The Struggle for the Mountain Pass
A plea to Congress to finish the Snoqualmie Wagon Road, a vital link intended to connect the farmers of the Cascades to the markets of Seattle.
Delegate Orange Jacobs has been urged by local citizens of the King and Kittitas counties to ensure the Snoqualmie Wagon Road project is completed. With $27,000 of private capital already invested, the road is considered essential for an economical exchange of goods between Eastern and Western Washington. Farmers in the east currently face long, indirect routes to market, while Seattle remains isolated from the interior's produce. Despite skepticism from railroad interests who view the road as a threat to their commercial dominance, proponents argue the road is the only way to break the local steam carriers' grip on shipping rates.
“We are simple agriculturists over here, tilling our fields and tending our lowing herds, all content to drive our produce 100 miles of the way to The Dalles, and then shipping by roundabout steam to your city.”
The century-old battle to connect Eastern and Western Washington via a mountain pass mirrors today's ongoing debates over infrastructure, mountain pass safety, and the dominance of corporate freight interests in the state's economy.
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