Galena is a

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

Snohomish County Snohomish County () is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. With a population of 827,957 as of the 2020 census, it is the third-most populous county in Washington, after nearby King and Pierce counties, and the 72nd-most popul ...

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

. Galena is located in the

Cascade Mountains The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as many of those in the ...

, northeast of the town of

Index Index (: indexes or indices) may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * Index (''A Certain Magical Index''), a character in the light novel series ''A Certain Magical Index'' * The Index, an item on the Halo Array in the ...

. North of Galena lies Mineral City.

History

Galena lies on a speculated route between the territory of the band of the

Skykomish people The Skykomish (, ) are a Lushootseed-speaking Coast Salish people indigenous to the Skykomish Valley in the Cascade Mountains of Washington. The Skykomish inhabited at least 8 permanent villages with a pre-contact population believed to numbe ...

, based in modern-day Index, and the Sauk to the north. Galena was platted in December 1891 by John N. Scott. By then, Galena was already the location of much mineral interest, and it received mail three days a week and stagecoach service twice a week. From April 1892 to August 1894, Galena was home to the ''Inter-Cascade Mountaineer'', a weekly mining newspaper. Voting returns from the Galena and Monte Cristo precincts were at the center of a minor controversy during the contentious 1894 county seat election between Snohomish and Everett. In 1894, Snohomish County appropriated $500 to improve a wagon road between Index and Galena. The road was also extended beyond Galena, up Silver Creek. After a 1980 storm, a quarter-mile length of the ridge between Galena and Mineral City collapsed, washing out the road. The route remains impassable by vehicles. The county road from Index to Galena was completed in 1911. In 2006, severe flooding washed Index-Galena Road out, and access to Galena was limited to a 40-mile detour which closed seasonally. In November 2023, the Index–Galena Road reopened to traffic. The project cost $29 million, most of which came from the

Federal Highway Administration The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is a division of the United States Department of Transportation that specializes in highway transportation. The agency's major activities are grouped into two programs, the Federal-aid Highway Program a ...

; Snohomish County contributed $6.3 million and the state government contributed $1.2 million.

Geology

Galena is within the Silver Creek Mining District. The area immediately local to Galena contains silver-lead ore, with a smaller amount of

chalcopyrite Chalcopyrite ( ) is a copper iron sulfide mineral and the most abundant copper ore mineral. It has the chemical formula CuFeS2 and crystallizes in the tetragonal system. It has a brassy to golden yellow color and a Mohs scale, hardness of 3.5 to 4 ...

, which contains

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

References

{{authority control Snohomish County, Washington Ghost towns in Snohomish County, Washington Ghost towns in Washington (state)