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BavarianBaden t1_jaoxfqa wrote

Wow, amazing. Not sure how I haven’t seen this one before.

Interesting detail, assuming this wasn’t updated after 1857: The Snoqualmie Wagon Road, or Road #7 (7th road ever built in King County) can be seen on this map. The road documentation that I have shows that the Renton-Issaquah (or back then Black River-Squawk) portion was constructed just before 1860. The rest of the road (up to modern Fall City and Snoqualmie) was built in the early-late 1860s.

Since it isn’t a solid black line like the other proper roads, this seems to suggest that much of the route already existed as a trail prior to actual construction. Assuming that, it probably would have tied in nicely with the Cedar River trail, which (as far as I remember) in the 1850s as used by settlers, but I am also pretty sure it was an indian trail beforehand. Even if it weren’t a trail (it’s marked as one according to the legend), it would be an unimproved road.

Thanks for sharing! This is great stuff. Definitely will help with my research. As far as I can conclude right now, this seems to suggest the route was in existence in some form (indian trail, military trail? probably not used by settlers until proper road construction) all the way back in the 1850s.

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Soosietyrell t1_japex56 wrote

Used to work on Cedar Watershed, River valley was an old trail up to Yakima Pass… which is lower than Snoqualmie and on the Watershed fwiw. Story is (was?) that it was a pretty well used route…. grew up less than a mile west of the Old Milwaukee Road track along the River too.

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BavarianBaden t1_japf3tj wrote

Yep. Was also used by settlers in the Puget Sound to get to the (1853?) gold rush in NE Washington. A fascinating trail for sure.

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BoazCorey OP t1_jaoxzx0 wrote

Glad to share it. What is your focus of research?

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BavarianBaden t1_jap7pd1 wrote

Local history here on the eastside, but more specifically, logging and early settlement/roadbuilding.

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appendixgallop t1_japqdx3 wrote

Saw your username. My family is from New Baden. Well, Old Baden, too. Hi, Bayer.

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