Railroad Days celebrates the era of steam trains that puffed through town beginning in 1892 when the Everett and Monte Cristo Railroad reached the town. By the next year the tracks reached to the mountain gold mining town of Monte Cristo. Gold mining lasted only a decade but logging trains were a familiar sight for many more years, along with passenger trains that brought tourists from Seattle and Everett to the famous Big Four Inn resort in the shadow of Big Four Mountain. Today, only the resort’s stone fireplace remains, standing like a sentinel at the entrance to the trails to the Big Four ice caves.

Railroad Days, a 50-year-old event held the first Saturday in October, includes parades and many other activities and live entertainment. Railroad Days was started to commemorate Granite Falls’ history and the great railroads which once brought ore, precious metals and timber through our mining and lumber town. The event combines with reunions at Granite Falls High School, bringing back past alumni to meet old friends and renew past acquaintances. It was started 50 years ago by one of the high school’s English teachers and has been a community highlight ever since. For more information, contact the Chamber of Commerce via email at rrdays@granitefallswa.com.