Wauconda, Washington — Ghost Town That Still Has Addresses

Wauconda has been called a ghost town often enough that the description can obscure the obvious problem: people still live there.

Mining excitement created the settlement in the Okanogan Highlands during the late 1890s. Stores and a post office appeared around claims expected to support a lasting mineral economy. The boom never reached the scale promoters imagined, and the commercial center gradually thinned.

What remained was not an abandoned stage set. Occupied property survived, and State Route 20 still carries the Wauconda name through the high country between Republic and Tonasket.

The mining boom ended. Wauconda became a remnant. The address, however, never became historical.