The Historic Sunset Highway
in Washington
Fall City to North Bend
The Historic Sunset Highway
in Washington
Fall City to North Bend
The Sunset Highway leaves Fall City and follows SR 202 toward the Falls. The original road turns right at SE Fish Hatchery Rd and continues to the end of this road at the bottom of Snoqualmie Falls. I believe the old highway used the wagon road to climb the hill.
Fall City was established as a trading post in 1869 and became a hub of the local economy. It was known at the time as "The Landing", as shallow water and rapids upstream on the Snoqualmie river made it impassable to the large dugout canoes used for transporting goods. The first small steamboats started ferrying people and supplies up the river from Puget Sound in 1875. This route became known as the Snoqualmie River Highway.
SE Fish Hatchery Rd. East of Fall City
Fish Hatchery Road was the original route of the 1915 Sunset Highway. Leaving Fall City heading east, Fish Hatchery Road turns to the right to avoid the hill. The first wagon road through here climbed the hill to the left of the new highway. Fish Hatchery Road connects back up with the wagon road as it rounds the hill and passes by the new highway. The old Sunset Highway and the old wagon road both follow the path of Fish Hatchery Road to the Tokul Creek Bridge.
The first civilian wagon road to the top of the falls was County Road #7, built in 1862 although it was not completed until 1867. They just widened the existing Indian Trail that ran on the south side of the river and over Snoqualmie Ridge.
By 1875, more settlers were living in the area around the falls and the people at the top and the people at the bottom began to communicate with each other. During November of 1875, all of those residents signed a petition for a new road on the north side of the Snoqualmie River between Fall City and the new settlement at Rangers Prairie that would eventually become the City of Snoqualmie.
The "Big Cut" was one of the many new improvements done to the Sunset Highway. This is the section of the highway where the motorist begins the climb up the mountain to Snoqualmie Pass. County Road No. 61 known as the Rufus Stearns Road was the first civilian wagon road on the north side of the river to the top of the falls. The Big Cut bypassed this road for a much gentler grade to the top of the falls.
Snoqualmie Falls is a 268 ft waterfall on the Snoqualmie River between Snoqualmie and Fall City, Washington, United States. It is one of Washington's most popular scenic attractions, but is perhaps best known internationally for its appearance in the cult television series Twin Peaks. More than 1.5 million visitors come to the Falls every year, where there is a two-acre park, an observation deck, and a gift shop.
The first settlement on the prairie above the falls was in the spring of 1858, when the Kellogg brothers came and staked claims. During the summer of 1858, Jeremiah Borst arrived and staked a claim. He lived in the abandoned Fort Alder blockhouse until he could build his cabin. It would only take a few more years before about 2 dozen or so more settlers would call the area between Issaquah and North Bend as their home.
In 1904, Arthur Pratt purchased the Meadowbrook Farm that is located between North Bend and Snoqualmie. The farm was 1,200 acres and became a large dairy operation. Pratt then hired Angus Moffat as manger of the farm. Moffat built fences, constructed dairy barns, built a creamery, and supervised dairy herds as well as crops for the next 39 years.
From the town of Snoqualmie heading eastbound, the original 1867 Snoqualmie Wagon Road follows SE Park St to Meadowbrook and then continues east as the road become Boalch Avenue. At Gardiners Creek the old 1856 military road branched off to Rattlesnake Prairie. After the Gardiners Creek Crossing, both the 1867 road and the 1915 Sunset Highway follows Boalch Ave to the South Fork of the Snoqualmie River.
The first American settlers to the area now known as North bend was in the early 1860's when Joseph fares and his wife Lucinda arrived and built their cabin next to the abandoned Fort Smalley. In 1862, Josiah Merritt arrived and built a cabin near Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River. He was known to the locals as Uncle Si and his cabin was also next to the mountain that came to be called "Uncle Si's mountain". Today it is simply called Mount Si. The first settler to build a cabin in what will become downtown North Bend was in 1865, when Matts Peterson arrived. Peterson only lasted a few years before he sold his place to Jeremiah Borst who was the one of the first American settlers in the Snoqualmie Valley.
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