Tolt River confluence village

Sal is a voice that rides along as you drive Washington's roads: the road ahead, the pass, the stories of the places you pass.

Two rivers meet here, the Tolt coming down from the Cascade foothills to join the Snoqualmie, and the Snoqualmie people built their village across that meeting. The Lushootseed name for it was tultxʷ, and the word Tolt comes from it. A second name, Tolthue, belonged to the river itself, and it means river of swift waters. People had been saying that name for over ten thousand years, which is a long run for any label. The village was highly important, the second-largest in the whole Snoqualmie valley. Settlers from outside began arriving in the 1850s, and the tribe met them with friendliness. In 1855 Chief Patkanim ceded the valley, which cleared the way for homesteaders. I've known towns that renamed themselves over less, and this one did, more than once. But the older name kept coming back around. [1]