A Brief History of the Snoqualmie Wagon Road

The Snoqualmie Pass Wagon Road was the first road over Snoqualmie Pass and was completed in 1867. When the American emigrants began to settle in the Puget Sound region in the early 1850's, there was no easy way to reach the Sound from the terminus of the Oregon Trail. These emigrants had to travel down the Columbia to Monticello from Vancouver and then travel up the Cowlitz River to the Cowlitz Landing which is near Toledo. From the landing, a settler would have to follow to old Cowlitz Trail to Budd's Inlet at what is now Tumwater and Olympia.

Very few made this journey in the beginning, because it was much easier and cheaper to settle in the Willamette Valley south of Portland. Over the years the valley began to fill up with settlers, and the Puget Sound region started to become a desired destination. By 1853 the towns of Olympia, Steilacoom and Seattle had been established. The Naches Trail built in 1853 by the U.S. Military, ran between Fort Steilacoom and Fort Walla Walla. This was the first wagon road over the Cascade Mountains. This road was very rough. On the east side of the pass travelers had to cross the Naches River almost 60 times. The west side wasn't any better with the steep grades and deep mud. This road never became a viable route and it didn't bring in many emigrants.

The towns along Puget Sound were very small in the 1850's. They were rowdy places filled with shoddy characters, rough frontiersmen, sailors, and soldiers. The Indians had not yet been forced onto the reservations and they continued on with their lives while everything was changing around them, and unfortunately, not for their benefit. The town leaders wanted to fill their towns with settlers who were coming across the Oregon Trail, and the call for a good road over the Cascade Mountains was being called for in all the newspapers.

In 1854, gold was discovered near Fort Colville in eastern Washington and this sparked a rush to the area. Miners who departed from Puget Sound used the Cedar River Trail, which followed the Cedar River to Rattlesnake Prairie. Today this prairie is a lake. From here the trail lead over Yakima Pass to Lake Keechelus, and then eastward following the Yakima River. The War of 1855 caused all travel over the Cascades to come to a halt and the trails over the mountains became impassible by the fallen tress and debris.

In 1858 gold was discovered in Canada and near Wenatchee. The route via the Dalles and Walla Walla was almost 500 miles and it was dangerous to go that way as it trespassed through Yakama territory. The Cedar River Trail over Yakima Pass was the safest route, but had become blocked by fallen trees and debris. The trail was cleared so pack trains could get through and hundreds of miners who took the route. Wagons could not travel on the narrow trail. Beginning in 1865, cattle were being driven over Yakima Pass from Ellensburg, and they were pastured at Rangers Prairie which is now Toll Gate Park in North Bend. Here the cattle were fattened up before they were driven over the Na-qui-a-ka Trail to Renton. This trail had been used for thousands of years by the tribes of the area to get between the Falls of the Snoqualmie and the mouth of the Cedar River.

Portions of this trail became the Snoqualmie Wagon Road and later the Sunset Highway. Today the Issaquah-Fall City Road follows this ancient trail. The trail crossed of Tibbett's Creek near the intersection of SR-900 and Newport Way. The crossing of May Creek is at the end of 146th Ave. SE east of Renton.

In 1867 the Snoqualmie Wagon Road was completed between North Bend and Easton. The road was rough and narrow at first crossing the rock cliffs along the shore of Lake Keechelus destroyed many a wagon. On the western slope of the pass after the Spring snow melt, the road would be made impassable by dozens of fallen trees. There was never enough money to keep the road clear and maintained, and it became a trail, which was mostly used by livestock being driven into Seattle, and prospectors with pack trains leaving the Puget Sound and heading toward the pass.

The railroad finally made it to Puget Sound in 1874. This took the enthusiasm out of improving the wagon road. Nothing would be done to the road until 1883 when the county approved a toll road company. This company was to improve the road for wagons and keep it in good shape while collecting tolls. By 1893 the tolls had ended and the road became a county road. In 1907 the state passed the State Road Act, and the wagon road became State Road No.7, and in 1913 it was replaced by the Sunset Highway.