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Discovering Washington's Historic Mines: West Central Cascade Mountains

This book is intended for persons interested in exploring old mining locations. It contains detailed descriptions of mine sites plus some history. I have not reviewed this book thoroughly but have used it for sporadic reference.

p. 87: The Silver Creek mining district, about 10 miles NE of Index, is the oldest mining area in western Cascades of Washington. The first known mineral discoveries by white Americans in the area were made in 1871.

The town of Silver City (renamed Mineral City in 1892) was founded at the junction of the north and west forks of Silver Creek in 1873. In 1890, the Wilmans brothers built a pack trail from Scott's Camp (at the junction of Silver Creek and the North Fork Skykomish River) to the Monte Cristo claims in 76 Gulch. This was the first horse trail up Silver Creek.

Galena City was platted at the site formerly called Scott's Camp in 1891. Galena boasted its own newspaper, the InterCascade Miner, starting in April 1892. In August 1893, due to lack of appreciation of the paper, "the editor printed a brief but sarcastic valedictory, packed up his printing outfit, and left town over the mountain trail."

Prospects in the Silver Creek district faded during the 1890s. Everett Herald columnist Allan May later wrote: "It is doubtful that anyone got rich mining in Silver Creek. But at least they had a beautiful place to be poor."

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