The Historic Sunset Highway
in Washington
Snoqualmie Pass to Cle Elum
The Historic Sunset Highway
in Washington
Snoqualmie Pass to Cle Elum
This section of the Sunset Highway has gone through some drastic changes over the years. Not much remains of the original highway as the interstate has been built on top of the old road most of the way to Cle Elum.
The Milwaukee Railroad had completed their Pacific Branch in 1909 and at the Snoqualmie Summit, a new town was established by railroad called Laconia. This town was a switching yard for the snowplows and helpers as they finished their jobs of keeping the pass open and assisting trains up the hills from Keechelus and Cedar Falls. Laconia had a Hotel, train depot, turntable, engine house, water tank and other buildings.
On July 1, 1915, a large group of motorists from Eastern Washington and the Puget Sound area, gathered at the summit of Snoqualmie Pass to listen to Governor Lister give a speech officially dedicating the Sunset Highway. The formal dedication of the highway was quite an affair. Governor Lister and Highway Commissioner Roy were the notables present.
The 1915 Sunset Highway ran behind the Summit Inn. The road continued forward and crossed the freeway diagonally to connect to the north end of Yellowstone Trail Road. The old highways follows this road to it's end and continued on following the path of the interstate.
Sunset Lodge on Lake Keechelus
The route of the Sunset highway followed the old wagon road along the eastern bank of lake Keechelus. This section of the highway has been improved many times over the 100 years. Today (2016) the state is still blasting rock to widen the freeway along the lake.
Deep in the forest northwest of Lake Easton lies a part of the Sunset Highway which has been abandoned for 90 years. I call it the Ghost Highway. Why? Because a road is built to get you from one place to another, and this road goes nowhere, serves no purpose anymore, and nobody lives near it. This 4 mile section of the highway was built in 1915. But in a mere 12 years this part of the road would be abandoned for the new 1927 highway which bypassed this road. The new highway diverged from the old road at the top of Easton Hill. This is where Midway Park once stood. Midway Park was a campground with a few cabins, and a Signal gas station. Today, nothing remains of this place.
From the 1904 book History of Kittitas County; The thriving village and station bearing the name of Easton is situated on the Yakima river and the Northern Pacific railway, thirty-eight miles northwest of Ellensburg and thirteen miles northwest of Cle-Elum. The town in 1904 had about 150 inhabitants, most of whom are engaged in lumbering, railroad work and kindred occupations.
In 1897, an attempt was made to build a new road between Lake Keechelus and Easton. The existing trail was widened to allow the passing of wagons. This new road was built on the north side of the Yakima River close to the path of today’s Interstate 90. This 14 mile section had steep grades of 25% to 30% and was poorly constructed. Because of the poor construction and lack of maintenance, by 1905 only 5 miles of this 14 mile road was still passable by a wagon. This road was abandoned for the new State Road No. 7.
Heading eastbound on Interstate 90 after crossing the Yakima River, the freeway follows near the path of the 1915 highway. As the freeway makes the left curve and continues past the weight station, the original 1915 highway turned left onto Bullfrog Road. The old bridge is just north of the new bridge over the Cle Elum River. This is an original 1915 concrete double arch bridge just like the one that used to cross over the Snoqualmie River in Fall City. The side walls have been torn out and a metal guard rail has been added sometime in later years.
Ballard Road is a section of the 1897 wagon road to the Swauk Gold District and the Town of Blewett. This was the route the miners took after coming over the pass from Seattle. In 1915, this section became a part of the Sunset Highway and is still in use today. This road is also a part of the Quilt Tour as you will see large quilt blocks on the barns throughout the valley.
From the 1904 Book History of Kittitas County; The thriving little city situated on the upper Yakima river at the junction of the main line of the Northern Pacific railway with its Roslyn branch bears the musical name Cle-Elum, and is the third town in size and importance within the boundaries of Kittitas county. Four years ago it had less than 300 inhabitants; today it boasts a population of 1,500, and surely there is no more prosperous community in the whole Evergreen state.
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