Mt. Baker Highway: History - Mining

Miners blazed many of the 100 miles of hiking trails in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. From 1858 on, hordes of fortune hunters passed through Whatcom County on their way to the Fraser River gold strike in British Columbia. A few also scoured Mt. Baker’s creeks and foothills.

On August 23, 1897, three men from the border town of Sumas discovered flecks of gold “as large as peas” in what was to become the largest gold strike in the history of the Mount Baker Mining District. They were led by Jack Post, an old “sourdough” who had prospected the North Fork area for 30 years. He was accompanied by lawyer Russ Lambert and logger Lyman G. Van Valkenburg. They found their “Lone Jack” mother lode in an outcropping of quartz on Bear Mountain, north of Twin Lakes. The ore Lambert brought into Sumas was assayed at $10,750 per ton!

Overnight, the prospectors’ camp at Twin Lakes was surrounded by tents. The site soon grew into a mining camp called Union City with a population of 300 to 500. In 1898, miners built cabins and founded the town of Shuksan (Hwy. Mile 46). By that spring, 2,000 men had staked nearly 1,000 mineral claims.

On Nov. 27, 1897, Post, Lambert and Van Valkenburg sold their Lone Jack claims to a Portland, Ore., investment syndicate for $100,000. The company rapidly developed a mine, improving roads to bring in machinery. The mine was destroyed by fire ni 1907, then rebuilt and operated until it collapsed under a snowslide. Between 1902 and 1925, it produced at least $550,000 in gold. Operations resumed at the Lone Jack Mine in 1980, and 50 tons of concentrated ore are extracted each year.

The Mt. Baker Gold Rush continued in the 1920s. The second biggest strike was at the Boundary Red Mountain Gold Mine. About $1.5 million in minerals, mostly gold, were excavated from 1913 to 1946. However, most claims amounted to little. Avalanches and fires demolished hastily built mines and cabins. In all, $25 million in gold was taken from the region.

Mt. Baker Mining District’s last authentic mining cabin can be found down the road from the Shuksan Picnic Area (Hwy. Mile 46).