Skykomish Depot in 2007, Photo by Cliff West
The depot in Skykomish was built in 1894 and was originally located on the south side of the tracks, almost directly across from the Skykomish Hotel. It was moved to the north side of the tracks as shown here in 1922. It has since been moved back to its original location.
Continue to Skykomish Hotel…
Skykomish, Washington is the closest actual town to Stevens Pass, about 13 highway miles west of the summit. The name Skykomish comes from Indian words meaning "Inland People." Skykomish once hosted extensive railroad facilities which are no longer present, though the town is still a base of operation for railroad maintenance crews. Skykomish had a generating plant for the railroad’s electrification from 1927 to 1956. The building was not demolished until August 1992.
Historical Photos:
Skykomish, circa 1905 (UW)
Skykomish, circa 1910 (UW)
Skykomish, circa 1912 (UW)
Skykomish, circa 1912 (UW)
Skykomish, circa 1913 (UW)
Skykomish, circa 1913 (UW)
Skykomish, circa 1913 (UW)
Skykomish in snow, circa 1913 (UW)
Skykomish, circa 1920 (UW)
Steam Locomotive #1951 in Skykomish, circa 1924 (UW)
Electric Locomotives in Skykomish, circa 1927 (UW)
Skykomish Powerhouse under construction, c.1927 (UW)
Skykomish Powerhouse interior, circa 1927 (UW)
Skykomish Powerhouse, March 3, 1928 (UW)
Skykomish, circa 1928 (UW)
Passenger Train at Skykomish, circa 1930 (UW)
Electrics #5000-A & #5000-B, 1955 (Dave's Electric Railroads)
Electric #5002-B in Skykomish, 1955 (Dave's Electric Railroads)
Electric #5013 in Skykomish, 1955 (Dave's Electric Railroads)
Electrics #5015 & #5016, 1955 (Dave's Electric Railroads)
Electric #5019 in Skykomish, 1955 (Dave's Electric Railroads)
Continue to Skykomish Depot…
This deck girder bridge between the towns of Gold Bar and Index is a fair distance away from the pass, about 33 miles west of the summit, but it does carry the Burlington Northern Santa Fe mainline that crosses the pass, and it is an unusual bridge. The railroad crosses the highway at a shallow angle, requiring a long bridge, with no supports in the way of the highway. Thus, this bridge uses outriggers on columns outside the highway right-of-way for support. This is a unique bridge that I thought was worth noting.
Continue to Skykomish, Washington…
Continued from Discovery and Naming of Stevens Pass.
Stevens Pass is easily accessed today, thanks to the presence of U. S. Highway #2. The map above shows the relation of the major locations associated with Stevens Pass. Leavenworth is the largest city in close proximity to the pass, about 36 highway miles east of the summit. This tour will start on the west side of the pass.
Railroad Bridge over Highway 2
Skykomish, Washington
Skykomish Depot
Skykomish Hotel
Maloney Building, Skykomish
Great Northern Caboose X228
Trains In & Around Skykomish
Scenic, Washington
Iron Goat Trail
Milepost 1720
Twin Tunnels
Rock Cut
Milepost 1718
Corea
Martin Creek
Tunnel #14
Embro
Windy Point
Milepost 1713
Milepost 1712
Concrete Snowshed
Wellington
Switchbacks and the First Cascade Tunnel
Cascade Station
Bygone Byways Interpretive Trail
Berne, Washington
Tumwater Dam
Continue to Railroad Bridge over Highway 2…
Continued from Stevens Pass, Washington.
In the latter half of the 19th century, James Jerome Hill was looking toward the future. Hill foresaw transcontinental railroads replacing riverboats and wagons as the primary mode of moving goods and people across America. In 1889, Hill and his financiers acquired the bankrupt St. Paul & Pacific Railroad, and turned it into the Great Northern Railway, with the intent of connecting St. Paul to Seattle. The Northern Pacific Railroad had already reached Tacoma, Washington by way of Stampede Pass in the Cascades, so time was of the essence.
While the railroad was being built across the plains of North Dakota and eastern Montana, engineers and surveyors were sent ahead to lay out the route through the mountains. As the winter of 1889 approached, no route through the Rocky Mountains had been found. The Northern Pacific had followed a more southerly route through the mountains, however Hill was determined to have his own route through the Rockies rather than parallel his competition. With time running out to find a pass, Hill sent a young engineer named John F. Stevens to find the pass through the Rockies before construction of the railroad would be delayed. If Stevens could find the pass in time, Hill promised to name a pass after him.
Stevens and a Flathead Indian guide explored several known passes in the fall of 1889, including a pass noted by the Lewis & Clark Expedition called Marias Pass, but had yet to find a suitable route. With winter moving in and time running short, Stevens decided to make a last attempt at Marias Pass, which he considered the most promising. The temperature was 40 degrees below zero in December 1889 when Stevens, unable to stop to rest without risking freezing to death, discovered the summit of Marias Pass at 5,214 feet. Stevens returned to send word to Hill, and construction of the railroad continued.
Stevens was praised by Hill for finding the route through Marias Pass, and in Spring 1890, Hill sent Stevens to find a route through the Cascade Mountains of Washington. After searching 4,500 square miles of the Cascade Range, Stevens followed a creek flowing into Lake Wenatchee from the west. The creek led him to the summit of the pass. Stevens sent his assistant, engineer C. F. B. Haskell, to survey the route through this pass. After confirming the route was indeed feasible, Haskell carved "Stevens Pass" on a cedar tree, naming the pass as Hill had promised.
Continue to Stevens Pass Today…
Nestled in the Cascade Mountains of northern Washington, Stevens Pass is the location of one of the most difficult railroad-building projects in American history, and of the world's worst avalanche disaster. Today, Stevens Pass is the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe's main connection to Seattle from the rest of the country, and U. S. Highway #2 makes its way across Washington via the pass as well, but the story of Stevens Pass begins over a century ago with two men, a visionary with a dream and the engineer who helped him make it happen. The pictures on these pages were taken on a series of visits to the pass. My own photos were taken on family trips to the pass in the summers of 1994, 1998 and 2000. I have also included pictures taken by my dad on the 1994 trip, and his own visits in 2002 and 2007.
Discovery and Naming of Stevens Pass
Stevens Pass Today
Railroad Bridge over Highway 2
Skykomish, Washington
Skykomish Depot
Skykomish Hotel
Maloney Building, Skykomish
Great Northern Caboose X228
Trains In & Around Skykomish
Scenic, Washington
Iron Goat Trail
Milepost 1720
Twin Tunnels
Rock Cut
Milepost 1718
Corea
Martin Creek
Tunnel #14
Embro
Windy Point
Milepost 1713
Milepost 1712
Concrete Snowshed
Wellington
Switchbacks and the First Cascade Tunnel
Cascade Station
Bygone Byways Interpretive Trail
Berne, Washington
Tumwater Dam
Throughout these pages, I have also included links to historical photographs. Most of these photographs are from either the University of Washington Library's Digital Collection or the Washington State Historical Society's Image Collections. I have used "UW" and "WSHS" at each link to indicate the source. Other sources for historical photos include Dave's Electric Railroads, RRPictureArchives.net and Lindsay Korst's Great Northern Railway Page: gngoat.org.
For more information on Stevens Pass, I can recommend two books on the subject. A Railfan's Guide to Stevens Pass by Robert C. Del Grosso, published in 1993 by Great Northern Pacific Publications of Bonners Ferry, Idaho, and The Iron Goat Trail: A Guidebook by Becky Wandell for Volunteers for Outdoor Washington, published in 1999 by The Mountaineers of Seattle, Washington. The latter should be available at the ranger station near Skykomish, among other places, or is available HERE as a PDF file. For more information about the history of the Great Northern Railway’s route over Stevens Pass, I recommend the following, which I used for historical research: How Great Northern conquered the Cascades by D. W. Mc Laughlin in the November 1961 issue of Trains Magazine, The reason for America’s longest tunnel by D. W. Mc Laughlin in the December 1961 issue of Trains Magazine, The Great Northern Railway - A Pictorial Study by Charles & Dorothy Wood, published by Pacific Fast Mail in 1979, and an online article by Wayne F. Vlasak dated June 2, 1988.
Continue to Discovery and Naming of Stevens Pass…
Milwaukee Road caboose #01984 was built by the railroad’s Milwaukee, Wisconsin shops in 1946. It was later renumbered #991984. The Milwaukee Road was the only railroad to have cabooses with ribbed sided such as this one.
Photo by Cliff West
