Monohon, Washington
Near Woodinville, Washington
On the southeastern shore of Lake Sammamish, a mill town called Monohon was founded in eighteen eighty-eight, taking its name from Martin Monohon, who had homesteaded one hundred sixty acres there in eighteen seventy-seven. When the railroad arrived along the lake's eastern edge in eighteen eighty-nine, a sawmill relocated to the site, and the town grew. By nineteen eleven Monohon had three hundred residents, enough homes and businesses to feel permanent.
Then, on June twenty-sixth, nineteen twenty-five, during a heat wave that pushed temperatures to ninety-eight degrees, a discarded cigarette started a fire that destroyed most of the town. Monohon never rebuilt. The residents scattered, and the community quietly vanished.
Only a few mill homes spared by the fire still stand on the shoreline.
