Over the years several routes have crossed Snoqualmie Pass. Trails gave way to roads and roads were replaced with freeways but, in places, the old still remains. Between the Denny Creek exit and the Pass an old road runs up the valley just as it has for many years. Take a few minutes to slow down and enjoy what used to be the latest thing.
On June 1, 1887 the Northern Pacific Railroad finally completed their road across the Cascades at Stampede Pass, a few miles south of Snoqualmie Pass, 23 years after being given their land in 1864. When they did, interest in the wagon road across Snoqualmie Pass largely disappeared. Flooding and falling trees were continuing problems with the road being rebuilt and relocated many times. Harsh winter weather with deep snow would often close the mountain passes for long periods. With the completion of the Northern Pacific's tunnel under Stampede Pass on May 3, 1888 the trains no longer switchbacked over the pass.
The first automobile crossed Snoqualmie Pass in 1905, but not easily. Few others followed, at first. But the Chicago, Minneapolis & St. Paul Railroad, called the Milwaukee Road, completed a track through Snoqualmie Pass in March of 1909. The station at the pass was called Laconia, http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GCJPFX_laconia providing year round access for everyone to the pass for the first time. Adventurers who had the area to themselves before were now joined by regular folks who now found it easy to come to the mountains for a short period of time. Groups like the Mountaineers and ski clubs built Lodges in the mountains close to the train stations, enjoying the area year round.
The Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in Seattle in 1909 included a transcontinental automobile race. So during the year the wagon road was improved to be able to handle both automobiles and horse wagons. Money came from King and Kittitas counties and helped rebuild a few bridges and clear the road of fallen trees. By the end of the Exposition about 150 cars had used the route, convincing the State Highway Commissioner and state legislators to finance the construction of a new highway with a sixty foot right of way and a twenty foot roadbed.
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