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Scenic

Following the completion of the railroad, a health resort called the Scenic Hot Springs was opened here in 1903 by J. V. Prosser. The well-advertised curative power of the hot mineral waters made the spa popular for many years, although rumor whispered that the water was artificially heated and piped to the resort through conduits insulated with cedar logs. A Forest Service camp once stood west of the resort site. Two years later, the resort was expanded to three times its original size; in December of 1908 it burned down. A new hotel was built in time for the 1909 Alaska-Yukon Pacific Exposition, but in 1928 the hotel was removed, as it stood in the way of the newest completed Cascade Tunnel. At the west portal of the 8-mile-long Cascade Tunnel, part of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, Scenic now consists of one gravel road and a group of three or four buildings/residences immediately off the highway. Entering the town from the highway, the first building on the left stands out, resembling a train depot with accompanying replica engine. It is possibly original to the settlement, and if so, is probably one of the two buildings occupied by the chief engineers of the Great Northern Railroad and/or the A. Guthrie & Company during the operation of the western Cascade Tunnel. The hotel was probably not rebuilt. Pictures of the hotel in its heyday can be found in the Bob Norton Collection at the Skykomish Historical Society.