The Big Cut

The first wagon road to the top of Snoqualmie Falls was the military road the ran between Fort Tilton and Fort Alder built in 1856. This road was on the north side of the river and lasted for about a year. There never was a battle in the Snoqualmie Valley and after the war ended in 1857, the road faded back into the forest.

The Snoqualmie Wagon Road built in 1867 ran up the hill from Fall City on the south side of the river and continued over Snoqualmie Ridge into the town of Snoqualmie. In 1870 Watson Allen started a sawmill near Old Fort Tilton at the mouth of Tokul Creek. This was the first sawmill in the valley. The sawmill used the old military road to Fall City and it became known as Allen's Road.

In 1879, The first civilian wagon road up the hill on the north side was constructed. County Road No. 61 or the Rufus Stearns Road began on the opposite side of the river at the school house and followed the old military road to the top of the falls and to old Fort Alder. This is where the river was crossed. Today this road is now Southeast Millpond Road. Fort Alder was on the other side of the river from the end of the road.

In 1913, the wagon road was improved and ran north of the fish hatchery and then south on what is today 372nd Ave SE and the steep hill was bypassed with a new road along the side of the hill for a more gradual ascent. At the top of the falls a new bridge was constructed over the river and a new road was built into the town of Snoqualmie. This was for the new highway between Snoqualmie and Redmond. Traffic using the ferry from Seattle to Kirkland used this route to Snoqualmie Pass.

In 1914 plans were drawn up for the new Sunset Highway and a new road would be constructed from the fish hatchery at Tokul Creek up the hill to the top of the falls. This new road would require a massive cut to be cut into the hillside on the east side of Tokul Creek. The new highway was completed in 1918 and became known as the "Big Cut". In the 1920's there was a diner called the Tokul Creek Inn at the east end of the bridge over the creek. They specialized in chicken dinners. 

In 1940 the new "Echo Lake Cutoff" was completed and the Big Cut was bypassed but became a section of the Bothell Branch in the mid 1940's. Today the Big Cut is a part of Highway 202 between North Bend and Woodinville.