The Sunset Highway: Washington's 1915 Road Over Snoqualmie Pass

Long before I-90, there was the Sunset Highway. On July 1, 1915, Governor Ernest Lister dedicated it as Washington's first passable route through the Cascade Mountains at Snoqualmie Pass. It was later designated Primary State Highway 2. [1]

The road had deep roots. It largely followed a wagon road built between Seattle and Ellensburg in 1867. That wagon road in turn followed a trail Native Americans had used for centuries. In 1875 Seattle pioneer Henry Yesler tried to raise money to improve it by offering his sawmill as the grand prize in a lottery. About $30,000 worth of $5 tickets were sold before the courts declared the lottery illegal. Yesler reportedly kept nearly all the money. [1]

Interest in a road faded once the Northern Pacific Railway crossed the Cascades in 1883. Most people and freight went by train. A company based in Ellensburg kept up the old wagon road for a few years, but it slowly fell into disuse. [1]

Cars brought it back. In 1909, a transcontinental automobile race planned for Seattle's Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition set off new work on the road. King and Kittitas counties paid to clear fallen logs and rebuild some old grades and bridges. About 150 cars used the route to reach the fair. The effort convinced state lawmakers to pay for a new highway built for automobiles, not ox carts. [1]

The change in speed was striking. Lister rode to the 1915 dedication 'in a high powered automobile' and made the trip from Olympia to Snoqualmie Pass in a matter of hours. When the wagon road opened in 1867, Territorial Governor Marshall F. Moore had needed days on horseback. [1]

The highway did not stay on one line east of the mountains. It was later rerouted at Teanaway, a short way east of Cle Elum, north over what is now Old Blewett Pass to the Wenatchee River Valley. From East Wenatchee it ran north to Orondo and then east to Spokane. Today Interstate 90 parallels the Sunset Highway's route through Snoqualmie Pass. [1]