Old Molson
A ghost town in Old Molson, Washington, Old Molson is filed here for what the record attaches to it. Historic settlement and ghost-town heritage. It sits in the archive under ghost towns. The dossier holds 1 documented fact — a documented spine with no haunting reports attached. Visitor status is unverified; confirm before making the trip.
· in your passport — stamped · open it
Is Old Molson haunted?
No claims are filed here — the record keeps this place for its documented history, not for a haunting on file.
The record — long form
Old Molson had a brewery fortune behind it and a two-year boom. In 1900, promoter George B. Meacham founded the townsite in Okanogan County, 1.7 miles south of the Canadian border, on money from John W. Molson — of the Canadian Molson banking and brewing family — who put in a reported $170,000. The post office opened that July; by year's end some three hundred people supported three general stores, a drugstore, three saloons, a dance hall, livery, blacksmith, assay office, hotel, newspaper, attorney, and doctor.
Then the money left. The Molson company withdrew its backing, and by June 1901 — a year after founding — twelve residents remained. The grand Hotel Tonasket, three stories and thirty-four rooms named for the Okanogan chief, stood until it burned in 1924. Mining flickered intermittently around the district until 1938, while the newer Molson townsite nearby carried on with a real school.
The town as exhibit
In 1960 Harry Sherling established the Old Ghost Town Museum at the original townsite — an open-air assemblage of pioneer buildings, farm machinery, and mining equipment — and the surviving Central Molson schoolhouse became a second museum holding the school's library and household artifacts. Both run seasonal hours by donation.
The file keeps the site as heritage rather than haunting: Old Molson is a deliberately curated ghost town, which makes it an unusual archive object — a boom that failed in twelve months, preserved sixty years later by a man who decided the ruins were the point.
Documented history
Former mining settlement with preserved pioneer artifacts. The town's documented rise and abandonment is the record the rest of the file stands on. The press recorded it; the detail stands as reported history. The record appears in 'Discover Washington Ghost Towns'. It is the kind of fact the rest of the dossier leans on.
Media reportedState of Washington Tourism
Sources on file
- 01Discover Washington Ghost TownsState of Washington Tourism · tourism · A3
Field notes & open questions
Pass 1 discovery. Inclusion is for ghost-town heritage; no haunting claim is implied. Parcel access and coordinates remain unverified.