Skykomish Kiosk

Skykomish Came with the Railroad...

In 1889, James J. Hill decided to extend his railway, The Great Northern, westward across the continent to Seattle to link with the markets of the Orient. In the fall of that year, at age 33, John Maloney arrived in Seattle from Alaska. Since leaving his parents’ Missouri farm twelve years previous, he had prospected in several western states

By now a skilled wilderness traveler, Maloney was hired by the Great Northern while he was homesteading near Lake Wenatchee His job was to be a packer and guide assisting in locating a route over the seemingly impenetrable northern Cascades. Maloney accompanied C.F. B. Haskell, a surveyor, when the Stevens Pass was discovered in the fall of 1890. Haskell named the pass for John F. Stevens, GN’s chief locating engineer in the Cascades. Construction of the railway over the Cascades began in October of 1891.

While exploring the area, John Maloney recognized its untapped wealth of natural resources and the economic possibilities with the coming of the railroad. He staked a claim at the first level spot west of the pass on 140 level acres in a beautiful river valley, fifteen miles west of the pass. A railroad construction camp and siding were established, and for a few years the place may have been called Maloney Siding by locals. The first official railroad name was Foss Creek and then it became Skykomish when the first Post Office was established. On January 6, 1893, track laying crews working toward each other from the east and west, met just west of the Stevens Pass summit near Scenic. James Hill’s dream of uniting America’s heartland with the West Coast was realized. The name Skykomish is derived from the Native American words Skaikh meaning inland, and mish meaning people.

The new community grew steadily in its early years. John Maloney married Louisa Fleming, a Virginia native, and on August 11, 1899 they filed a Plat of the Town of Skykomish. This original plat lay between the river and the tracks, from First to Sixth Street. Four subsequent additions were made to the Town in the next thirty years. The Town was incorporated June 5, 1909 with John Maloney as its first Mayor, and D.J. Manning, owner of the Skykomish Hotel, as Treasurer.

Researching the past is always difficult, since often stories conflict and there are gaps in the records. The Skykomish Historical Society has made every effort to present the facts as accurately as possible based on the information currently available.