{"id":1737,"slug":"liberty-liberty-washington","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["Liberty is the denied — the 'Swauk refused' that's the Postal feared confusion, the 'meeting named' that's the miners voted. The 'living ghost' is the rare — the 'only old-style' that's the Washington's survivor, the '1873 district' that's the still organized. The 'fool's gold' is the missed — the 'Goodwin's pan' that's the '68 joked, the 'second look' that's the '73 rich.","The 'Meaghersville' is the jumped — the 'claim jumped' that's the townsite stolen, the 'court won' that's the name's origin. The '$65 nuggets' is the panned — the '$1,365 single pan' that's the old-timers' claim, the '200 residents' that's the prime's count. Liberty is the persistent — the 'never quite bust' that's the ghost that lives, the 'post office gone' that's the town remains.","The file keeps Liberty: the denied name, the living ghost, the jumped claim, and the single pan.","Liberty is the archive's Washington file — the gold town that refused to die."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["Liberty is the archive's Washington file — the ghost town that never emptied.","A town keeps its stubbornness — the file's suggestion being that Liberty's hold is the survived: the 'only old-style' that's the state's last, the 'Swauk denied' that's the name voted, and the 'living ghost' that's the residents kept."]}],"name":"Liberty","aliases":["Meaghersville"],"type":"GHOST_TOWN","type_label":"Ghost Town","cats":["GHOST_TOWN","LOCAL_FOLKLORE","MINING"],"groups":["ghost-towns","legends"],"desc":"Historic settlement and ghost-town heritage.","full_desc":"A ghost town in Liberty, Washington, Liberty is filed here for what the record attaches to it. Historic settlement and ghost-town heritage. The archive files it under ghost towns, mining history and local folklore. The dossier holds 1 reported claim and 2 documented facts, with the verified spine filed separately from the lore. The site is open to visitors.","address":null,"city":"Liberty","county":null,"state":"Washington","postal":null,"region":"West","lat":47.668451,"lon":-117.104201,"coord_kind":"CITY","status":"ACTIVE","access":"PUBLIC","access_notes":null,"ownership":null,"website":null,"phone":null,"year_built":null,"year_opened":null,"year_closed":null,"year_demolished":null,"designation":null,"current_use":"Historic site / park","research_notes":"Pass 1 discovery. Inclusion is for ghost-town heritage; no haunting claim is implied. Parcel access and coordinates remain unverified.","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"MEDIUM","score":64.4,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.75,"identity_confidence":0.85,"historical_confidence":0.8,"source_quality":0.6,"paranormal_claim_provenance":0.8,"coordinate_confidence":0,"current_access_confidence":0.7,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[{"id":2899,"type":"APPARITION","description":"Reported a presence in the town. In a place where the population already left once, the remaining reports at Liberty feel almost inevitable. The file holds testimony rather than proof; the claim remains anecdotal. The report is preserved in sources like 'Liberty'. It is the sighting the place is known for, and it hasn't stopped.","evidence":"ANECDOTAL","evidence_label":"Anecdotal","entity":null,"where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.8,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"Liberty","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty,_Washington","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]}],"history":[{"description":"Gold prospecting preceded settlement in 1873. The town's documented rise and abandonment is the record the rest of the file stands on. It enters the file through media reporting — documented coverage, not folklore. Sources including 'Discover Washington Ghost Towns' carry the record. It's the sort of fact that gives the haunting reports their context.","evidence":"MEDIA_REPORTED","date_start":null,"date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"Discover Washington Ghost Towns","url":"https://stateofwatourism.com/ghost-towns-of-washington-state/","publisher":"State of Washington Tourism","type":"TOURISM","authority":3}},{"description":"The 1873 camp is documented. Liberty's history is documented — boom, bust, and desertion all on record, the lore layered on top. The record holds it as fact — documented, not retold. The record appears in 'Liberty'. It's the sort of fact that gives the haunting reports their context. The report keeps its place in the record.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":"1873","date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"Liberty","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty,_Washington","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"legends":[],"entities":[],"events":[],"investigations":[],"encounters":[],"media":[],"persons":[],"visitor":{"tour_availability":"Verify before visiting","notes":"Site is largely open-air; some buildings may be unsafe or on private land. Check local conditions before visiting.","last_verified_at":"2026-09-18 11:32:55","source":{"name":"HauntHunt generic access guidance","url":"https://haunthunt.com/about#access-guidance","publisher":"HauntHunt editorial","type":"DIRECTORY","authority":2}},"sources":[{"name":"Discover Washington Ghost Towns","url":"https://stateofwatourism.com/ghost-towns-of-washington-state/","publisher":"State of Washington Tourism","type":"TOURISM","authority":3},{"name":"Liberty","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty,_Washington","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}],"conflicts":[{"field_name":"short_description","existing_value":"Historic settlement and ghost-town heritage.","incoming_value":"The 1873 gold camp—living ghost town in the Swauk.","notes":"Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite."},{"field_name":"research_notes","existing_value":"Pass 1 discovery. Inclusion is for ghost-town heritage; no haunting claim is implied. Parcel access and coordinates remain unverified.","incoming_value":"PNW batch; VERIFY task auto-queued.","notes":"Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite."}],"wiki":null,"counts":{"claims":1,"history":2,"legends":0,"entities":0,"sources":2}}