Follow a winding dirt road up in the mountains for a half hour or so, park your car in the little grassy knoll by the "foot traffic only" sign, and hike to one of Washington's strangest remote attractions.
Welcome to Lester
Welcome to Lester
As we followed the path by the railroad tracks, boots sticky with mud, it appeared in the distance like a mirage: windowless houses, the paint peeling off the shutters, the pile of wooden rubble that used to be a warehouse, part of it still standing on shaky, skeletal legs.
This is Lester, Washington.
We walked across the tracks, watching for rusty steel bric-a-brac that poked out at odd angles, and over to the houses. The doors were wide open and dark. Broken glass crunched under my feet as I stood, trying to get the best pictures I could of the interior of the first house.
Lester is original in that it looks like the people that used to live in the town vanished into thin air, leaving evidence of another time. We waded through old mattresses, ancient cans of tuna, baby plates still left out on the table as if dinner is about to be served.
Lester's fate wasn't disease. It wasn't natural destruction of an impending landslide or warnings of an erupting volcano.
People in Lester were forced out gradually, because the city of Tacoma trying to protect its drinking water, which lies on the same property.
The Lester Gate War
In the early 1960's, Tacoma sought to block access to the town by closing the gate on the Western side in what became known as The Lester Gate War. Citizens of Lester became very vocal that the road into their town should not be blocked.
In the end, the court ruled in favor of the city of Tacoma, and the gate was closed.
But the town refused to die out. Lester wanted - it tried - to rally and stay vital to the community. People wanted to protect the homes, their jobs, and their school.
Other forces sealed Lester's fate while Tacoma aggressively tried to make sure it gained Lester's land as its own property:
The railway closed down. The logging camp was abandoned. Finally, townspeople put money and energy into saving its school while the town emptied of residents.
Tacoma responded by asking for consolidated school districts, which would close Lester's school of five students. At last, there was nothing left in Lester, save a few people who could not bear to leave their homes.
People of Lester held a mock funeral for the death of their town. The war was over, and they had lost.
The Cabins in the Woods
On the other side of the tracks, we came to a rusted car graveyard. Beyond the metal scrap, you could make out the dead end of a subdivision. There was an old trailer stripped bare; inside another, a hastily left kitchen with an old coffee pot looking ready to brew. Sunshine beamed in from a far window. I shivered in the darkness and followed the rickety stairs to the attic.
I could feel my heart catch in my throat thinking about Gertrude Murphy, a teacher who tried to get some of the (already abandoned) town saved as historic places. She was denied. Still, she didn't want to leave. She was considered the town's last remaining resident.
Eventually, she left too, but not without a fight. It is that fight that inspires me to keep working toward social justice solutions to prominent issues that plague America today.
Sure, we might not be able to stand up to the bigger town or the faceless corporation. But if you have to go down, go down like Lester.
Lester is original in that it looks like the people that used to live in the town vanished into thin air, leaving evidence of another time. We waded through old mattresses, ancient cans of tuna, baby plates still left out on the table as if dinner is about to be served.
Lester's fate wasn't disease. It wasn't natural destruction of an impending landslide or warnings of an erupting volcano.
People in Lester were forced out gradually, because the city of Tacoma trying to protect its drinking water, which lies on the same property.
The Lester Gate War
In the early 1960's, Tacoma sought to block access to the town by closing the gate on the Western side in what became known as The Lester Gate War. Citizens of Lester became very vocal that the road into their town should not be blocked.
In the end, the court ruled in favor of the city of Tacoma, and the gate was closed.
But the town refused to die out. Lester wanted - it tried - to rally and stay vital to the community. People wanted to protect the homes, their jobs, and their school.
Other forces sealed Lester's fate while Tacoma aggressively tried to make sure it gained Lester's land as its own property:
The railway closed down. The logging camp was abandoned. Finally, townspeople put money and energy into saving its school while the town emptied of residents.
Tacoma responded by asking for consolidated school districts, which would close Lester's school of five students. At last, there was nothing left in Lester, save a few people who could not bear to leave their homes.
People of Lester held a mock funeral for the death of their town. The war was over, and they had lost.
The Cabins in the Woods
On the other side of the tracks, we came to a rusted car graveyard. Beyond the metal scrap, you could make out the dead end of a subdivision. There was an old trailer stripped bare; inside another, a hastily left kitchen with an old coffee pot looking ready to brew. Sunshine beamed in from a far window. I shivered in the darkness and followed the rickety stairs to the attic.
I could feel my heart catch in my throat thinking about Gertrude Murphy, a teacher who tried to get some of the (already abandoned) town saved as historic places. She was denied. Still, she didn't want to leave. She was considered the town's last remaining resident.
Eventually, she left too, but not without a fight. It is that fight that inspires me to keep working toward social justice solutions to prominent issues that plague America today.
Sure, we might not be able to stand up to the bigger town or the faceless corporation. But if you have to go down, go down like Lester.
