The oldest settlement in the region. This hamlet was founded during Civil War days and was once used as a supply base by prospectors who panned the gold-flecked streams of the vicinity. Later a marble quarry was briefly operated at the base of the rock slope to the west, and so the settlement received its name. In the 1890s, more than 1,500 miners and prospectors worked in the area and river steamers brought goods to within two miles of the town. The place was named by the first hotel-keeper, a Mrs. Buller, in 1890 for a mountain of marble across the river. Marblemount is still a small settlement, today home to the North Cascades National Park Wilderness Information Center. The center is the main backcountry permit office for the park and adjacent Ross Lake and Lake Chelan National Recreation Areas. The grounds include some of the earliest park service buildings in the state, and some WPA structures constructed during the development of the nearby dam projects.