Gallery: Monte Christo, Washington ghost town, has a piece of Trump history. Over the years, the town of Monte Cristo has been known as a lot of things.
First, as a bustling mining camp in the Cascade Mountains, later as a tourist destination and, eventually, as a polluted ghost town. Come November, it might also be known for another claim to fame: as the place where President Donald J.
Trump's grandfather ran a brothel. Now managed by the U. The town was once thought to contain one of the largest silver deposits in the world, but instead wound up like so many other Wild West boom towns: cashed out and crashed. One of the opportunistic businessmen to take advantage of the mining rush was none other than Friedrich "Fred" Trump, grandfather of billionaire real estate mogul and current Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Author Gwenda Blair explored the connection in her book "The Trumps: Three Generations That Built an Empire," discovering that the eldest Trump made a quick fortune operating "prostitution parlors" around the Pacific Northwest. Blair explains in an article for Politico :. The mining boom eventually faded, leaving destitute prospectors and ghost towns behind.
Trump, however, made money hand over fist, mining the pockets of the miners instead. Whether or not his grandson, Donald, emerges victorious this year, the town of Monte Cristo remains a fascinating piece of American history. It will always be a relic of the volatile Wild West, but there's a real chance it could also be known as the place where our President's grandfather made a fortune selling sex. Park at the end of the road and walk four miles to reach the campground and town site.
