Toll Road No More
Snoqualmie Pass to Be Kept Free to Travelers.
King and Kittitas Agree.
They Unite to Stop Toll Collecting, and Can Now Make the Road a Beautiful Mountain Drive.

Post Intelligencer
October 28, 1893

Toll collecting on the Snoqualmie toll road, either on the King county or the Kittitas county end, is a thing of the past. County Commissioner Wooding has received a communication from the board of county commissioners of Kittitas county heartily acceding to the proposal sent them by the King county board about three weeks ago that the two counties unite in keeping the road open and free to all.

This puts an end to the game of three who have heretofore levied tribute upon emigrants passing over the road. It was through the influence of the Kittitas county commissioners that the men who were arrested for forcing their way through the pass in spite of Toll Collector Beard and his shotgun were acquitted in Ellensburg a few days ago and allowed to rejoin their families in North Bend.

The commissioners of the two counties will now be urged to put the road in good condition for travel. Persons who have traveled over it from Snoqualmie to Ellensburg say that the pass which it follows is a natural gateway through the mountains and that the road could be made passable at comparatively slight expense.

It needs the clearing away of windfalls, the filling up of a few mud-holes and swampy places with rock or corduroy and the building of rough rustic bridges across the rivers to make it possible for travelers to use it regularly. Some still further expenditure would make it possible for a carriage to be driven with ease over the pass, so that visitors could, without enduring any of the hardships of mountaineering, enjoy the beauties of the scenery in such a leisurely way as is not practicable on a rapid railway journey.