Naches Pass
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Naches Pass is a mountain pass (elevation 1,500 m) that lies on the border between Pierce County (about 80 km east of Tacoma) and Yakima County in central Washington state. It provides a route across the Cascade Range originally used by pioneers. It borders on Mount Rainier National Park.
[edit] History
The initial record of this pass is found in early summer of 1841, when Lieutenant Charles Wilkes of the U. S. Exploring Expedition directed Lieutenant Robert E. Johnson to proceed east over the Cascades via the Naches Pass. The expedition followed an existing Indian trail around the northern flank of Mount Rainier and over the pass. They proceeded to Fort Colville and Fort Okanogan east of the mountains.
The Puget Sound settlements developed slowly since access was difficult. To improve access, a wagon road over the Cascades and down to Fort Walla Walla, which lay on the Oregon Trail was needed. M. T. Simmons, an early American settler on Puget Sound, led a group to prepare such a road, but the heavy forest and steep ridges made the effort difficult; the attempt failed.
The first emigrant wagon train crossed the Naches Pass in the fall of 1853. The wagon train, which included James Longmire encountered severe difficulties in descending the precipitous western slopes, but finally reached Fort Steilacoom. Yet another wagon train crossed the pass only three weeks later following the Longmire route; the Naches wagon road was established.
Captain George B. McClellan led surveys of the area in 1853. McClellan considered Naches Pass impracticable for a railroad, but supported building a wagon road over Naches. In 1854 and 1855, Lieutenant Arnold was detailed to work on improving the route that Longmire’s wagon train passed over.
Due to the difficulty in crossing the Cascades at this point, the wagon road fell into disuse. There is no paved road through this pass, but proponents periodically propose a new road over Naches Pass, usually in combination with a tunnel through the highest elevation, to alleviate the traffic jam around the Puget Sound, reduce traffic across Snoqualmie Pass and shorten the distance to bring agricultural products to Ports by saving at least 70 miles on the route from Tacoma to Yakima, and also because Washington State Route 410 is closed to commercial traffic in Mount Rainier National Park up to Chinook Pass.
