Circle City, derived its name from the nearby loop the railroad track made as it wound its way up the grade from Oroville to Molson. ( Photo from Okanogan County Historical Society Collection).
Circle had a section house, unsuccessful water tank,depot with a few grocery items, and a school. The railroad line was completed by 1907, with an average of two and one half percent grade. Here westbound trains had to stop to cool their brakes.
The school was organized in 1907, and the new school house was built in 1912. Circle went the way like most county schools, when they consolidated with Oroville in 1932. Due to many boom towns dying out and becoming ghost towns, and the coming of trucks, the railroad was pulled out by 1932. Although Circle City never was a city, nor even a town it certainly played a role in the history of yesteryear.
Circle school 1912-1932. There were eight grades with about thirty pupils at its peak. ( Photo from Okanogan County Historical Society Collection).
In 1931 the railroad was abandoned between Molson and Oroville. The tracks pulled in 1932. These relics of the past are near Circle City, testament to those railroad boom days gone by.
