SR-167 — Thomas to Kent

Thomas is a ghost town up in King County, sitting on the Green River north of Auburn. Back in the day, a post office stood there, along with a school, and in 1855 the United States Army put up a fort, hauling the logs over from Fort Steilacoom. The place carried the name of a local settler, John Micheltree Thomas, a man who'd made his way out from Kentucky. Beyond Auburn, SR 167 runs through a rural stretch of the Green River Valley. Then the road crosses the river into the heart of Kent, where it meets SR 516. Kent became an incorporated city in 1890, which makes it the county's second-oldest, with Seattle holding the top spot. Over on South 277th Street in Kent, the daily count of vehicles on SR 167 hit 129,000 at its busiest in 2016. [1]