This story originally aired on January 6, 2018.
People will go to great lengths in pursuit of wealth. Mountains will be literally moved in order to make them release the mineral bounty they contain. This is the drive that led to the creation of Monte Cristo, a mining town founded in the North Cascades back in the late 1800s.
Today, Monte Cristo is a ghost town. Yet, it still has a hold on people like David Cameron.
“It’s just a beautiful spot, and it kind of captures you. Sort of despite yourself. You cuss out the log that’s across the road or my back from rolling rocks and then you look up at those hills around you and say, wow, isn’t this something.”
Cameron is the vice president of the Monte Cristo Preservation Association. It’s an organization dedicated to educating the public about this remote spot and making sure people can still access it today.
In this story, Sound Effect Host, Gabriel Spitzer talks with Cameron about what made people want to take a pick ax to these mountains, what a real Western mining town was like and about Monte Cristo’s connection to U.S. President Donald Trump.
