Everett Archives: The Ghosts of Monte Cristo
Header image: United Concentration Company plant 1894 // Public domain
If you live in Everett, you may have never heard of the settlement of Monte Cristo. It’s an abandoned mining colony located deep in the Cascade Mountains near the Sauk River. The name may sound familiar, though, because of the stately Monte Cristo Hotel and ballroom located downtown on the corner of Hoyt and Wall Streets. Indeed, the Monte Cristo Hotel has everything to do with Monte Cristo the town.
Explorers discovered Monte Cristo in 1889 while looking for ore in southeastern Snohomish County. Crossing over a ridge of mountains near Index, they spotted a hill with telltale bands of colors in the rock. Upon closer inspection, the hills near the South Fork of the Sauk River contained gold and silver. These early explorers called their discovery “Monte Cristo” after the then-popular Alexander Dumas novel -- a tale of romance and fortune.
Early miners began to quietly file mining claims, each gambling on a stake in what could be a lucrative operation. Before long, word got out and soon investors began to pool their money to form a mining syndicate dedicated to bringing in machinery and building town roads. John D. Rockefeller joined the mining venture, and the Everett and Monte Cristo line connected our industrial city to the remote Sauk River via railroad. Raw ore traveled by rail to a smelter in the Delta Neighborhood where it was concentrated into bullion and locals erected the Monte Cristo Hotel as a way of attracting other investors.
Monte Cristo today // Public domain
The potential of great wealth attracted laborers looking for jobs. The South Fork of the Stillaguamish River was filled with railroad workers building tunnels and laying tracks in Robe Canyon. Sawmills near Granite Falls popped up, milling local wood to build railroad ties, wooden sidewalks, and workers’ cottages.
But Monte Cristo was plagued, perhaps cursed, from the beginning. The national economy suffered a recession shortly after mining operations began -- credit froze and wages fell. Workers went on strike and spent weeks freezing in the snow waiting for the rail line to be completed. The railroad through Robe Canyon kept failing; the route was narrow and prone to intense and abrupt flooding. An avalanche crashed down on Monte Cristo, wiping out buildings and streets.
One by one, investors began to sell off their shares in the syndicate. Mining operations slowed and by the 1920s the town of Monte Cristo was all but abandoned, save for some tenants who stayed on to run lodges for tourists.
Today Monte Cristo is a popular hiking destination -- relatively easy to reach on foot by a graded road and river crossing. Modern-day explorers can still walk among miners’ cottages, rotate the old railroad turntable, and even find rusted scraps of mining equipment in the hills.
The story of Monte Cristo is a parable of the land and the people who tried to exploit it. And though the characters played their roles over a hundred years ago, the story resonates in a modern telling. The town of Monte Cristo posits a question: man can try and take from the earth... but who will win in the long run?
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