By Mabel Gavin

Here on the floor of the dense forest are the unmistakable prints of the lost city-old Loup Loup, the first platted town in Okanogan County. Still distinct in the shadowy light are foundations indicating buildings up to 60 feet in length that once line the wide main streets.

Bricks from crumpled chimneys lie exposed in spots although the forest began over 111 years ago covering up signs of the little city that once blazed in the glory of a new mining epoch.

Loup Loup was the rival sister of old Ruby and lay about four miles over the hill from her. It was platted in the Loup Loup drainage August 14, 1888, by W.P. Keady and S.F. Chadwick. Little is known about Keady but Chadwick was ex-governor of Oregon and the father of Stephen J. Chadwick, a member of the Supreme Court of Washington.

According to Phillip H. Pinkston, who came to Okanogan County in 1888 to act as agent for the owners of the Loup Loup townsite, 80 acres of script was filed on the site and a Boom Town began exploding.

The Platt shows that the two main streets, Okanogan and Methow, were 80 feet wide. The other streets, Wenatchee, Nespelem. Conconully and Columbia, narrowed toward the city edges. Lots were 25x90 feet and sold at $200 to $500 each.

To get mining supplies and equipment into Loup Loup, the promoters scratched a road from Malott through Pleasant Valley and the Buzzard Lake section.

Pinkston was notified to put up a gate and place a man on the road to collect tolls but insufficient travel caused that plan to fall through. An effort was then made to sell the road to the county but that venture also failed.

By 1890 the mining town had enough people to warrant the establishment of a post office. On January 18 of that year, Phillip H. Pinkston became the official post master.The office was established under the name of Loop. Whether this was a recording error or what, is not known but on June 30 of that same year it was changed to Loup Loup.

Pinkston was a man of vision and according to an old newspaper record he filed a water right on the West Fork of the Salmon and had a route surveyed for a ditch to bring water for power and domestic use to both Ruby and Loup Loup.

Pinkston said at the height of its boom Loup Loup had a population of 400 people. This number was also estimated by Mrs. John (Annie) Hilderbrand, a resident.

It was March 29, 1890, when Mr. and Mrs. John Hilderbrand, newlyweds, arrived in the little mining city. She, many years later told this author that Loup Loup was at that time engulfed in deep snow drifts, following a very bad winter. Barnyard fences all across the Big Bend and through the Okanogan, she noted, were hung with cowhides that indicated the heavy loss of stock.

Annie Hilderbrand said there were from 30 to 40 dwelling houses in Loup Loup during the time they lived there. The town also had a boarding house, a supply building for mines, a general store, a post office and a meat market. Bacom’s lumber mill was nearby.

Hilderbrand bought horses and was soon employed by Jonathan Bourne hailing from the First Thought Mine where a crew of 100 or more men were employed. One of the loads of ore was considered so valuable that an escort of men with loaded rifles guarded it out of the area.

In 1892 Bourne had a concentrator built at Ruby and it was connected with the mine by a cable tramway that carried the ore over the Ruby Hill in buckets and dumped it into ore bins above the concentrator.

The Hilderbrands lived in the north end of Loup Loup. That section was called Fundlerville as Fundler, a man who operated the War Eagle and other mines on Peacock lived there.

Here in Loup Loup, that was once the scene of more mining activity than any other mining spot in Okanogan County, Ada Hilderbrand Vandiver was born.

In 1893 the price of silver dropped and the glow began to fade from the mines. The Hilderbrands moved to Ruby but it, too, was also gasping for breath. However, the Loup Loup post office continued to operate until November 20, 1895, when it was discontinued and mail transferred to Ruby.

And so a city died. Frame houses were moved away and the forest crept over the site. Only one or two persons really knew the location. So well was it hidden that people passing had no idea a mining town once flourished there.

Ben Greening and wife, Lois, who never gave up the search for the lost city, stumbled across the old bricks one day. Digging into a suspicious looking earth mound they uncovered a perfect fireplace.

The granite slabs had been hand-chipped. Greenings left the fireplace standing and believe it should be kept on its present location as a monument to the dazzling mining era of Okanogan County.