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Wellington, Washington

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Bri (talk | contribs) at 17:06, 9 November 2010 (+cat Uninc communities). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Wellington
CountryUnited States
StateWashington
CountyKing
Time zoneUTC-8 (Pacific (PST))
 • Summer (DST)UTC-7 (PDT)

Wellington (later known as Tye) was a small unincorporated railroad community on the Great Northern Railway in northeastern King County, Washington.Template:GR Founded in 1893, it was located at the west portal of the original Cascade Tunnel under Stevens Pass. It is infamous for being the site of the March 1, 1910, Wellington avalanche, the worst avalanche in United States history, in which 96 people died. (The number of deaths is a matter of dispute. Newspapers of the time reported 118 deaths in blazing headlines. It is said that the railroad itself persuaded officials to lower the death count in an attempt to reduce the significance of the event. While this seems unlikely, so does renaming the town, which they did do.)

After the disaster, the town's name was changed to Tye, after the nearby Tye River, because of the negative connotation of the original name.

Tye was abandoned in 1929 when the second Cascade Tunnel came into use.

This ghost town went on to have an elementary school built and named after it. Wellington Elementary is an elementary school in the Northshore School District.

References