Controversy over the route of the Sunset Highway by way of Vantage

The Sunset Highway originally connected the towns of Wenatchee and Ellensburg. They accomplished this by the route leaving Ellensburg and going east to Vantage. Take the ferry over the Columbia and then north to Quincy. It was then west to the ferry at Columbia River (A small ghost town south of Rock Island Dam.). Then it was north again to Wenatchee. 

The Colockum Road was strongly considered to become the Ellensburg / Wenatchee connection but the road was to steep and rough and would need to be improved. The cost was too much is why the road has not chosen. The debate on whether to use Colockum or Blewett began as early as 1913. 

As the Blewett Pass became a better road in 1919, more people started using it. After 1919 the Sunset Highway had 2 branches, The Blewett branch and the Vantage branch, which was the official route. In 1922 Blewett Pass became the official route and the Vantage route became a branch of the Sunset Highway until the 1950s.

Scenic Highway May Go By Blewett Pass
Engineer Who will Decide Upon the Route to be Taken Will be in this Section in a few Weeks
Leavenworth Echo
June 20, 1913

Whether to use the Blewett or the Colockum road which comes across the mountains about ten miles below Wenatchee to connect with the Snoqualmie Pass road will be the question Engineer Harry Doolittle of Spokane will have to decide, he having been appointed to locate the Sunset highway. On account of the lower elevation and the easy grades it is believed that the Blewett road will be the chosen route, although nothing definite as yet has been given out. From Wenatchee the road will go lo Waterville and on to Spokane.

The first contract to be let by the state highway board out of the funds allowed by the last legislature will be the five miles of road between Walla Walla and Waitsburg. It is also expected that construction work will be started about that time on the east side highway between the Wenatchee bridge and Waterville. It is planned to use convict labor in the construction of the road, but the highway board has announced that this will not be available until after August 10.

Connect Blewett Pass
Leavenworth Echo
April 30, 1915

The people and the newspapers of Wenatchee have come to realize if this valley is ever to get any benefit from the great Snoqualmie pass state highway it is by making the Blewett pass route the connecting link between Kittitas county and the Wenatchee valley. The Echo tried for two years to convince Wenatchee of this fact when they were urging the Colockum road. Division of effort to secure the location of the state highway by way of Blewett doubtless had something to do with its final location by way of Beverly, over a dry, treeless and rocky desert that left the Wenatchee valley off the map.