I just discovered that up until the 1920's, there was a logging railroad that came right through my neighborhood in east Woodinville (halfway to Duvall), partly passing straight down the road and partly through a depression in the brush, then continuing along an old trail towards Echo lake and north to Everett.
Anyone know anyplace online where I could find more old maps of this kind of stuff?
The Tacoma Public Library operates a section called the Northwest Room. Its interest is solely around history of the Northwest. You can contact them for help or wade through their collection. https://www.tacomalibrary.org/northwest-room/
https://www.openrailwaymap.org/ has some abandoned railroad lines, like the Everett & Monte Cristo. Maybe it has your railroad route. It's really part of OpenStreetMap, using their data somehow. After a lot of fooling around, I even managed to get the E&MC map onto Gaia, but probably could't repeat that without a few hours time.
For Snohomish County, look at this: https://www.gfhistory.org/Maps.html
Mike: Thanks for the info from Tacoma (where I grew up). Nice historical touch! (I hated history in school, but as I age, I like it much more!)
Riverside: Great links! This is exactly what I was hoping for. I'm just surprised I didn't find it in my searching. I originally found a faint sketch of the former railroads using OpenStreetMap, but it was on the default layer and not nearly as easy to see. We have a few big 6' wide stumps on our property, and I suspect the trees probably found their way to the saw mill using these logging trains, where one of the spurs passed very near to my home.
Dennis Thompson’s book, Logging Railroads in Skagit County, is awesome. I am sure he suffers from OCD. Beautiful maps and photos. He essentially wrote a Ph.D thesis on his own time. There is apparently a network of like minded hobbyists who research this topic.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate NWHikers.net earns from qualifying purchases when you use our link(s).