 1870s, the news traveled fast, setting off the first official gold rush in the North Cascades. Hundreds of prospectors made their way into the Ruby Creek placer mines only to find that little precious metal existed. The gold rush was over by 1880, leaving the upper Skagit valley virtually abandoned. Several miners chose to remain in the area, continuing their efforts in the summers that followed, maintaining their belief that the "mother lode" would some day be discovered.

The 1890s brought a new wave of prospectors into the North Cascades, although many merely passed through en route to the developing Slate Creek Mining District east of Ruby Creek and outside today's park boundaries. [84]

This second rush was characterized by hard rock or lode mining instead of placer mining. Prospectors headed into the hills looking for ledges and outcrops showing signs of metal. By the late 1880s a few men had already examined and filed claims in the high country around Cascade Pass, Doubtful Lake, and Horseshoe Basin. By the 1890s, others were venturing up the Thunder Creek and Bridge Creek drainages searching for minerals. Silver and lead gained favor over gold, for they were present in greater quantities and their market price made mining profitable. Hundreds of claims were filed in Skagit, Whatcom, and Chelan County courthouses by individuals believing they had located a substantial deposit.

As the twentieth century approached, and through its first decade, mining in the North Cascades remained an active industry. It was a new era for mining as large companies replaced the individual miners and prospectors. Initially, men working alone or in small parties located and staked mining claims. Large companies often purchased these claims, with funds raised through the sale of stock. Shareholders were promised fabulous returns on their investments, reading glowing descriptions of the area's abundant minerals in their company's prospectus.

Throughout the region, large companies did actually begin substantial development work on their claims. Trails were extended far into the backcountry; log cabins were built to house miners on their way to and from the remote mines; sawmills produced lumber for structures; pipelines carried water, producing power to run mining equipment. Despite all this activity, there were still miners and promoters going home penniless. Overspent and bankrupt companies were taken over by wealthier companies which, in turn, failed and were bought out by others. Ultimately metal values dropped, mining became impractical, and activity in the North Cascades quieted down for many years.

The demand for metal during World War I renewed mining companies' interests in the Cascade Range. In 1942, however, a governmental war order closed all gold mining operations until after the war. [85] The 1940s and 1950s marked the last futile efforts to develop mines in these mountains, although valid mining claims still exist today in the park Almost 6000 unpatented claims formerly blanketed the wilderness, and as of 1970, nearly 2000 acres of patented claims remained. [86] Today there are approximately 225 acres of mining claims in private hands within the National Park.