Cle Elum Man Writes about Blewett Pass Road
Tells Why it Is a Better Route Than the Colockum Road - Is Shorter and Shows Finer Scenery

Leavenworth Echo
April 23, 1915

Taking exception to a statement made by Frank M. Fretwell, secretary of the Seattle Automobile club, in the Post-Intelligencer, relative to the Blewett Pass deal, M. P. McKay, a prominent citizen of Cle Elum, writes as follows: I note an article concerning the highway from Seattle to Spokane wherein the following statement appears: "Heretofore it has been generally believed that to reach Spokane from the western coast either the Blewett or the Colockum pass would have to be used, but according to recent information, these mountain passes are done away with."

For what reason is the Blewett pass to be done away with when it has been settled time and again that it is 40 miles shorter than the other proposed routes, 1400 feet lower than the Colockum pass, and it is stated would cost $500,000 less to build, and is scenic all the way from Cle Elum to Wenatchee along the shores of beautiful mountain streams —not over sage brush plains with scarcely enough water to drink, and where dust and heat during the summer months make motoring a task instead of a pleasure. 

From Cle Elum east the county has already built ten miles of good road, which will be used by the state road. A little investigation would show why this change is sought and it would quite likely convince the taxpayers that it was another case of "put one over." Ever since the Blewett pass was found to be superior to all other routes there has been a persistent effort to divert the state road from that route.

Which would appeal to the tourist most, a scenic route along cool mountain trout streams all the way, with plenty of wood and nice camping places from here to the Columbia river and over a bridge at Wenatchee, or thru the desolate section referred to and over a ferry across the Columbia? Ellensburg will have a route to Spokane via North Yakima. Then why should the western Washington people as well as the Spokane people be forced to make this detour, as the state now has a road mapped out via North Yakima? Why parallel it with another?