Alpine

Alpine is a ghost town tucked into the Cascade Mountains of King County, Washington, roughly 8 miles west of Stevens Pass near the community of Skykomish. Its origins trace to the late 19th century, when it was established under the name Nippon specifically to house Japanese workers employed in railway construction. A neighboring settlement called Corea served a similar purpose for Korean railway workers, reflecting the multiethnic labor force that built rail infrastructure through this rugged mountain corridor.

Because Alpine relied entirely on rail access and sat a full mile from the nearest road, it was always a place apart. That isolation shaped its character during its working life and defines the challenge of visiting today. Travelers should go in with realistic expectations: this is a remote historic site, not a developed destination, and the logistics of reaching it require planning around both terrain and access limitations.