LEAVENWORTH (Day 11 - part 1)

Finally when it was time for me to leave, the rain stopped! I crossed back over the border at Oroville and was once again in the state of Washington.

Located about a mile away was the ghost town of 'old' Molson.

Molson was founded in 1900 by promoter George B. Meacham and investor John W. Molson (of the Molson beer brewing family). It was a bustling mining town with a population of 300. It had its own newspaper, general stores, an attorney, doctor, saloon and hotel. The population dropped to only a dozen people when the mining dried up the following year but rose again with the arrival of the railroad in 1905. Unfortunately in 1909, J.H. McDonald forced everyone to leave, claiming the town was built on his homestead. So the town of New Molson was moved half a mile north.

Near the border of two countries

Inside some of the old buildings

An old furnace

In the town of New Molson was the Molson School Museum. The former school was filled with a variety of old artifacts and history.

Old classrooms last used 1968-9

The superintendent's office (and later the principal's office) now houses to old adding machines, cash register and telephone switchboard ... A scene in the office from 1956

A library

The old auditorium (with a stage)... and science room

Items from the old post office... including P.O. boxes

This room once contained a cot for any student who became ill during the day. Today it stores the equipment of Ernest Sherling, the old town's barber.

In the early days, barbers also performed bloodletting (using leeches) and other simple medical procedures such as pulling teeth and enemas. A striped pole served as a shop sign, with the red representing arterial blood, blue being venous blood, and white being the bandages. In 1163, however, it was decreed that physicians, surgeons and barbers should be separated... but the barber pole symbol still stuck around.

An elaborately decorated furnace

The old gym contained some interesting items... such as this old moonshine still.

It was a lovely drive down to Leavenworth.

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