As early settlers flocked to the American West to extract the land's rich resources, small towns spread across the landscape. Pre-automobile, residents of these newly inhabited places needed amenities like stores, schools, doctors, churches, train depots and more.
But when those natural resources — timber, ore, water — eventually dried up, people left. Buildings and other evidence of human habitation slowly crumbled back into the ground, dying a slow death at nature's hand.
Here in Eastern Washington and North Idaho, not many "ghost towns" with structures still standing exist, which was the top criteria for the places featured in this collection. While we discovered many other fascinating ghost towns across the Pacific Northwest, we also limited our coverage to places no more than a three-hour drive from Spokane.
We reported these stories by visiting each place in person, as well as scouring the archives of the Spokane Public Library's Northwest Room. A couple of the towns featured were much easier to research than others. Burke, for example, was richly photographed and documented. Others proved more challenging.
If you decide, after reading this issue, to visit any of these places yourself, remember to be respectful. Areas surrounding these former towns are actually still inhabited, giving less credence to the "ghost town" categorization. Some sites are on private property. (Trespassing is not only illegal but potentially dangerous!)
Feel free to take plenty of photos, but don't leave any trace you were there, as a proper ghost should do.
— CHEY SCOTT, Inlander Editor
