The Completion of the Sunset Highway: The Miracle Road over the Cascades in 1915

-Guest post by Deborah J. Isley, volunteer Snoqualmie Valley Museum

Today, an average of 34,000 vehicles cross Snoqualmie Pass daily and it remains the state’s most reliable mountain crossing. But, in the early 20th century, this vital connection between the two sides of Washington State was long desired and hard-won. The final piece was the troublesome section from North Bend to Lake Keechelus.

The opening of the missing link of the “Sunset Highway” was met with great fanfare in 1915. Cars had been crossing the pass since 1905 but regularly got stuck in mud so thick that teams of horses were required to pull them free. The first automobiles crossed Snoqualmie Pass on an old wagon road with logs and planks placed perpendicular to the direction of traffic, called “corduroy roads.”  Over the following ten years, many cars would make the trek over muddy, treacherous roads with precipitous drop-offs and dauntingly steep grades.

In early 1913, the state legislature passed a bill to complete the Sunset Highway. For most of 1914, construction crews had charmed weather, dry and mild, allowing them to complete the Snoqualmie Pass section of the Sunset Highway in one season. The new section closely followed the Snoqualmie River up the pass until three switchbacks were required to maintain the desired 3% grade just before the summit. These S-curves were often featured on postcards and tourist brochures, singing the beauty of the new highway.

Washington Governor Ernest Lister and Highway Commissioner William Roy optimistically set October 1st, 1914 as the day of dedication. However, as Northwesterners know, dry, summer weather can end abruptly. Heavy rain fell that September, softening large sections of the newly graded road. The problem was compounded by the previous months of dry weather that did not allow for adequate road compaction. The planned caravan to Lake Keechelus with the Governor and other state and city leaders from Olympia and Seattle had to be postponed indefinitely.

There was disappointment, but anticipation was high for the 1915 summer. With war in Europe diverting tourism to U.S.-based locations and roads opening up in the West, many tourists were expected to visit the West Coast. A scenic route through the Cascades promised to bring unprecedented numbers of tourists to Puget Sound. In the spring of 1915, officials had over 200 men working to repair and gravel the road, working uphill as the snow melted. Some eager motorists drove through the construction, unable to wait for the official green light. State officials pleaded with the public to stay off the road until the graveling and repair were complete, as the vehicles cut deep grooves into the wet soil.

The new dedication was scheduled for July 1, 1915. In anticipation, the Seattle Daily Times sent a team of reporters and photographers over the pass in a Buick Pathfinder. They made the trip from Seattle to North Yakima – “in ten hours of comfortable travel.” The vehicle passed covered wagons, horses, and cattle on the road, a reminder that the road was needed for more than tourism and daytrips. The road was not only beautiful, it was “of vital importance to the commercial welfare of the state.”

On July 1, 1915, Governor Ernest Lister and a large party of local and state officials left Seattle at 7:30 am and they arrived at Lake Keechelus at 12:30 pm. A crowd of over 400 people gathered on the shores of the lake to celebrate the opening of the thoroughfare between the two halves of the state. The next day, the Seattle Times noted that “Governor Lister paid a glowing tribute to the band of good roads workers who have toiled so diligently to bring about the completion of the route across the mountains…for the good of the commonwealth.”

Nature, however, was not quite finished testing the new highway. Two weeks after the ribbon-cutting, heavy rains turned sections of the road into soft mud, and cars once again found themselves stuck about 10 miles east of North Bend. In the press, the state reassured drivers that crews working along the route were available to haul out stranded motorists. By mid-July, conditions stabilized, and the pass enjoyed a successful first season, with at least 15,000 automobiles making the crossing. As the Seattle Daily Times observed, the highway had unlocked the region’s potential: “Puget Sound’s first tourist crop really started in 1915.”

On August 11th of the road’s first summer season, the Seattle Daily Times spoke glowingly of the newly built connector. “To those who in years gone by struggled against great odds to cross the mountains in horse drawn or motor-driven vehicles; it is more than a paradise, it is a miracle road. Gone are the torturous, precipitous grades; gone are the corduroy bridges, for in place of them is now a wide, splendid graded highway that is deserving of being called a boulevard.”

Bibliography:

• “Big Traffic Through Pass This Year.” The Benton Herald, October 8, 1915, Page 1. Accessed on 1/15/2026 at Chronicling America. Library of Congress.
• DeLeon, Lillianna. “Unique roads of King County: Old Sunset Highway.” King County Local Services. Accessed January 15, 2026. https://kingcounty.gov/en/legacy/services/roads/unique-roads/old-sunset-highway.
• Lindblom, Mike. “Is Snoqualmie Pass Resilient Enough for Post-Flood Holiday Traffic?” The Seattle Times. December 20, 2025.
• “Many Unusual Sights Along Sunset Highway.” Seattle Daily Times, August 11, 1915. Page 14. Accessed 1/15/2026 at Seattle Times Archives.
• “Motor Tourist Travel in 1915 will be Heavy.” Seattle Daily Times, November 1, 1914. Page 48. Accessed 1/15/2026 at Seattle Times Archives.
• “Mountain Road Nearing Finish, Scenic Wonder.” Seattle Daily Times, July 26, 1914. Page 14. Accessed 1/15/2026 at Seattle Times Archives.
• “New Highway Over Cascades Now Open For Automobile Travel: Times Pathfinder Car Makes Easy Run Through Pass to North Yakima in Ten Hours.” Seattle Daily Times, June 20, 1915. Page 5. Accessed 1/15/2026 at Seattle Times Archives.
• “New Road Across Mountains is Dedicated.” Seattle Daily Times, July 2, 1915. Page 10. Accessed 1/15/2026 at Seattle Times Archives.
• “New Road Must be Given Chance to Gain Strength.” Seattle Daily Times. October 4, 1914. Page 13. Accessed 1/15/2026 at Seattle Times Archives.
• “Opening of New Scenic Highways Brings Tourists to Washington.” Seattle Daily Times, October 24, 1915. Page 44. Accessed 1/15/2026 at Seattle Times Archives.
• “Pass Highway Open Despite One Bad Section.” Seattle Daily Times, July 14, 1915. Page 8. Accessed 1/15/2026 at Seattle Times Archives.
• Prater, Yvonne. Snoqualmie Pass: From Indian Trail to Interstate. The Moutaineers: Seattle, Washington. 1981.
• “Rain Postpones Opening of New Road.” Seattle Daily Times, September 29, 1914, Page 4. Accessed 1/15/2026 at Seattle Times Archives.
• Snoqualmie Pass Wagon Road pamphlet. Brochure. Object ID 888.037. Snoqualmie Valley Historical Museum Special Collection Archives, North Bend, WA.
• “Snoqualmie Pass Now Open to Automobile Travel.” Seattle Daily Times, June 27, 1915. Pages 41-42. Accessed 1/15/2026 at Seattle Times Archives.
• “Sunset Highway Finished.” Seattle Daily Times, October 4, 1914. Page 42. Accessed 1/15/2026 at Seattle Times Archives.
• “Sunset Highway Soon Open for Tourists.” Seattle Daily Times, April 15, 1915. Page 5. Accessed 1/15/2026 at Seattle Times Archives.
• “Sunset Highway to be Opened by June 20: Large Force of Men and Teams at Work on Road Across Mountains Handicapped by Weather.” Seattle Daily Times, May 25, 1915. Page 7. Accessed 1/15/2026 at Seattle Times Archives.
• Tate, Cassandra. “Sunset Highway through Snoqualmie Pass is dedicated on July 1, 1915.” History Link. Accessed January 15, 2026. https://www.historylink.org/File/8687.
• Washington State Legislature. Session Laws of Washington State. 1913. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/sessionlawsofwas1913wash.

[Featured image: Postcard. The Sunset Highway 1920s. Housed at the Snoqualmie Valley Museum. PO.074.0800.]