Iron Horse State Park

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Herald of the Chicago Milwaukee St. Paul and Pacific

Iron Horse State Park, part of the Washington State Park System, is a 1,612 acre state park located in the Cascade Mountains between North Bend and Snoqualmie Pass. The heritage park commemorating railroading was once in the right-of-way of the The Milwaukee Road, officially the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad. The right-of-way was acquired by the state after bankruptcy (1980), and has been converted into 110 miles of hiking, mountain biking, and horseback riding trail.[1]

Iron horse

The trail west continues as the Snoqualmie Valley Trail of the King County Regional Trail System.[2] The trail east along the old Milwaukee Road is also called John Wayne Pioneer Trail, though Europeans arrived by boat or by travelling north from The Oregon Trail (1840)[3], or the railhead near south Puget Sound (1853 or c. 1872, respectively).[4] Arrival to the Snoqualmie Cascades of the Great Northern Railroad in 1910 and the Chicago, Milwaukee and Puget Sound Railroad in 1911 provided one of the means for development of the logging railroads and timber industry that eventually cut nearly all the Cascade Mountains forests.[5] The park is part of the Mountains to Sound Greenway preserving the scenic corridor.[6]

Contents

[edit] Recreation

Like most rails-to-trails projects, Iron Horse is popular with hikers and cyclists. There are many trail heads across the state, most with modern facilities, ample parking for a less common trail, and even a handful of campgrounds.

Iron horse

The trail passes through mostly woodland, several lakes, hidden waterfalls like the one shown below, and goes directly through the divide at the old Snoqualmie Tunnel. The park is easily accessible from I-90; unfortunately it's within sight of the freeway in some places.

Iron Horse seems to be more popular as a park for its scenery than its history, although it's less well-known than other parks like the Alpine Lakes Wilderness area (which Iron Horse passes through) or Snoqualmie Falls.

[edit] See also

"Logging train at Mount Si, 1903-05". Note the size of logs, particularly the bottom log behind the tender. The image is from the original view camera glass negative. (Copyright expired)
Enlarge
"Logging train at Mount Si, 1903-05". Note the size of logs, particularly the bottom log behind the tender. The image is from the original view camera glass negative. (Copyright expired)

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Iron Horse". Welcome to Washington State Parks (2006). Retrieved on 2006-04-21.
  2. ^ "Snoqualmie Valley Trail". King County Regional Trail System. Department of Natural Resources and Parks, Parks and Recreation Division (2005-09-19 updated). Retrieved on 2006-04-21.
  3. ^ Oldham
  4. ^ (1) "In 1853 the Northern Pacific railroad line reached Puget Sound, linking the region to the other states.", Puget Sound # History, but no references provided.
    (2) Wilma
    (3) Prater
  5. ^ MacIntosh
  6. ^ "History of the Greenway Landscape". "Mountains to Sound Greenway: About the Greenway" (2006). Retrieved on 2006-04-21.

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Further reading

"Chicago Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad through the Cascades" image, courtesy of MoHI (Museum of History and Industry).

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