The Historic Sunset Highway
in Washington
Cle Elum to Wenatchee via Vantage
The Historic Sunset Highway
in Washington
Cle Elum to Wenatchee via Vantage
Before the Sunset Highway was rerouted over Blewett Pass in 1922 the original route passed through Ellensburg, Vantage, Quincy, Trinidad and then Wenatchee. This required three crossings of the Columbia River. Two were by ferry. One at Vantage and the other at a town called Columbia River.
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.
In Kittitas County there are over 100 barns and other structures featuring large quilt blocks. This is Washington's only Barn Quilt trail. This started in 2001 and has grown since then. Visit their website and take the trip!
The present junction of Highways 97 and 970 was at one time the crossroads of wagon traffic in the upper county. Traveling from Cle Elum, this was the junction of the road north to the Swauk Mining District and the road east toward Ellensburg. There have been businesses at that junction serving travelers and miners from the 1880’s to the 1970’s. The location was originally called McCallum after Peter McCallum established a store there in 1882 and a post office in 1884.
In 1882, a wagon road was constructed from Ellensburg over the Wenatchee Mountains to the Miller and Freer’s store which was located at the mouth of the Wenatchee River. They used this road to bring in merchandise for their store. On the Ellensburg side of the mountain, the road was steep and dangerous, and by 1883, the few residents in the new settlement of Wenatchee, along with the help of Ellensburg citizens, made a new road around the bad section which allowed wagons to make it through much easier.
Ellensburg to Spokane via Vantage
This is the story of the route from Ellensburg to Spokane along as much of the old 1915 route as possible during April of 2016. We left at 6:00am to start our journey. The rain wasn’t pouring as hard as it has been for awhile, which was unusual. We packed up the car and headed toward Snoqualmie Pass. We decided to take the old route over the pass and look for the Yellowstone Trail marker but the snow blocked our way so we had to go back to the interstate.
The area around Vantage has been occupied by the Wanapum Native Americans since prehistory. A number of well-preserved rock-paintings have been found on the cliff walls. They also used the abundant petrified wood in the area for arrowheads and other tools. The site where these petroglyphs were found was inundated by the rising waters behind Wanapum Dam in the 1960s. About 60 of the more than 300 carvings were cut from the basalt cliff face and saved. The nearby Ginkgo Petrified Forest site is one of the most unusual fossil forests in the world, and was designated a National Natural Landmark by the National Park Service in 1965.
Quincy to the southern end of the Moses Coulee
In 1919, the Sunset Highway was rerouted over Blewett Pass and bypassed Ellensburg. The old route From Ellensburg to Wenatchee through Quincy became the Southern Division of the Sunset Highway.
Frenchman Coulee is one of the most beautiful features left behind by the great Ice-Age floods. Frenchman Coulee is a dual coulee and cataract system. Like its neighbor to the north, Potholes Coulee, Scabland floods created Frenchman Coulee.
Trinidad was originally a railroad stop in the 1890's and was named Trinidad by workers for the Great Northern Railway due to its geological and physical similarity to Trinidad, Colorado. This was once a thriving town with a bank and a school. The Smith Brothers General Store is the only building remaining from the old town. The White Heron Winery is located on the hill above the town.
This is the section of the 1915 highway after crossing the Columbia River on the Moses Coulee Ferry if you were going westbound from Quincy. The road before the Alcoa plant is faded but you can still see it if you look for it. This is a part of the original wagon road that ran up the Moses Coulee to Coulee City completed in 1885.
Near Cooper Street - West of the Alcoa Plant
This was an "S" curve in the old highway that was smoothed out in later years. The original Colockum Road ran on the outside of the south curve.
The town of Malaga started out as a flag station on the Great Northern Railroad in 1903. It is located 7 miles southeast of Wenatchee. The town site was platted on May 19, 1903, by Kirk Whited, of Wenatchee. There was only a post office back then. Today Malaga still has it's Post Office and also has a market and a few homes. Where once freighters and stages kicked up dust through town on their way to Wenatchee. Today it is now mostly traffic going to the aluminum plant.
South Wenatchee Ave. is a section of the old highway and still retains it's original concrete paving. Wenatchee Avenue was bypassed in the 1950's by the new Malaga-Alcoa Hwy. This section of highway was also a part of the Old Colockum Road.
The name Wenatchee applies to a river and its valley, a tribe (Wenatchi), and a town. The county seat of Chelan County, Wenatchee is a thriving town at the confluence of the Wenatchee and Columbia rivers and the center of the nation’s major apple-producing area.
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