EARLY SKETCH
OF MAPLE FALLS
The earliest settlers came about in 1889. Everything had to be packed in on the settlers’ backs or on pack horses.
In July of 1901, the same year the Milwaukee Railroad came to Maple Falls, Mr. George Alvord King platted his homestead, forming the town. Maple Falls grew rapidly, mainly because the railroad opened up logging in the area. By 1910, its population was estimated anywhere from 499 to 2,500 depending on the time of day. There were seven saloons, three grocery stores, three hotels, two livery stables, a butcher shop, barber shop, blacksmith shop, drugstore, post office newspaper office (Maple Falls Leader, published for twenty four years), church, a shingle mill (which provided the town with the first electric lights I the county west to Bellingham), a jail (which was used!) train depot, telephone office, brick factory, shoe repair shop, pool room, ice cream parlor, lodge hall, and two doctor’s offices. A theater, built in 1903 over one of the livery stables, burned a couple years later during a performance of "Peck’s Bad Boy”. Ten mills were coated within a mile of Maple Falls, and a small saw mill was powered by the falls near the town (Maple Falls).
Much Interest was taken in baseball. A three-coach train of people came from Bellingham to a home game. Maple Falls was a real wild west town. Buns and drinking caused everyday "entertainment” whenever the loggers and miners gathered after work.
In 1914, a forest fire burned eighty-two houses. Eleven years later in 1925, another fire burned much of the business district.
