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The Monte Cristo Mining District

© Elizabeth Gibson

In 1874, the first prospectors staked claims on both forks of Silver Creek in Western Washington. But the mother lode was just over the next hill. In early summer, Joseph Pearsall spotted a promising peak that looked like galena, which usually contained silver. He collected some samples and gave them to his friend Frank Peabody, who had them assayed in Seattle.

The samples were promising enough that their friend MacDonald Wilmans gave them a $150 grubstake. The first claim they called Independence of 1776. The second claim was called Glacier. They also discovered a promising basin and staked three claims there called the Pride of the Mountains, Pride of the Woods, and the '89.

In the spring of 1890, the Wilmanses built a horse trail to the area to make travel easier. But mining the gold would still be a problem because they needed a lot of machinery. That summer, they mined by hand with sledgehammers and explosives. The Wilmanses came up with the name of Monte Cristo when someone mentioned the book, written by Alexandre Dumas. Like in the book, the mining area inspired wealth and promise.

Meanwhile, Charles Colby and Colgate Hoyt planned a town on Puget Sound to support the mining effort. This town would become Everett, named for Colby's son. John D. Rockefeller was a significant investor in the Everett Land Company, which would build the city. The first thing to be built was a smelter to handle the Monte Cristo ore.

The Wilmans brothers returned in the spring and built a wagon road along the Sauk River. They also built a sawmill at the junction of '76 and Glacier Creeks. They shipped in compressors and drills and machinery for an aerial tram. Wilmans' partner Bond surveyed the Stillaguamish River for a railroad.

By 1893, a regular town was popping up at Monte Cristo. The sawmill was cutting 10,000 board feet per day for the buildings. There was a boardinghouse for the miners. Then came the Pride Hotel. Next to be built was a huge concentrator on Glacier Creek. J. S. Bartholomew brought the first newspaper to the area. Saloons, a store, and a post office came too. Soon there were enough families to establish a school district. By mid-summer the telegraph was strung across the townsite. The railroad was completed and the first passengers came to Monte Cristo on September 6, 1893. Amazingly, no ore had even been processed to know whether all this activity was worth it.

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