Maple Falls - Washington Ghost Town

MAPLE FALLS

NAME: Maple Falls
COUNTY: Whatcom
ROADS: 2WD
GRID: 6
CLIMATE: Cool winter and summer.
BEST TIME TO VISIT: Anytime.

COMMENTS: Semi-ghost.
REMAINS: Many original buildings.

Maple Falls is twenty-six miles from Bellingham on the Mount Baker Highway. Passing through the town today, one would have to draw upon the imagination to believe that the town was once an important railroad stop and a center of logging and milling activity. Maple Falls had its beginning around 1889 when the first homesteader built a cabin near the crossroads of the Silver Lake Road and the Mount Baker gold trail. His name was George Albert King and his wife, Caroline. They were quick to realize the potential for a lumber mill. And they built one. When disillusioned prospectors returned form the Mount baker Gold Rush of the 1890s, he was there with lumber with which to build homesteaders homes. That was the beginning of Maple Falls. When King learned the railroad was coming to Maple Falls, he set aside ten acres of his land for a townsite. The main road through town then was called Lake Street and is today's Silver Lake Road. The town grew rapidly and by 1906, Maple Falls had a complete business district. Around 1924, the railroad raised its rates for hauling logs to market causing a number of timber companies to fail. From that time forward, it was all downhill. Today, Maple Falls is a quiet place. Vacationers, tourists and skiers in winter fuel the handful of businesses that remain from the town that expected to be a metropolis. Submitted by Henry Chenowith.

Maple Falls is twenty-six miles from Bellingham on the Mount Baker Highway. Passing through the town today, one would have to draw upon the imagination to believe that the town was once an important railroad stop and a center of logging and milling activity. Maple Falls had its beginning around 1889 when the first homesteader built a cabin near the crossroads of the Silver Lake Road and the Mount Baker gold trail. His name was George Albert King and his wife, Caroline. They were quick to realize the potential for a lumber mill. And they built one. When disillusioned prospectors returned form the Mount baker Gold Rush of the 1890s, he was there with lumber with which to build homesteaders homes. That was the beginning of Maple Falls. When King learned the railroad was coming to Maple Falls, he set aside ten acres of his land for a townsite. The main road through town then was called Lake Street and is today's Silver Lake Road. The town grew rapidly and by 1906, Maple Falls had a complete business district. Around 1924, the railroad raised its rates for hauling logs to market causing a number of timber companies to fail. From that time forward, it was all downhill. Today, Maple Falls is a quiet place. Vacationers, tourists and skiers in winter fuel the handful of businesses that remain from the town that expected to be a metropolis. Submitted by Henry Chenowith.

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