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    America's Lost Highway-Washington's U.S. Highway 99
    America's Lost Highway-Washington's U.S. Highway 99
    America's Lost Highway-Washington's U.S. Highway 99
    Ebook181 pages2 hours

    America's Lost Highway-Washington's U.S. Highway 99

    By Lyn Wilkerson

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    About this ebook

    This edition in the America's Lost Highway series explores the former route of U.S. Highway 99 through the Washington State. The route is often referred to as the Pacific Highway, and it travels from the U.S.-Canadian border north of Blaine to Vancouver on the Columbia River. Along the way, it skirts the shores of Puget Sound and connects the metropolitan areas of Seattle, Tacoma, and Olympia.
    Over 250 historic points of interest are included, along with GPS coordinates for all listed sites.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLyn Wilkerson
    Release dateMay 29, 2011
    ISBN9781458178893
    America's Lost Highway-Washington's U.S. Highway 99
    Author

    Lyn Wilkerson

    Caddo Publications USA was created in 2000 to encourage the exploration of America’s history by the typical automotive traveler. The intent of Caddo Publications USA is to provide support to both national and local historical organizations as historical guides are developed in various digital and traditional print formats. Using the American Guide series of the 1930’s and 40’s as our inspiration, we began to develop historical travel guides for the U.S. in the 1990’s.

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      Book preview

      America's Lost Highway-Washington's U.S. Highway 99 - Lyn Wilkerson

      While every effort has been made to insure accuracy, neither the author nor the publisher assume legal responsibility for any consequences arising from the use of this book or the information it contains.

      All maps are by the author.

      America’s Lost Highway

      Washington’s U.S. Highway 99

      Smashwords Edition

      Lyn Wilkerson

      All Rights Reserved. Copyright © 2011 Lyn Wilkerson

      No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the author.

      Introduction

      This guide, along with the various others produced by Lyn Wilkerson and Caddo Publications USA, are based on the American Guide Series. Until the mid-1950’s, the U.S. Highway System provided the means for various modes of transport to explore this diverse land. To encourage such explorations, the Works Projects Administration under President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Federal Writers Project created the American Guide Series. This series of books were commissioned by the Federal Government to capture the culture and history of the United States and provide the direction necessary for travelers to explore it. Each state created a commission of writers who canvassed their respective territories for content to submit. The preliminary works were then sent to Washington D.C. for final assembly in to a standard format. The result was a travel guide for each state. The series spread to include guides for important cities as well. After the State Guides were complete, the concept of a national guide was developed. However, it would not be until 1949, with the backing of Hastings House Publishing, that a true national guide would be created. Through several rounds of condensing, the final product maintained much of the most essential points of interest and the most colorful material.

      To quote from the California edition of the American Guide Series, romance has been kept in its place. . . The intent of this guide is to provide information about the historic sites, towns, and landmarks along the chosen routes, and to provide background information and stories for what lies in-between. It is not our desire to dramatize the history or expand on it in any way. We believe that the character and culture of Chicago, and our country as a whole, can speak for itself. The guide has been created, not for just travelers new to the city, but for current residents who may not realize what lies just around the corner in their own neighborhood. The goal of Caddo Publications USA is to encourage the exploration of the rich history that many of us drive by on a regular basis without any sense it existed, and to entertain and educate so that history will not be lost in the future.

      This America’s Lost Highway-Washington’s U.S. Highway 99 guide utilizes the original text provided in Washington-A Guide to the Evergreen State, originally published in 1941. The only changes to the historical narrative are edits due to the passing of time. In addition to the original text compiled by the Federal Writers Project, this guide also provides additional historic sites and landmarks and GPS coordinates for the benefit of the latest technologies.

      Table of Contents

      Canadian Border to Bellingham

      Bellingham to Everett

      Everett to Seattle

      Seattle to Tacoma

      Tacoma to Olympia

      Olympia to Chehalis

      Chehalis to Vancouver

      U.S. Highway 99, the Pacific Highway, the main highway in western Washington and most heavily traveled in the State, roughly followed the route of Territorial military roads that linked the settlements of the Puget Sound and of the Columbia River regions. In the southern section, It approximates also the route of a branch of the Oregon Trail, blazed northward around the middle of the nineteenth century.

      The northern section of the highway passes through the most popular part of the State. From many points, it affords sweeping views of the island-dotted Puget Sound and the jagged Olympic Mountains to the west, and of the Cascade Mountains, a blue-green ridge tipped here and there with white, in the east. At intervals the route crossed sluggish rivers flowing through fertile bottom lands, or skirted the edges of high, wooded bluffs. Large well-cultivated farms, truck gardens, orchards and berry fields, dairy farms, and poultry ranches alternate with patches of second-growth timber and stump lands. Between the small towns strung out along the highway were the usual roadside inns, gasoline stations, tourist camps, and crossroads general stores. .

      South of the Puget Sound Basin, U.S. Highway 99 crossed gently rolling prairies, broken by small areas of evergreen, maple, and alder. Dominating the eastern horizon is Mount Rainier, while southward Mount Adams and Mount St. Helens seem less majestic, though only by comparison. The farms, gardens, and poultry ranches of the lowlands gave way to forested hills barren cutover lands, and occasional marginal farms. For miles, U.S. 99 followed the Cowlitz and Columbia Rivers and, finally, crossed the Columbia into Oregon.

      Today, the route of U.S. Highway 99 is designated as Washington Highway 99. The states of Washington, Oregon, and California all chose to retain the numerical designation as a state highway when U.S. Highway 99 was decommissioned starting in 1964.

      Beginning at the Canadian Line, U.S. Highway 99 ran almost due south through a green and pleasant region of truck gardens, orchards, woodland patches, and meadowlands, and neat, attractive houses and well-built barns. Most of this land was once covered by magnificent stands of Douglas fir, hemlock, and Western red cedar, but today much of it has been cleared and brought under cultivation.

      United States-Canadian Border

      The route of U.S. Highway 99 began 32.4 miles south of Vancouver, British Columbia, at a point marked by the imposing concrete Peace Arch. Across the crest of the arch, on the Canadian side are the words: Brothers Dwelling Together in Unity; on the Washington side, Children of a Common Mother. The crossing is currently the beginning of Interstate 5, which the travel route follows for a short distance south from the border.

      Junction with Washington Highway 548 (Exit 276) (0.3 mile south of the Canadian Border on Interstate 5)

      The travel route departs from Interstate 5 at this exit, following Washington Highway 548 through Blaine.

      Blaine (0.3 miles south of Interstate 5 on WA 548 at H Street)

      During the Fraser River gold rush in 1858 a tent colony sprang up on the shores of the harbor, only to dwindle away within the year. The town, platted in 1884, was originally named Concord, but was renamed to honor James G. Blaine.

      One of the most prominent politicians of the nineteenth century, James G. Blaine was born in West Brownsville, Pennsylvania, in 1830. Blaine became one of the founders of the Republican Party as editor of the Kennebec Journal and later the Portland Advertiser. Blaine won a seat in the House of Representatives in 1862 and emerged as a rising star in the Republican Party leadership. The Magnetic Man became Speaker of the House after three terms (1869-1875). Upon losing the Republican Party presidential nomination to James A. Garfield, Blaine accepted the nomination for secretary of state in March 1881. After Garfield's assassination in September of 1881, Blaine served only three more months in the administration of Chester Arthur. Blaine finally received the Republican Party nomination for President in 1884 but lost to Grover Cleveland in a very close and bitterly contested election. After Cleveland's defeat at the hands of Benjamin Harrison, Blaine once again served as secretary of state (1889-1892), resigning short of his term to run again for the Republican Party's presidential nomination. Failing to unseat Harrison, Blaine declined physically and died in January of 1893 in Washington.i

      For a number of years fishing was a profitable industry of the area, and a salmon cannery, now closed, operated at Blaine. Smugglers and fish pirates, working out from the safety of Point Roberts, the American-owned tip of the Canadian peninsula 14 miles west of the town, levied tribute upon legitimate enterprise. Smuggling was brought to a close, however, in 1910, when the Federal Government installed the Point Roberts Light, the northernmost light along the coast of the United States.

      Blaine is the home to a large Icelandic population. Andrew Danielson (1879-1929), a native of Iceland, created a library here with a collection of 1,000 volumes in the Icelandic language.

      Junction with Washington Highway 548 South (1.8 miles south of Blaine on WA 548)

      The travel route continues straight at this intersection, following the Peace Portal Way (Old U.S. Highway 99).

      Junction with Birch Bay-Lynden Road (3.9 miles south of WA 548 on Peace Portal Way)

      Side Trip to Lynden and Sumas (Birch Bay-Lynden Road East, Washington Highway 539 North, Washington Highway 546 East, Washington Highway 9 North)

      Lynden (8.3 miles east on Birch Bay-Lynden Road, 0.7 mile north on WA 539, 1.5 miles east on Main Street)

      Lynden, a substantial, thriving distribution and market center of northern Whatcom County, was settled in 1869. Since 1900, when the first Hollanders arrived, Lynden has been predominantly Dutch.

      Sumas (8.3 miles east on Birch Bay-Lynden Road, 2 miles north on WA 539, 8 miles west on WA 546, 3.9 miles north on WA 9)

      In 1858, during the first of the periodic gold rushes, a number of prospectors with great difficulty made their way overland along an Indian trail through Sumas Valley to the wilderness of the upper Fraser River country.

      Side Trip to Blaine Air Force Station and Birch Bay (Birch Bay-Lynden Road West, Washington Highway 548 South, Alderson Road West, Gemini Street South)

      Site of Blaine Air Force Station (Lyons Camp Horizon Park) (2.7 miles west on Birch Bay-Lynden Road, 1.2 miles south on WA 548, 0.4 mile west on Alderson Road, 0.3 mile south on Gemini Street)

      This site, now part of the Lyons Camp Horizon Park, was operated as the Blaine Air Force Station from 1952 to 1979. The station operated radar installations as part of the Air Defense Command. Numerous structures are still present.

      Birch Bay (2.7 miles west on Birch Bay-Lynden Road, 1.2 miles south on WA 548, 0.8 mile west on Alderson Road)

      Captain George Vancouver named the bay in 1792 for the numerous black birches along its shore.

      Junction with Washington Street (7.5 miles south of Birch Bay-Lynden Road on Portal Way)

      The travel route turns west on Washington Street for one block to 2nd Avenue.

      Junction with 2nd Avenue (0.1 mile west of Portal Way on Washington Street)

      The travel route turns south on 2nd Avenue to central Ferndale at Main Street.

      Ferndale (0.3 mile south of Washington Street on 2nd Avenue at Main Street)

      The travel route turns south on Main Street here, continuing on the old route of U.S. Highway 99.

      Junction with Hovander Road (0.2 miles south of Ferndale on Main Street)

      Hovander Road now hosts the travel route south, following the railroad right-of-way.

      Junction with Nielsen Avenue (0.1 mile south of Main Street on Hovander Road)

      Point of Interest:

      Hovander Homestead Park (5299 Nielsen Avenue)

      This park is named after Swedish architect Hokan Hovander. He and his family of nine immigrated here in 1897. Shortly after purchasing this rich farmland he began designing the house and barn. Acquired by Whatcom County Parks in 1970, the park encompasses nearly 350 acres. The house was completed in 1903 and the 60-foot high barn, one of the largest wood barns in the County, was finished eight years later. The house is furnished

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