The Wenatchee Chamber of Commerce has launched a drive to improve the Colockum Pass road between Wenatchee and Ellensburg, which would shorten the distance between the two towns some 19 to 20 miles over Blewett and even more via Vantage, Quincy and Rock Island.

The Colockum road was in the days before the turn of the century the principal route from railhead at Ellensburg into Wenatchee, Okanogan and the Caribou country in Canada. Stage coaches operated from Ellensburg to and beyond the Canadian border. One old log barn where the horses were changed is still on the Mark Smythe ranch, near the foot of the Colockum. Another was near Mountain Home and still another near the Stone ranch, at the foot of the steepest grade on the Chelan County side.

Wenatchee and Ellensburg Chambers of Commerce and our legislative groups when the two counties were in one legislative district made many gallant efforts to get the road improved. They did succeed in having some state surveys run and to avoid the high summit near Mountain Home, one followed the general area of the Columbia, but that meant some very expensive crossings of some steep and rugged canyons such as the Tarpiscan and Whiskey Dick.

The crossing of Colockum pass is 5,490 feet in elevation, nearly 1,000 feet higher than Blewett and nearly double the altitude of Snoqualmie pass in the Cascades. However, the snow on Colockum might not be as bad a problem as the more western passes, because it is fairly open country. The Chelan County engineer reports the distance via Colockum from Wenatchee to the Ellensburg city limits is 51.1 miles. We once called it 54 compared to around 70 by Blewett and nearly 86 via Vantage, Quincy and Rock Island.

The Wenatchee World says that over in Chelan County they would like to route ‘U.S. Highway No. 97 via Colockum if a satisfactory road is ever built, to save mileage on the North and South route from Mexico to Fairbanks and Nome. Incidentally 97 would go through the heart of Wenatchee if the Colockum were used instead of skirting the city on the north and west. 

Likewise it might also go through the heart of Ellensburg instead of around the city after the freeway is built, so both towns could easily have a double selfish interest. The Chelan County commissioners want to meet with the Kittitas County Commissioners in furtherance of the project. It certainly would not be the first time the writer recalls two trips of both the county commissioners, driven in a horse drawn rig and the city council in autos driven by the late Andy Schultz, E. L. Butler and Jack Kelleher having a tough trip to Wenatchee and back that took three days in 1912.

At one time the three cars were all attached together to get into Wenatchee and coming back the engineer blazed a new route through the trees to avoid Dead Man’s Hill and its 37 to 45 per cent grades. That route blazed in desperation to get the three old four-cylinder Fords and Flanders over the grade is roughly the route followed today.

So work to get a decent route over the Colockum dates back a half century at least. Chelan County Engineer Don West says the road on the Chelan side is oiled to within a half-mile of the Kittitas County line and the Peshastin Lumber Co. has kept the last mile of the road to the summit in good shape, while the Boise-Cascade, which is logging on the Kittitas County side has done a good job. So the road is feasible in the summer time, but still has some stiff grades.

The view from near Mountain Home over the Columbia Basin is magnificent and the forests are beautiful for miles. but today it is only at its best a good logging road. And we must acknowledge that between the U.S. Forest Service, the Boise-Cascade, and the county we do have many miles of the most scenic logging roads in America. But we face the fact to really build a satisfactory road over the Colockum the state must be interested. The mileage from the foot of the pass on this side to the Chelan County line is long, with the steepest grades on both sides within Kittitas County.

The road is in Howard Sorensen’s district and we know he has not the funds to make the Colockum a really good tourist road even if he neglected some badly needed construction in the Valley. We know the County Commissioners and. the Ellensburg Chamber of Commerce would love to see a real highway connection over or near Colockum and will meet with Chelan County and the Wenatchee Chamber at any and all opportunities, but the financial costs without state aid are staggering.

The Wenatchee World, backing the proposal in part says editorially: Engineer West says the County has made a reconnaissance on aerial maps for another route. One was considered over Jump off (which follows the old Indian trail up the Nanum) that would be even shorter than Colockum. There is a lower pass south of the Colockum, but that is longer.

The Colockum played the biggest role in the history of this (Chelan) county of any artery. it was the historic overland method of getting in and out of the Wenatchee Valley. The road was really developed during the days of the Okanogan mining boom. Freight wagons taking samples to Old Ruby and the mines of the Okanogan and Methow went this way in the 1880s. Earliest settlers came into this (Wenatchee) valley this way and in the history of the Wenatchee Valley, John Gellatly tells that the road was so steep in some places that those who made the crossing with team and wagon, usually cut down a tree or a sapling near the summit und fastened it to the rear of the rig in order to prevent too much wear on the brakes. (So did early motorists on both the Colockum and Blewett.)

In 1954 there was a revival of interest in rebuilding the road over Colockum pass. The Wenatchee and Ellensburg Chambers of Commerce held a joint picnic at the summit. A first step could be the improvement of the road by the two counties. But eventually it would have to be put on the state highway system for proper development, If the ski area in the Wenatchee mountains is developed a shortcut road by Colockum pass could be a factor in helping speed people to the new area.

The World editorial closes with the statement this could become the number one north and south route. We agree, but tell us how Kittitas County could alone finance such an expensive program at this time.