In 1889, brothers Fred and Jack Wilmans discovered Monte Cristo Gold, and charted a path to “Sauk City” in Skagit County, starting down the Sauk River. Their one goal was to make a 60-mile railroad from Monte Cristo to Sauk City.
The Skagit and Snohomish Counties were uninterested in building a
large railroad and the two brothers had to form their private company “Ewing-Wilmans“ to make the road themselves, investing $800 into the project (roughly 25 thousand, 400 dollars today). By 1906, Sauk City had a general store, two hotels, a school, two saloons,
a butcher shop, and a shingle mill. To this day, some of the structures from the late 1800s are still standing on the farm; a reminder of the little town that once mined for gold. Two consecutive fires over the years wiped Sauk City off of the map.
The Cabin and Schoolhouse
One of the structures still standing on the farm is the "cabin", Supposedly this cabin was rebuilt in the early 1900s from two earlier existing cabins.
Standing at just about 800 sqft, one-half of the original cabin had 10 children inside!
There is not much left of the original Sauk City Schoolhouse besides the foundation, pictured below.
Sauk Farm
Purchased from the Smith family in 2006, The Berger family set up camp. Growing up, Jesse had always dreamed of having a farm, and now he had the opportunity to.
With Griffin's hard work, love for organic farming, and help from his parents, Sauk Farm is now in over 40 retail locations and the best-selling product is the oh-so-delicious Honeycrisp Apple Cider.
Support local sustainable agriculture today!
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