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.

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

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.

Keep in mind that Tahoma is actually the generic term for all white-capped mountains. Rainier does have a specific native name, which I can’t remember right now. I’ll see if I can find it again.