Washington ghost town once housed 1,000 people during silver rush
Ruby City, a former silver-mining settlement, is now the Old Ruby State Park Heritage Site with no standing buildings.
Ruby City was once a thriving silver-mining settlement with more than 1,000 residents in Washington, according to a report by the Times of India. The town was at the centre of a mining boom in the late 19th century before declining silver prices, limited mineral deposits and high transport costs halted the industry.
William Singleton and Thomas D. Fuller established the town along Salmon Creek on 6 January 1887. The settlement included businesses such as the Bank of Ruby, which issued pink checks, as well as a brewery and several saloons.
The town briefly served as the seat of Okanogan County in 1888 after the Washington Territorial Legislature approved the county's creation on 2 February that year. However, voters later transferred the position to Conconully.
Mining operations at the Arlington, First Thought and Last Chance mines resumed in the early 1920s, but high transport costs made the activity unprofitable. Mining eventually stopped in 1940 after a concentrating mill was built at the Arlington Mine in 1936.
By August 1899, Ellensburg mayor Austin Mires recorded that the town was entirely deserted. Today, the site is known as the Old Ruby State Park Heritage Site, where forested hills and ponderosa pines surround a townsite with no standing buildings remaining.
