Eastside Stories

The pressures which created the first road through Snoqualmie Pass hinged on the increase in population seen as the Seattle area’s population grew. Even as the project was beginning though, some maintained that it was too dangerous to travel by land. Explorers, fur traders and the eventual colonial settlers that arrived on the Eastside avoided the Cascades for a long time because of the danger posed by terrain and weather. Early arrivals traveled by water and through Oregon to avoid the formidable Cascade Range. The first road was proposed to bring more settlers quickly through the mountains.

The first route, Naches Pass to the south of Snoqualmie Pass, was one of the routes shown to European explores by Native Americans. White settlers took advantage of this indigenous knowledge as they carved out the first wagon road there. One of the first parties to cross through Naches Pass is said to have lowered its wagons by leather ropes down a 1,000-foot drop above Pyramid Creek. This party, known as the James Longmire and James Biles party, comprised over 100 people and came through the mountains short of food and bedraggled. In order to limit the hardship and endangerment of people traveling to the region, territorial leaders made building a better road a priority.

In 1853 Territorial Governor Issac Stevens was appointed by President Pierce to survey potential transcontinental railroad routes between the Great Lakes and Puget Sound. Stevens sent Captain George McClellan to find a route through the Cascades. McClellan traveled the native people’s horse route over Yakima Pass west of Lake Keechelus and just south of the pass we know today as Snoqualmie Pass. (It took a while for the newcomers to the region to figure out that the native people used two routes over the mountains. The one across what we know as Snoqualmie Pass was a foot path, the route over Yakima Pass a horse trail.) He reported that too much snow and geographic barriers made the route unusable. Not taking no for an answer, Stevens sent Lieutenant Abiel Tinkham two years later to survey a route. Tinkham set out in September with several native guides and struggled through deep snow over Yakima Pass. Not until 1856 did a party under the command of Major J. H. H. VanBokkelen successfully travel east through Snoqualmie Pass as part of an expedition to scout possible locations for forts during the so-called Indian Wars (1855-56). [article continues below]

Photo (above) :Snoqualmie Pass Wagon Road photographed in 1910.

The conflicts between colonizing groups who had settled in the Seattle area and the indigenous population had originally caused these settlers to stick close to their towns and take routes over water rather than land. It wasn’t until these conflicts escalated to include the US military in the Puget Sound War of 1855-56 that the land to the east seemed to open for European settlers.

The Puget Sound War encouraged the US federal government to look for funding to create a military highway as defense of the region proved difficult. Although a bill was passed into Congress for funding not much came of it. The Civil War interrupted Federal attempts to build a road as the focus of the nation moved elsewhere.

New laws in the 1850s and 60s encouraged people to migrate to the Puget Sound region and may have inspired the cutting of roads through the Cascades. The original wagon road was built over Snoqualmie Pass in 1868, proving a path less formidable than Naches Pass. It seems the geography of the Cascade Mountains can both help and hinder roads through the range. High peaks and sometimes uneven terrain are offset by flat bottom valleys created by Ice Age glaciers which made making a road through Snoqualmie pass much easier than it could have been.

Resources

Eastside Heritage Center Archives

“Snoqualmie Pass: From Indian Trail to Interstate” by Yvonne Prater