Drive guide
SR-203 — Fall City to Monroe
64 things worth knowing along this corridor, in the order you meet them driving. Every one is sourced.
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Sal’s stories on SR-203
Along the way
developmentPearson's Eddy
Cascade Land Conservancy (now Forterra) used this funding to help acquire the underlying fee interest on the Pearson's Eddy project, 246 acres of agricultural floodplain on the lower Snoqualmie River.
Source: srp.rco.wa.gov
historyFrye Lettuce Farm
Charles Frye purchased most of the lettuce farm located just west of downtown Monroe, in a foreclosure sale. In 1933, Minerva Lucken went to work on the farm. She said in an interview that there were about a thousand workers on the farm during its peak. It became the backbone of the local economy during the Great Depression of the 1930s. In the late 1930s lettuce hit a bad year and the lettuce spoiled. Frye's Monroe operation was foreclosed.
Source: historylink.org
historyPark Place (Monroe)
Four years later, he moved inland a mile or so and founded the settlement of Park Place (now a Monroe suburb on the west).
Source: historylink.org
institutionPark Place School District Two
Henry McClurg became the first county superintendent of schools in 1869 with only two school districts, one that met in the Snohomish City Blue Eagle Saloon, and the other at Park Place, organized as District Two on November 23, 1869.
Source: historylink.org
institutionPark Place Middle School
Park Place Middle School was built as Monroe's high school in 1976, became a junior high in 1999 and a middle school in 2005. A two-year phased replacement project, completed in 2018, modernized almost the entire school while preserving the original gym.
Source: monroe.wednet.edu
historyEvergreen State Fair
The county fair moved permanently to Monroe in 1946, opening at the modern-day fairgrounds on September 5, and took the name Evergreen State Fair in 1949. The fairgrounds cover 193 acres.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
historyShannahan Cabin
John Shannahan built the cabin of hand-hewn logs in 1887 on the west side of the Snoqualmie River. It was moved to the Tualco Valley in 1936 and to the Evergreen State Fairgrounds in 1966.
Source: monroehistoricalsociety.org
historyDuvall Depot
Built in 1911, the Duvall Depot originally sat closer to the river, adjacent to the railroad tracks. In 2001, owner Ray Burhen donated it to the City of Duvall. Moved to its current spot to preserve it for public enjoyment, the Depot now serves as a community meeting space.
Source: mtsgreenway.org
historyEvergreen Speedway
A 0.625-mile horse track was built on land the county let the Evergreen State Fair use in 1950. In 1954 Jimmie Collier convinced county officials to let him convert it for racing his Ford Model T roadster, and racing returned after the track was paved in 1963.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
historyCherry Valley
The original community, named Cherry Valley, sat on the banks of the Snoqualmie River at this location. Cherry Valley centered around a market, grange hall, church, and a school which had been constructed from the wood of a single old growth log.
Source: mtsgreenway.org
quirkBig Rock
Big Rock in Duvall is an 8-foot glacial erratic, one of the boulders moved into King County by glacial action during past ice ages; it sits in what is said to be the smallest King County park, 20 by 70 feet.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
historyDuvall Tavern
Built in 1934, just a year after prohibition, this Tavern has remained in operation ever since. In 1963, The Duvall Tavern changed ownership three times in two days. A well-known Valley gambler won it in a poker game and then sold it to another gambler to pay off a gambling debt.
Source: mtsgreenway.org
historyLon Brown
Lon Brown's home, built in 1914. Brown, the first mayor of Duvall and a colorful entrepreneur, ran a silent movie theater and the confectionary across the street.
Source: mtsgreenway.org
historyAimer's Blacksmith Shop
Aimer's Blacksmith Shop (later L.D. Smith Blacksmith Shop) built in 1909 when the town had its short-lived time named Cosgrove. L.D. Smith purchased the business in 1913. It fashioned horseshoes and repaired farm equipment.
Source: mtsgreenway.org
historyDuvall
In 1909 a new railroad line along the Snoqualmie River ran into the town of Cherry Valley, so the railroad agreed to move the town: over the next year homes and businesses were moved south and up the hill to the hillside the Duvall brothers had homesteaded, and Duvall incorporated in 1913.
Source: historylink.org
historyHix's General Merchandise
Built in 1905, it housed Hix's General Merchandise. Originally built on the river in the town of Cherry Valley, it moved to its current location in 1910 when railroad planners laid out tracks that would have come through its front door and out the back. The move took six weeks.
Source: mtsgreenway.org
historyCherry Valley Pioneer Cemetery
Townsfolk abandoned the site as a burial ground sometime between 1902 and 1905. Mourners found it disconcerting to see gravediggers furiously bailing several inches of water before lowering the casket.
Source: mtsgreenway.org
institutionWestern Heritage Center
In 2017, Snohomish County took over ownership and management of the center, including the collection of agricultural, mining, railroad and household heirlooms inside. The history museum is located at the southeast corner of the Evergreen State Fairgrounds in Monroe. Jerry Senner, who created the museum with his own extensive collection, died in November 2015. Volunteers first promoted the Western Heritage collection during the 2006 Evergreen State Fair, and the museum opened soon after.
Source: heraldnet.com
historyDougherty Farmstead
The Dougherty house, originally built near the river in the town of Cherry Valley, was moved up the hill in 1910, pulled by horses. One acre of the Dougherty farmstead including the house is both a King County and National Landmark.
Source: mtsgreenway.org
historyNovelty
Duvall (originally Cherry Valley), Novelty ( an unsuccessful would-be town at the bottom of Novelty Hill), and Carnation (then known as Tolt), were small outposts of settlement in a stretch of the Snoqualmie Valley.
Source: historylink.org
historySnoqualmie Valley hops and dairying
After an aphid infestation destroyed the hops crop in 1890, farmers in the valley shifted to the dairy industry, but government regulations, flood control, and urban development brought the decline of dairying in the valley during the 1950s.
Source: historylink.org
historyCavalcade of the Valleys
In 1941, the first Cavalcade of the Valleys was organized featuring a parade, carnival and agricultural fair at a larger site near Powell and Park Streets. In 1946, the Cavalcade of the Valleys ceased because the Snohomish County Fair resumed, this time using the old “County Poor Farm” property just northwest of Monroe.
Source: monroehistoricalsociety.org
historyStephens Hospital
The medical community grew in 1902 when Dr. L. L. Stephens announced plans to build a hospital in town with separate apartments for men and women. The three-story Stephens Hospital became a reality in 1903 and still stands at the corner of Blakely and West Main Street as an apartment house.
Source: historylink.org
historyVanasdlen's relocated store
The final plat of the Great Northern Railway put Park Place too far from trackside, so in 1892 Vanasdlen literally picked up his store along with the Monroe Post Office it contained and moved it to trackside at the corner in Monroe where a 7-11 convenience store now sits.
Source: historylink.org
historyTye City and the Wales depot
The railroad built a small depot named "Wales" on the 40-acre (16 ha) homestead of Jack Stretch, who platted a settlement on the north side of the tracks that he named "Tye City" for Great Northern's locating engineer George Tye.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
historyMonroe's 1902 incorporation
Monroe's most important event in 1902 was the town's incorporation. The petition for incorporation went to the Snohomish County commissioners, who determined there were 300 inhabitants in the area. An election for incorporation and city officers was set for December 20, 1902. Monroe voted overwhelmingly for home government. Mayor N. P. Heintz won with a four to one majority.
Source: historylink.org
institutionMonroe Monitor
Major Benjamin Franklin Smythe started Monroe's first newspaper, the Monroe Monitor, in January 1899 and it has been in continuous publication since that date.
Source: historylink.org
historyGreat Northern Greenhouses
By 1949 there were six greenhouses on the site, and before they were closed and dismantled in 1962, after the merging of the Great Northern, Burlington, and Northern Pacific Railroads, there were ten greenhouses and six acres for growing shrubs. The greenhouses were built to provide flowers for all Great Northern passenger trains and shrubs for the landscaping of all Great Northern Depots.
Source: monroehistoricalsociety.org
historyMonroe's first church
After two years of hard work, the Methodist Episcopal Church was completed in 1896 on the site of the current Monroe United Methodist Church on S Lewis Street.
Source: historylink.org
sightLower Snoqualmie River
After the falls the river flows north through rich farmland and the towns of Fall City, Carnation, and Duvall before meeting the Skykomish River to form the Snohomish River near Monroe.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
institutionMonroe Historical Society & Museum
Monroe's library moved to the second floor of the old City Hall in 1909 and operated there until 1966, after a start in a photography studio with 175 books in 1906. By 2022 the building was home to the Monroe Historical Society & Museum.
Source: heraldnet.com
sightCherry Valley Unit
The Cherry Valley Unit consists of forest, grassland, and wetland in the Snoqualmie River floodplain, 1 mile north of Duvall. This unit is popular for pheasant and waterfowl hunting in the fall and winter, and dog training and trials in the spring and summer.
Source: wdfw.wa.gov
quirkProposed I-605 through the Snoqualmie Valley
In 1998, the Washington State Legislature ordered a $500,000 study to investigate the benefits of extending SR 18 north to Everett through the Snoqualmie Valley. The plan was dropped as the study found that on average only five minutes would be saved over current routes.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
historyCarnation No. 1 steamboat
In addition, the steamboat Carnation No. 1 went as far as south as Tolt (present-day Carnation) on the Snoqualmie River to pick up milk. The steamboat was 55 feet long with an 11-foot beam and a draft of only 18 inches.
Source: monroehistoricalsociety.org
sightCarnation Condensery smokestack
The condensery was built in 1908 out of locally milled lumber. It was not until about 1919 that the concrete smokestack that still stands was built to replace the two metal stacks. It is 150 feet tall and almost eleven feet in diameter at the base. The factory was finally closed in late 1929 and it remained idle throughout the Depression. The plant had only been in operation three weeks when 600 tons of flax stored in the building ignited by spontaneous combustion at 1 a.m., March 23, 1944. The Monroe Fire Department worked hard to keep the fire from spreading beyond the plant, but by dawn all that remained of the plant was the concrete smokestack.
Source: monroehistoricalsociety.org
sightAl Borlin Park
Al Borlin Park is the largest Monroe Park at 90 acres and among one of the oldest. Named after a former City Councilmember and Monroe school teacher who promoted parks and environmental education, Al Borlin Park provides the unusual opportunity to enjoy a secluded natural experience in an urban environment. A peninsula formed by the Skykomish River and Woods Creek, the park is thickly wooded and crisscrossed with a 1.2-mile network of soft-surface gravel trails.
Source: monroewa.gov
historyHolmquist shingle mill
Then he bought a site in Monroe, and in 1898 he built his shingle mill on the east side of Wood's Creek, just upstream from its confluence with the Skykomish River, near a loading spur from the Great Northern Railway main line. The mill filed incorporation papers in 1908 as the Wood's Creek Mill Company, with Holmquist as president and manager. However, all the local residents referred to it as Holmquist's mill. The mill operated into the 1930s, although the Holmquists' active participation ended in 1918.
Source: historylink.org
historyState Route 203 origins
The road was incorporated into the state highway system in 1937 as Secondary State Highway 15B (SSH 15B), connecting Primary State Highway 15 (PSH 15) in Monroe to PSH 2 and U.S. Route 10 (US 10) in Fall City. The state legislature reformed the numbering system for state highways in 1964, re-designating SSH 15B as State Route 203.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
sightStillwater Natural Area
The 44-acre Stillwater Natural Area is bounded by the Snoqualmie River and the Snoqualmie Valley Trail. The park contains a valuable combination of pasturelands, wetlands, and mature, deciduous forest cover that provides habitat for a variety of fish and wildlife species. As an undeveloped natural area, Stillwater has no formal trails or amenities.
Source: kingcounty.gov
sightStillwater Wildlife Area
The Stillwater Unit consists of a mix of active farm fields, forest and wetland habitats. Seasonal flooding is common and can inundate the entire unit. Waterfowl and pheasant hunting, wildlife viewing, and hiking are very popular activities. Acres: 456
Source: wdfw.wa.gov
seasonalSalmon at Tolt-MacDonald Park
Because this is high-quality salmon habit, during the fall, visitors can observe chinook salmon spawning in the river below while eagles and osprey soar above.
Source: kingcounty.gov
developmentTolt-MacDonald Park
King County bought the first publicly-owned parcels at what was to become Tolt River-John McDonald Park in the 1970s. The County developed the area, as envisioned by Boy Scout Council Chief John MacDonald who led local efforts in one of the nation's largest bicentennial projects. More than 20,000 Boy Scouts spent some five months constructing campsites, picnic tables, and shelters.
Source: kingcounty.gov
sightTolt-MacDonald Park suspension bridge
Beyond a 500-foot suspension foot bridge over the Snoqualmie River are twelve miles of forested and riverside trails connecting to an extensive network of trails in the adjacent Ames Lake Forest - a favorite mountain biking destination.
Source: kingcounty.gov
quirkThe name Tolt
The name Tolt comes from the Lushootseed village name tultxʷ or tulq.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
institutionSouth Fork Tolt water
The South Fork Tolt watershed provides ~30% of the drinking water for Seattle area residents.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
historyTolt River confluence village
The Snoqualmie people have inhabited the Carnation area for more than 10,000 years. Prior to American settlement, the Snoqualmie had a large village spanning the Tolt River (Lushootseed: tultxʷ) at its confluence with the Snoqualmie. This village was highly important as it was the second-largest village in the Snoqualmie river valley.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
institutionStillwater Elementary School
In 1989, Riverview School District #407 opened Stillwater Elementary School—named after the historic Stillwater School—close to Lake Marcel. It is the district's only public school in an unincorporated area.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
historyJames Entwistle's claim
The first new settler in the area, James Entwistle, had deserted the U.S. Army at Fort Steilacoom (located along Puget Sound, just south of present-day Tacoma). Entwistle took up 169 acres of land at the confluence of the rivers, established a trading post, and later became successful in hop farming.
Source: historylink.org
historyStillwater
A post office called Stillwater was established in 1910, and remained in operation until 1925. The community was named after Stillwater, Minnesota, the native home of a large share of local loggers.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
developmentLake Marcel Dam
An earthen dam was completed in 1964. A concrete dam engineered by the United States Army Corps of Engineers was built in the 1980s by the Lake Marcel Community Club (LMCC) to replace the earthen dam.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
institutionLake Marcel Fire Station
In 1985, Duvall-King County Fire District #45 built the Lake Marcel Fire Station, now a vehicle station for King County Water District #119.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
historyLake Marcel
Originally a beaver pond, the lake and surrounding acreage was residentially developed in the early 1960s by Pyramid Investment Company of Bellevue, Washington.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
historyMilwaukee Road branch at Tolt
The 29-mile (47 km) trail follows a portion of the former alignment of the Milwaukee Road, which was constructed in 1911 and abandoned in 1973. The Milwaukee Road constructed its Snoqualmie Valley branch in 1911, and began passenger service on April 21, 1912.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
institutionRemlinger Farms
It was originally created from the Remlinger family farm, owned by Floyd Remlinger, before being taken over by his son, Gary Remlinger. Beginning in 1965, the farm has evolved and grown much larger, adding a farm market, amusement rides, theater, petting zoo, restaurant, and the Tolt River Railroad Steam Train Ride that travels on a figure-8 loop, 2 ft (610 mm) narrow gauge track within the farm.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
institutionFall City Brick School
a large three-story brick building was constructed to house grades one through twelve. The cornerstone was laid on July 24, 1915 and the faculty and students moved in during January of the following year.
Source: fallcityhistorical.org
seasonalFall City Farms
Fall City Farms, at 3636 Neal Road along the Snoqualmie River about 30 miles east of Seattle, runs a pumpkin patch in October and u-cut Christmas trees in December. The farm says it sees familiar faces return year after year.
Source: fallcityfarms.com
historyPrescott-Harshman House
The office of the Harshman Telephone Company, later called the Fall City Telephone Company, also moved to this location in 1912. The Satterlees operated the telephone company until Cascade Telephone of North Bend bought them out in 1947.
Source: fallcityhistorical.org
historyNeighbor-Bennett House
The Neighbor-Bennett house, built in 1904, became a King County Landmark in 1996 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.
Source: fallcityhistorical.org
institutionFall City United Methodist Church
The Baptist membership was unable to pay the remaining debt from building the church, and in 1919 the building was purchased by the Methodists
Source: fallcityhistorical.org
historyFall City Masonic Hall
The building was completed in December 1895, with much of the labor donated. The cost of the hall, as listed for insurance purposes, was $500.
Source: fallcityhistorical.org
historyTaylor Hotel
In 1903, Doc Taylor sold the Taylor Hotel to Andrew and Karen Ronnei and Mike Nelson, who changed the name to Hotel Fall City.
Source: fallcityhistorical.org
historyMoore-Parmelee House
In 1905, Charlie bought a lot in Fall City for $40 and built a house. One of the special things about the Moore-Parmelee House is that it features an intact system of vertical-plank or box wall construction, fairly rare in King County.
Source: fallcityhistorical.org
historyFall City Hop Shed
The Fall City Hop Shed, built on a 1,500-acre hop farm, is the last remnant of King County's 1880s hop boom, then the county's largest agricultural enterprise; it was moved to its present spot in 1904.
Source: historylink.org
historyModel Garage
The buildings either had to be moved 50 feet south or demolished. Since the Model Garage was made of cinder blocks, moving the entire structure would be difficult, but a man named Slade from Snoqualmie did it without a hitch.
Source: fallcityhistorical.org
Landscape you can see from the road
| Feature | Type |
|---|---|
| Canyon Creek | Stream |
| Cherry Creek | Stream |
| Essency Creek | Stream |
| Foye Creek | Stream |
| Green Slough | Lake |
| Griffin Creek | Stream |
| Hanstead Creek | Stream |
| Harris Creek | Stream |
| Haskel Slough | Stream |
| Haywitch Creek | Stream |
| High Rock | Summit |
| High Rock Creek | Stream |
Stops along this corridor
| Kind | Count |
|---|---|
| restaurant | 135 |
| park | 112 |
| grocery | 61 |
| fast food | 40 |
| coffee | 38 |
| bar | 31 |
| attraction | 15 |
| museum | 9 |
| peak | 5 |
| memorial | 5 |
Where to eat along this corridor
Town by town, what is actually within a short detour of the highway.
Coverage
withby narrates 9 map cells on this corridor today.
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