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The Naches Trail Trail Over the Mountains Not Match the Expectations of Oncoming Crosses the Cascade Range Through for Use by Wagons, Under the Direc- Pioneers

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The Naches Trail Trail Over the Mountains Not Match the Expectations of Oncoming Crosses the Cascade Range Through for Use by Wagons, Under the Direc- Pioneers begun work widening the of a developing road, but the reality did The Naches Trail trail over the mountains not match the expectations of oncoming crosses the Cascade Range through for use by wagons, under the direc- pioneers. The tale of the crossing that Naches Pass, roughly from today’s tion of Edward Jay Allen. Meanwhile Ezra Meeker recounts in his 1905 book, Bonney Lake in the west to Yakima in the Longmire-Biles wagon party left Pioneer Reminiscences of Puget Sound, the east. Later the name was applied Walla Walla anticipating that the work may overstate the hardships of the pio- to the route from Walla Walla to Stei- would be suffi ciently done for them to neer party, but not by much. It is clear lacoom, as an extension of the Oregon take their wagons over this route. The that parties from the west bearing food Trail. Columbian newspaper carried the story were necessary to assist the oncoming This route was used by Native American peoples to travel from one side of the mountains to the other, for food and trade pur- poses. One of the earliest written accounts of the use of this trail tells of the travel of a Lt. Johnson of the United States Exploring Expedition (Wilkes Expedition), crossing on horseback, as the Expedition explored the Pacifi c Northwest in 1841. Theodore Winthrop described an 1853 trip over the trail in The Canoe and The Saddle. In 1847, an article in the Oregon Spectator described a trip from Walla Walla to Fort Nisqually. Six years later, in 1853, a series of actions was initiated by the western communities to induce its use by pioneers coming west on the Oregon Trail. Citizens of the territory had collected funds and party, whose joy, on reaching the Puyal- very choice beef.” (Blankenship, Early History lup River near Alderton and fi nding it of Thurston County.) Naches choked with salmon (Longmire, Told by the Pioneers), must have been palpable. James Longmire himself reported herd- ing sheep over the trail in 1877, and Pass Trail In 1854 at least one party of pioneers reported that several other parties were used the trail (Yantis, Ebey, Meeker accounts), bringing cattle, as well. (“Rough trip across but after that its use isn’t well docu- the Mountains,” The Tacoma Herald. October mented. The trail was used by both 27,1877.) sides in the Indian war of 1855/6. To celebrate the centennial of the fi rst Edward Huggins, a clerk at the Hud- crossing, a group of jeepsters hacked son’s Bay Company’s Fort Nisqually, and gouged a route over the pass in related two accounts of use of the trail 1953, and since then the trail has been in 1855 and 1860, one by the Com- heavily used by motorbikes and off- pany’s Fur Brigade, bringing furs to the road vehicles. (McCune, Exploration North- fort, and later when he drove a herd of west, “Jeeping on the Meeker Trail” Video, 1961.) horses over the pass. A proposed road through the pass was added to the state highway system in In the early 1860s the road was pro- 1943, and is still in state statutes as moted as a route to Wenatchee gold State Route 168, but has never been fi elds. A typical headline in the Puget built. Sound Herald read: “New Gold Discov- ery, Gold found on all the streams near The Naches Trail is being considered Naches Pass: Miners earn from $40 to for designation as a National Historic $60 per day.” (Puget Sound Herald, July 16, Trail under the National Trails System 1858, Steilacoom, Washington Territory.) Act. Gustav Rosenthal, an Olympia mer- For more information and to learn about chant, reported in 1869 collecting a historic sites along the way, see the subscription of some four hundred website www.piercecountyhistory.org dollars and hiring James Longmire to superintend construction of a wagon The Naches Trail by Andy Anderson, brochure road through the pass. He reported that design and graphics by Jerry Bates. Support a Sam Coulter brought a band of cattle provided by the Northwest Chapter of the over the new road “which produced Oregon-California Trails Association..
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