2/6/2019

Crossing the Cascades: From Wagons to Winnebagos

2019 Spring Conference

HISTORY COMMITTEE Pat Brodin | John Carpita | Bob Moorhead 1

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Crossing the Cascades: From Wagons to Winnebagos • Native American Trails • Naches/Chinook/White Passes • /Sunset Highway • Stevens Pass • Passes

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Native American Trails

• For thousands of years, Native Americans use at least 6 of the 7 natural passes to trade goods across the Cascades • E. tribes trade horses, buffalo robes, dogbane hemp , camas root, highly prized Yakima dried salmon, bear grass and native tobacco • W. Washington tribes trade dried salmon and clams, berries, dentalium shells wapato root and items obtained from European and American maritime traders

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• In May through July 1841, an army expedition led by Lieutenant Robert E. Johnson crosses Naches Pass and returns to • Settlers and newspapers in the southern end of lobby for a wagon road across Naches Pass from Walla Walla to Fort Steilacoom • Congress authorizes $20K for a military road across Naches Pass in December 1852

Naches/Chinook/White Passes

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Naches/Chinook/White Passes

Naches Pass Trail Cutoff from Oregon Trail • Lt. George B. McClellan explores the pass, but is more interested in finding railroad routes • Spurred on by The Columbian (in Olympia) , private citizens do much of the work, tired of waiting or unaware of federal funding • Route is over Naches Pass along an existing Indian trail • Road is declared complete by The Columbian in Fall 1853, but is not

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Naches/Chinook/White Passes Longmire‐Biles Wagon Train • James Longmire and family set out from Indiana on March 6, 1853, gathering other pioneers as they traverse the Oregon Trail • At Umatilla Oregon, they are persuaded to try the newly “completed” Naches Pass branch • They cross the 68 times and reach the summit in early October, resting two days at what is now known as Government Meadow • Three miles further, they reach the “Naches Cliff” and lower wagons one by one using ropes and thongs from butchered oxen, losing one wagon in the process • They reach Fort Steilacoom on October 9, 1853 • Only a handful of other wagon trains use the Naches Pass route • Used for cattle drives for several decades

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1850 ‐ 1875 • Confusion between Yakima and Snoqualmie passes • Native Americans used both • First surveys for potential wagon road in 1855 • First serious attempt at building a road began in 1865 • Denny, Perkins, Wykoff and Ross built 25 miles from east of North Bend Snoqualmie Pass/Sunset towards Easton Highway

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1875 ‐ 1905 • Yesler lottery to finance construction offering sawmill valued at $100K • Lottery declared illegal by courts. • NPRR construction over Stampede Pass spurred wagon road • By 1883, road west of Ellensburg was passable to near the summit • In 1898 Klondike gold rush increased demand for good Snoqualmie Pass/Sunset wagon road to Seattle from east Highway

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Snoqualmie Pass/Sunset Highway

1900s • 1909 ‐ A Transcontinental auto race as part of the Alaska Yukon Expedition in Seattle led to new efforts to improve the route • 1919 ‐ Governor Ernest Lister dedicated Sunset Highway as the State's first passable route through the Cascades • 1922 ‐ Gravel surfacing finished all the way east to Ellensburg • 1938 ‐ Highway Department began plowing snow for winter travel once ski "mania" started • 1950s ‐ Lake Keechelus and Airplane Curves snow sheds were built and the pass was renumbered from Hwy 2 to State Hwy 10 • 1960s ‐The route was widened to 4 lanes and became Interstate 90

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Stevens Pass 1890‐1910

• During the days of the (1853‐1889) and before, the existence of Stevens Pass is unknown • The first person known to cross over this pass is John Frank Stevens, a railroad surveyor who in 1890 was looking for a route across the Cascades for the Great Northern Railway

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Stevens Pass 1910‐1925

• In 1912, King County citizens along the rail corridor form a Good Roads Club to promote a cross‐Cascades highway • The boosterism had its desired effect and, in 1913, a historic collaboration is jointly announced by King, Chelan, and Snohomish counties to build an auto route over Stevens Pass • King County, however, essentially completed its 28‐mile share by 1917 • Completion of the entire highway was delayed by World War I, and by funding and construction delays on the part of Chelan County •

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Stevens Pass 1925 to 1950

• Stevens Pass Ski Area opens in the winter of 1937‐1938, bringing more traffic to the two‐ lane road during the winter months • A lodge is built for the Ski Area by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1937, but it is destroyed by fire in 1940 • The route designation changes over the years from PSH 15 to US 10 ‐ and finally to US 2, in 1946

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Stevens Pass 1950 to Today

• The route over Stevens Pass has had some minor realignments, the addition of passing lanes, and the widening to four lanes in the vicinity of the summit • Modern improvements such as overpasses, roundabouts, and widening are still underway between Snohomish and Pashastin along the route • The route was designated as the Stevens Pass Greenway between Monroe and Pashastin as part of the National Forest Service Scenic Byway system in 1992 and re‐designated as a National Scenic Byway in 2005.

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North Cascades Passes • First documented North Cascades crossing by a European in 1814 • Fur trader Alexander Ross leaves Fort Okanagan on July 22nd and, via Cascade Pass, gets as far as present‐day Sedro Wooley by August 5th • No serious attempt at establishing a full‐scale trade route resulted from the Ross trip, due to his pessimistic report, until decades later

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North Cascades Passes 1870s Route Surveys . Explorations by Linsey and Wilkeson for possible railroad crossing (1870) . Miner A.M. McGee (mid‐1870s) for access to mining claims 1882 Survey • Army expedition led by Lt. Henry Pierce 1895‐97 Cascade “Wagon Road” • State Road Commissioners explore and begin construction on a route over Cascade Pass • Road was essentially just a pack trail and flooded out in 1897.

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1909 ‐ Road along the Methow River is constructed from Pateros to Hart’s Pass 1930s‐1940s ‐ Seattle City Light builds Gorge, Diablo and Ross Dams on the Skagit River 1953 ‐ North Cascades Highway Association forms 1958 ‐ Road construction begins and continues on both sides of the Mountains 1968 ‐ North Cascades National Park Created 1972 ‐ Amidst fanfare, music provided by the Concrete High School Band, and ribbon cutting, Highway 20 is officially connected from western to eastern Washington via Washington Pass on North Cascades Passes September 2, 1972.

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• Snoqualmie Pass: From Indian Trail to Interstate • Washington’s Sunset Highway • Skagit River Journal Website • The First Crossing Of The North Cascades by Alexander Ross (NW Press) • MOHAI • North Cascades Institute • North Cascades National Park • NWJeepn.com Website • UW Special Collections • Seattle Times • HistoryLink.org • WSDOT & Washington State Archives • Wikpedia • Yelm History Website • andyporterimages.com • Linda Carpita (hospitality)

HISTORY COMMITTEE Pat Brodin | John Carpita | Bob Moorhead Credits 19

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