The Pioneer Race Through the Snoqualmie Pass
Nineteen men embark on a daring expedition to map a route through the Cascade Mountains, seeking a passage where none had been found before.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Tilton Sheets' surveying party, comprising 19 men, went out yesterday as far as Newcastle, where they mounted cayuses to cross the Cascades through the only practicable pass ever discovered through that range—the Snoqualmie. They will operate on the east side of the mountains.
“They mounted cayuses to cross the Cascades through the only practicable pass ever discovered through that range—the Snoqualmie.”
The quest to conquer the Snoqualmie Pass was a defining struggle of early Washington, mirroring the region's century-long obsession with transport infrastructure. Today, the commute through this same mountain corridor remains a vital, often contentious, artery for the Pacific Northwest economy.
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