The Wenatchee World has been printing suggestions for a suitable name for the so-called "hairpin curve" on the Kittitas county side and, it appears, the matter was left to A. H, Sylvester to decide on a name. In doing so he wrote the following article which will be of interest to many of our readers:

Echo Point

A history of the Blewett Pass road from its earliest inception to its ultimate completion next year would prove very interesting reading, but no phase of it is more interesting than
the interest shown and imagery displayed in the naming of one of its salient points. I have been amazed, the name, "Hairpin Curve," has never been adopted officially. It has simply grown into use by the traveling public because it is a hairpin curve.

A name was adopted and a sign placed on this point in 1915, the name that stands at the head of this article. A few years later the sign was pulled down and carried away. Unfortunately it was not replaced. The history in connection with this name should be interesting. It will be remembered that there was a time when there was a great deal of diversity of opinion as to the feasibility of the Blewett Pass route.

There was much talk of the Colockum Pass and the Vantage Route. The argument waxed particularly warm in Kittitas county. The people of Cle Elum were strong for Blewett; the eastern end of the county were equally as strong for one of the other routes. The County Commissioners of Kittitas county had their engineer, Moses Emerson, survey a line from the Blewett Pass south on approximately a 9 per cent grade.

The Cle Elum people would not stand for that and a bunch of them went out at their own expense and with their own engineer, H. A. Greenberg, ran the line on which the road was eventually built from the Pass south around our Echo Point. When they got to that point in making their survey they agreed to call it Echo Point in honor of the "Cle Elum Echo", which paper had been a consistent advocate of a good road on easy grades over Blewett.

This was the summer of 1915. On September 18, 1915, Matt Hickey who was then a Chelan County Commissioner and myself met the county commissioners
of Kittitas county at the Pass. The commissioners, were all in favor of the cheaper and steeper road, but I was then able to assure them that if the lesser grade were adopted the Forest Service was ready to assist in the construction of the new road. 

That decided the matter and that fall the Kittitas Commissioners let a contract for the construction of two miles of new road south from the pass on the survey made by the Cle Elum people. The work was done that same fall and was the first new construction on the Blewett Pass Highway. The next year, 1916, was the year of the big rush to Wenatchee to register for the Colville Indian Reservation opening.

The Blewett Pass was crossed by thousands of cars. Both the Seattle Times and the P. I. featured it in articles commending it wonderful scenic beauty. The P. I. named the point which has been interesting us. "Biscuit Point." This brought to me a letter from M. P. Kay, who was perhaps the most enthusiastic of the Cle Elum boosters, which related the naming of the point as described above and resulted in the adoption of "Echo Point" and the placing of the sign.

Even though this name is perhaps not the happiest one for this topographic feature, nor as descriptive as many of those suggested, under the circumstances I feel that it should be retained. If Mr. Kay's name had only been Key. I should like to have called it "Key Point," not only in memory of him, but because the turning of it unlocks all the wealth of beauty and delight to well indicated by many of the names suggested.

It was also the key point in determining the location of a considerable portion of the road. In choosing a name for a topographic feature, different factors may govern. It should be a single word and the shorter the better so that it will not take up much room on a map. It should commemorate some action which took place on or near it, or it should honor some individual worthy of honor, or it should he descriptive of the feature itself. If possible, it should not be a duplication of names used elsewhere.

Of the names suggested, it seems to me that "Revelation Point" most fully meets the requirements. A word as to Franklin K. Lane. He was a great and good man, worthy of all honor, but he had nothing to do with, very possibly never heard of the Blewett Pass road. He was the Secretary of the Interior. The Department of Agriculture has within its jurisdiction the Bureaus of the Forest Service and of Public Roads, the two Bureaus that have had to do with the Government's end of the construction of the Blewett Road.

A H. SYLVESTER.
Forest Supervisor

The Cle Elum Echo

From the Book History of Kittitas County 1904

Cle Elum is fortunate in possessing such a wide-awake, able weekly as the Echo. The paper is much above the average and cannot help but aid materially in strengthening and building the community around it. Between the years 1891 and 1902 Cle Elum was without a newspaper, but in January of the latter year, Randall Brothers, of Roslyn, determined to enter the unoccupied field and began preparations for the publication of a paper. 

A very good small equipment was at once installed and a six-column folio commenced telling the local news. Charles S. Freeman first had charge of the business, but was later succeeded by Charles S. Fell. The latter purchased a half interest in the business in November, 1903, from Randall Brothers; the balance is owned by Walter J. Reed. The Echo is printed in a convenient office on Pennsylvania avenue. It is now a seven-column folio, all home print; politically, it is Republican.