Gate City: Washington’s Forgotten “Gateway to the Coast” | The Town that Vanished

Gate City was once the “Gateway to the Coast” — a bustling railroad and logging town in Thurston County, Washington with hotels, stores, mills, and two depots. Then fires in 1902 and 1918, the Panic of 1893, and the closure of the sawmill in 1913 wiped almost everything away. In this episode of Searching for History, I go hunting for what remains of Gate City today. The only major structure still standing is the beautiful 1910 Gate Schoolhouse — now the active Gate Community Club. I explore the exact site shown on the 1917 Northern Pacific Station Map, explore the area finding all the locations of the former buildings and visit the Gate Schoolhouse. You’ll see: • The surviving schoolhouse (interior & exterior) • Overlays of the 1917 map on today’s landscape • What Gate City looks like today If you love Pacific Northwest ghost towns, lost railroad history, and one-building survivors, this one’s for you. If you enjoy this episode, hit LIKE and subscribe for more lost towns of the Pacific Northwest! Comment below: what vanished town should I explore next? #ghosttown #pacificnorthwest #abandonedplaces Music Attributions Song 1: Firefly by Chris Haugen (YouTube Audio Library License, no attribution is required) Song 2: Starlight on the Water by Chris Haugen (YouTube Audio Library License, no attribution is required) Song 3: Sugarbee by Chris Haugen (YouTube Audio Library License, no attribution is required) Image Attributions Image 1: Bosworth, Ogden (Surveyor), “Plan of Gate City, Thurston County, Washington,” October 11, 1890, Tacoma Washington. This image is in the public domain. Digital copy located at: https://dnr.wa.gov/buy-maps-or-survey... Image 2: Northern Pacific Railway, “Station Map – Tracks & Structures – Gate, Thurston County, Washington,” June 30, 1917, Office of Chief Engineer, St. Paul Minnesota. This image is in the public domain. Digital copy located at: https://dnr.wa.gov/buy-maps-or-survey... Image 3: Strobridge & Co., Lith., “The War of Wealth,” c1895, New York. This image is in the public domain. Digital copy located at: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/201... Image 4: AI-generated dramatic Gate City on fire scene created with Grok Imagine by xAI. This image is in the public domain. Image 5: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, “Washington, Gate Quadrangle, Grid Zone ‘G’,” 1941, Washington D.C. This image is in the public domain. Digital copy located at: https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/topoview/