Ruby

Ruby, the Queen City of the Okanogan County silver boom, was born in the spring of 1886. Its Main Street, following this county road, was 60 feet wide, and both sides were solidly lined with business places for 1/4 mile, while cabins and shacks clung to the hillsides. Ruby boomed when miners poured in from the First Thought, the Arlington, Fourth of July, and other notable mines in ridges to the west. With whiskey at a dollar a quart, no one went thirsty. A temporary Okanogan County seat for 11 months, Ruby was abandoned overnight when the price dropped out of silver in ’93. Only a few stone foundations remain of what was once the most famous mining camp in the Northwest.

Washington · United States