Nighthawk Washington Ghost Town

[Gypsy Heart]

Nighthawk had been built on level ground ,but the main mining operation was just across the Similkameen River.A foot bridge was initially built, but then a ferry put into operation by William Berry. William and his brother Joe soon started saloon which became a huge success with the miners. At the turn of the century, Vancouver,Vi8ctoria and Eastern ran its line through Nighthawk and things were really looking up for the town. All the equipment for the mine as well as other nearby towns such as Loomis, were shipped by rail to Nighthawk. Large liveries and frieght lines were maintained here as well as stores ,more saloons and hotels.
By 1950 things had slowed down considerably and as always people moved on to better lives and jobs. By 1971 the only remaing business in town was the grocery ,which ran out of the former Nighthawk Hotel . The Nighthawk hotel had been built by Ed McNull for the drummers in the boom days, later when the mill was running full blast it was ran by the Ewing family as a boarding house for the miners and finally operated as the griocery for 25 yrs by Mr and Mrs Lyn Sullivan who lived in Palmer Lake .Sign on old building advertises dinner for 25 cents.

[bogeymcq]

The facts, the history, the pictures, I am sooooo LOVE LOVE LOVIN' it ALL!

Have you had a chance to explore the area yourself?

Bogart

[Functional]

Nice pictures and story. I'm only about 60 miles north east of there and have panned for gold about the same distance north west of there on the Similkameen River. Brings back some memories.

F.

[Gypsy Heart]

The facts, the history, the pictures, I am sooooo LOVE LOVE LOVIN' it ALL!

Have you had a chance to explore the area yourself?

Bogart

No I havent. As I do research ....,people send me articles,books or pictures ......or I glean these sites from the internet or the many books I own......I just find the interesting ones and post them here at Treasurenet.....so that others will have the opportunity to go hunt them......the ones I want or the ones that I personally know people are working on....I dont post those.....Good Luck and hope you all find treasure.

[tradderran]

Great post

[Capefearsman]

Great post !

[MikeSD]

Nice area. I'm curious. What are the laws with regards to using metal detectors in ghost towns of Washington? I'm in the Seattle area.

Ghost towns generally imply uninhabited but someone does own the land. Do these revert back to the state? Still privately owned? Is it even legal to search for relics in ghost towns with metal detectors?

[Lafitte]

As always GH, you present a wonderful story. One day, I'll dig one of your tips here in Wa. and show the results.
Mike, from what I've researched, alot of the ghost towns here in Wa. were land grants to the RR coming west. And mining/lumber camps were from leased claims on state land. From what I've seen, most of the big (at that time) companies, managed to buy the land their claims were on. So, yes, I'd guess that most are in private hands now.
Someone always owns the land in ghost towns. For the one's I want to check out I'm researching who owns what. The RR right-of-way size here leaves plenty of ground on either side to explore.