The RPPC below is of the National Parks Highway, Yellowstone Trail, Sunset Highway route east of Snoqualmie Pass, along the shores of Lake Keechelus, a location I now well today. The modern interstate takes the same route, so this roadbed is long gone, but a few of the details are fun to note, in large part because they highlight automobile travel in the “good ole days.”

The photo was taken about 1920, based on the automobiles. Lets say 1922, but perhaps earlier. The road is dirt, maybe gravel, put clearly not paved. It appears well maintained, as should be the case on a major transcontinental route.

Note the dust. Most or many of the cars at this time were still open...soft tops, or rag tops if you wish. They didn't protect their occupants from dust at all. In fact, when I read why drivers chose one route over another in the teens and early twenty’s, it was as often for the dust conditions as it was for other road conditions. As an aside, one reason the Yellowstone Trail, which took a long southern detour in Washington, was often preferred over the National Parks Highway, which was almost a straight shot between the east and west, is because the NPH route was dustier.

Next, look at where the car in the distance is positioned on the roadbed around the curve! You would not wish to meet him coming the other way, and for that matter he would not be in a good position if he had to swerve to the right. Note that the log that supposedly provides some sort of safety barrier has already been displaced. It is a straight, easy, and fast trip right into the lake, which is very deep.

One of the common admonitions that appears in auto club magazines of this period is “Drive to the Right.” I get the impression from reading a lot of them that folks took their half of the road out of the middle. And there were few “white lines.” I would have to look a bit to find out when they came into use, but dirt or gravel roads certainly didn't have them!

Finally, there must have been some “exciting” times on the Yellowstone Trail. Look closely at the several logs on the slope to the lake. Perhaps they were dislodged from the barrier along the roadbed. I count three, and one more that is missing on the curve! Even if the logs down slope were not from the roadbed, look at how the logs are braced.....a couple of stones secure each. No wonder a driver stayed away from that side or the road!

All things considered I prefer to be a student of the old roads than a driver on them!

Keep the Show on the Road!

Dave

I want to dedicate this story to "Keep the Show on the Road" Dave. For the intial discovery of the existence of this trough, which steered me in the direction to find this artifact and in helping me write the story and come up with a snappy title for it. Dave has been a great help to me in honing my skills as a road historian and writer.

Thanks Dave!!!!!!

No Beer at this Yellowstone Trail Watering Hole

Last week my wife Leona and I met with Dave and his wife Sheila for breakfast in North Bend, WA. After breakfast, we drove up to Snoqualmie Pass to explore the Yellowstone Trail (YT) / National Parks Highway (NPH) also known as the Sunset Highway. There is a segment of the original 1915 highway leading down the pass on the western side. Today this road is Forest Service Road 5800 or FS-5800.

We were trying to locate (along with some other items) the old water trough used to fill radiators of the early autos that over-heated going across the pass as many did. Dave had told me about its existence. I never heard of a radiator fill trough before or knew that one was on the pass. Unfortunately, we were not able to locate the trough. The day was still exciting and we all had a great time exploring together.

Saturday June 8^th my wife and I drove up to the Denny Creek Campground. This is just below the second set of switchbacks on the western side of the pass next to the 1915 road. You can park there to take a hike on the many trails that originate there. Today we are going to hike up the pass on the Historic Wagon Road.

This wagon road was the first route for wheeled vehicles over Snoqualmie Pass, which began in 1867. In 1905, the first auto crossed over the pass using this wagon road. In 1909 as part of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, there was a coast-to-coast automobile rally, which started in New York and raced to Seattle. The promoters claimed it to be the first transcontinental race of its kind and this rally would include a passage across Snoqualmie Pass.

The Alaska–Yukon–Pacific Exposition was a world's fair held in Seattle, publicizing the development of the Pacific Northwest.

Only four of the six vehicles that departed New York were successful in traversing the Pass, and the accounts that exist today are remarkable.

Snow and mud tortured the teams on the road across the pass, described by some accounts as “little more than a wagon road.” And it was in fact, a wagon road!

Today you can hike a one-mile portion of this historic road. We began at the Denny Creek Campground and started up the hill. It is remarkable that you can still see the road very well in its original state. Yes, it is just wide enough for an old auto to pass through. Near the end of the one-mile journey, we discovered what appeared to be the remains of planking. This area is very wet and the use of planking would indeed be needed. There is so much vegetation over the rotting wood but I could make out some rows of boards where the water had washed out part of the ground.

I also found what looks like a metal bracket possibly used to secure the planks but I do not know what it actually is. It was in the mud along side of the wooden planks so I wonder if it had anything to do with that.

Numerous places huge trees have fallen and the folks who cleared the trail for hikers in the mid 1980 have just rerouted the trail around the large fallen trees. We walked along as much of the original route as we could.

In the mile, we climbed 272 feet and the trail ended at the point of the lower curve in the upper switchback. I could see that the wagon road continued up the hill beyond this point but was impassable due to fallen trees. The trail makers must have decided that this was far enough of trail to maintain.

From looking at the 1913 original blueprints for the upper switchback and comparing them to today’s map. I could see that the switchback was realigned. I also have a photo dated 1915 and it shows clearly the same alignment as the 1913 map. I believe that sometime after 1915 this part of the highway was upgraded. It could have been done in modern times but this will need more research.

The Sunset Highway was dedicated in 1915 at the time the YT and NPH had reached Washington State. From 1905 until 1915, the early automobiles had to use the wagon road.

From 1915 to 1925, you used this route (FS-5800) up the pass. In 1925, the Milwaukee Road had completed the tunnel under Snoqualmie Pass to Hyak. In 1926, the road was realigned to go across the river at the point were FS-5800 begins. The new route crosses the river on what is now FS-9034. The bridge that this new alignment uses is the bridge that Dave had photographed with me pointing to the old railing in the river. Then the highway went up the pass on the old railroad grade to the summit. This segment is now the eastbound lanes of Interstate 90 going up the western side of the pass to the summit.

We still didn’t find the water trough.

The next day we decided to go back and look for the elusive water trough.

We parked near where our earlier expedition with Dave and Sheila had parked to look for the trough. I had read a report that it would be near where the 1915 road reached the trees after going down past the upper switchback. We walked up and down where we had walked last week. To no avail, so I stopped for a moment looking for the wife as she had wandered into the woods and I could not see where she had gone. Then I said to myself while waiting for the wife to pop out of the forest that it had to be over where the trees had started from the clearing and I should try one more time. As I walked back up the road, I noticed a piece of rock that had a squared edge. I scraped some muck from the top and noticed it was flat and longer than it looked. I yelled for the wife and got no reply. I walked back down to find her and let her know that I had found something.

I heard her say something I should not type into this story as she was struck by a thorn going through the brush while trying to get back to the road.

We then walked back up the road and I showed her what I had found. We were not completely sure what it was. It looked like an ordinary concrete block. It was completely covered with weeds and mud. We could see the concrete I exposed but when we stuck a pry bar into the middle, it went right down into mud. Eureka!

We both cleared the weeds and mud with our hands breaking loose the sediment inside the trough with the metal bar we had. We were able to clear enough muck away from the trough so we could get some photos of it.

Now it is easy to find and for many, to pass by and wonder what the heck it is.

Link to all photos and maps of the trip - http://www.ilwu19.com/sunsethwy/pass.htm

Link to just photos of the wagon road - http://www.ilwu19.com/sunsethwy/wagon.htm

I'm fishing for comments and in particular am curious about Hecker Pass on CA-152. Scenic? Challenging? Boring?

I wanted to check out four locations:

1. two bridges on the original dirt section of the Sunset Highway which was the route of the National Parks Highway and Yellowstone Trail beginning when the road was opened in 1915 over Snoqualmie Pass,

2. a roadside radiator water trough reputed to be on the old alignment just below the Pass on the west side,

3. the site of the Cedar Falls railroad siding where automobiles carried over the pass by rail were unloaded, and

4. the site of the Mt Granite Lodge, on the side of the old road as it climbed to the Pass.

Alas, only the last was achieved, but not for a lack of trying. The bridges turned out to be modern structures, the radiator water trough was so well hidden a half hour of four searchers' efforts produced no results, and the site of the old railroad siding and station was a part of the Seattle Watershed, and was closed with threats of arrest and imprisonment. But the adventure was fun, the company great, and along the way we found a few other treasures.

We met Curt and Leonna at a restaurant in North Bend, where Leonna surprised us with a terrific memento of the day ahead. She had produced a small pillow embroidered with the Yellowstone Trail symbol. We were delighted, and it set the stage for the day's plans. Leonna and Curt with her embroidery work are pictured below.

Leonna and Curt and the Yellowstone Trail Emblem She Created

King County, which includes Seattle, has done a nice job of documenting what they call their Harritage Corridors, including the old Sunset Highway. The whole report, which includes a map near the end of the Sunset Highway section, link is below.

http://your.kingcounty.gov/kcdot/roads/wcms/planning/historic/corridors/KCHistoricScenicCorridors_FinalReport.pdf

I have pulled their map out so you can follow our trip sites (in violet font). The gray road is I90 and the red is segments of the Sunset Highway / Yellowstone Trail / National Parks Highway.

We headed off in two cars connected with walkie talkies, a traveling style I enjoy because it allows each party to explore at will but still remain connected and share discoveries. Curt has a keen eye, assisted by Leonna and they spotted several things I would have missed. Tinkham Road is part of the original Sunset Highway. We drove it to the site of two bridges I had spotted and hoped might be from the era of the road. They were not, but Curt spotted what appear to be origin ford sites.

The Original 1915  Yellowstone Trail and National Parks Highway Route along Tinkham Road...Old Sunset Highway

We doubled back and picked up the 1915 and 1927 alignments on the north side of I90, and Curt showed me a really nice 1927 bridge (South Fork Snoqualmie River Bridge,l 47.394245°, -121.473518°) that was on the YT and NPH near the end of the auto trails era. Curt had scouted it on a prior trip, and showed me some of his discoveries. The bridge railing was obviously modern, which made the bridge a rather uninteresting prospect from the road.

But in the river bed below, a segment of the old railing and abutment told a different story. And the steep walk down to the water was worth the effort as it revealed the graceful arch of the vintage structure.

1927 Yellowstone Trail Bridge...Note Original Railing in Water

Curt and the 1927 Bridge at Water Level

We returned to the 1915 alignment and of course stopped at the venerable Yellowstone Trail marker painted on the rock at 47.406036°, -121.443640°.  Curt took a snap shot of an old vagrant pointing at the logo.

A Wandering Vagrant Pointing at Original Yellowstone Trail Emblem South of the Snoqualmie Pass on the Original Road

I had recently learned of another site beside the highway, the Granite Mountain Lodge. Exploring the reported site (just across the modern bridge from the YT marker, on the west side of the road, down by the river) we found some old foundations, but little else.

The Site of the Granite Mtn Lodge....Just the Foundation Remains (see movie for original buildings)

Several web searches turned up nothing, but Curt subsequently found a vintage movie (probably about 1940) that actually shows the 1927 concrete bridge, the original 1920 bridge (since replaced), and the “Granite Mountain Camp.” For the section of road we were following, start watching at 4 minuties into the movie, but the earlier parts are well worth watching as well!

We then drove up the old alignment to where the water trough was supposed to be and spent a fruitless hour searching. Fortunately after we returned, Curt again found an online reference to the trough with more specificity as to location, so another trip is needed.

We turned around and proceeded down the road a bit to a segment of the old alignment that had been isolated by later road adjustments. Along the side of the old segment stood an old cedar stump. Vintage photos of Washington State often show lumber jacks falling giant old growth cedars with ax and two-man crosscut saw. Some of the trees are as big around as the giant redwoods in Northern California, and sometimes their massive stumps housed homes and even small businesses. The old stump I photographed below was small by comparison, but it retained the holes where the loggers of the last century placed their springboards while they sawed the tree down.

Curt Showing Old Cedar Stump with Slots for Springboards for Loggers to Stand on  When Using Crosscut Saw.

Our last stop of the day was technically not part of the Yellowstone Trail or the National Parks Highway, but it was closely linked. The Cascade Mountains were a formidable barrier to wagon and auto travel into Seattle and the Puget Sound from the east, and the old wagon road over Snoqualmie Pass was unfit for automobile travel, though a few adventurers used it. Before 1915, most put their automobiles on the train at Easton and their machines were unloaded at Cedar Falls ( 47.422392°, 47.422392°), where the motorist then drove via North Band and Snoqualmie Falls into Seattle on the Sunset Highway (YT / NPH).

After the Sunset Highway was opened in 1915, most automobilists used the new road, which we had been exploring, but many still preferred the railroad. A side note may be in order. It wasn't unusual to ship your vehicle by rail, even across country, in the teens. It was a fairly common practice, and transcontientalists often made the trip by road one way, and by rail the other.

I wanted to see what there was to see of the old transfer site where automobiles were loaded and unloaded. It was not to be. The City of Seattle watershed incorporates the old Cedar Falls town and railroad site, and they are serious about keeping the public out, with threats, fences and locked gates. They provide a couple of “tours” a year into the watershed, which when I checked, were already fully booked.

The watershed operates a very nice visitors center and even a research library east of the old town site, outside the watershed, which is well worth a visit. The staff was kind, and very helpful, but was unfamiliar with the history of the automobile transfer operation.

That last observation prompts a final comment. Most “normal” human beings travel the roads to visit places of interest. Very few have a clue about the history of our roads. It is almost as though, at least in the Northwest, we jumped from the Oregon Trail to the Interstate System in one leap.

I'm not complaining because that makes it easier to be an “expert,” on what happened between 1850 and 1950! And I have noted over the past twenty years a gradual recognition, and even a growing interest in our road heritage. I believe that American Road Magazine has been a big help, and I want to thank the Repps for what they have added to my life, and to the enjoyment of two lane travel for many of us. We would not have done it without you!

Dave

Keep the Show on the Road!

I know this segment has been posted before by them but I think each one of us who travels sees different things to share with others.

You can visit the page at this link.

http://www.ilwu19.com/sunsethwy/walla_walla_trip.htm

Curt

Intersected or drove on parts of; Lewis and Clark trail, Santa Fe trail, Oregon Trail, Lincoln Highway, and the Overland Stage route.

Had a great trip.   Made this route;

http://goo.gl/maps/R6Zpf

So far I have posted an introduction Blog and two towns, Athens, Texas and Florence, Oregon. Many more will follow every week or two. If you can't wait to read about them all (185 or so in total) you can read ahead by going to Amazon or Barnes & Noble and downloading a copy of my Ebook about them "For Namesake, a Travel Book - Places in America Inspired by Famous World Cities". Search for it by my name Rick Etchells. 

Hope that you all enjoy - I wrote it for all of us that have an urge to wander even if that is only in your armchair with a map and a suitable cool drink alongside. 

etchr66 (aka Rick Etchells)

Entrance to the Santa Monica Pier after sunset.


Ferris wheel at Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier

Roadhound

http://www/rwphotos.com

http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMG68J_Chief_of_the_Suquamish_Chief_Seattle_Seattle_WA

“So what?!” you say......well you are about to learn.

In 1935-36 the young men at Camp 1366 of the Civilian Conservation Corps, located in the Lewis and Clark State Park astride old US99, built an auto camp kitchen. As you know, many auto camps had kitchen facilities. They served a practical purpose when there wasn't a stove and sink in your camping vehicle, and the nearest restaurant might be a score of miles away.

The magnificent camp stoves at Lewis and Clark State Park are of stone, and the fittings are of cast iron. They no doubt served as places to prepare an evening meal and also supported family and civic picnics in the park. I have noted in local 1930's newspapers from nearby towns the mention of gatherings at the park, for example on the 4^th of July, or for a local school outing. The stoves were wood burning and no doubt were fired up on such occasions.

I recognize that most road travelers won't give a rip about stone stoves....who does? But look at it this way. Standing in that CCC built kitchen, beside that old stove, all original, not restored or reconstructed, you are in a scene from over 70 years ago. For a moment you have truly stepped back in time, not to a place built to “look like” the past, or restored to what we “imagine” the past to look like, but authentically of the past.

OK, it is all in your mind's eye, but for those who can see it, congratulations. If you can't, I understand!

At the base of each stove is a ashdoor or clean – out door where you remove ashes, and a damper to regulate the flow of air into the stove. Stamped in raised and rusted letters on the hoary door are the letters STAR FDY SEATTLE.......the Star Foundry in Seattle, Washington , the maker of the stove fittings back in '36.

I nosed around a bit and here is a photo of the Star Foundry I found at: http://pauldorpat.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/9.-Star-Foundry-Duwamish-Head-WEB.jpg

And the company still exists, now as North Star Foundry.

I doubt the stoves get much use today. The cooking surfaces are scaling and a red hot metal surface today would be considered an insurance liability, especially with youngsters around. But it isn't hard to imagine when these beautiful rock and iron structures were regularly in use, along with the adjacent sink....a real hot spot on old US99!

Dave

Keep the Show on the Road!