Seattle's location, harbor, and commercial development made it a logical place for the Great Northern's terminus, and Hill had the good sense to engage the persuasive and influential Thomas Burke as his local agent. Having previously achieved the creation of Railroad Avenue, Burke had little difficulty persuading the city council -- over the vociferous objections of the Northern Pacific -- to give the Great Northern a 60-foot right-of-way down the middle of the wood-planked roadway.

At the foot of Columbia Street

The site of Olympia has been home to Lushootseed-speaking peoples for thousands of years, including Squaxin, Nisqually, Puyallup, Chehalis, Suquamish, and Duwamish. The first recorded visit by Europeans was in 1792 when Peter Puget and a crew from the British Vancouver Expedition charted the site. In 1846, Edmund Sylvester and Levi Smith jointly claimed the land that now comprises downtown Olympia. In 1851, the U.S. Congress established the Customs District of Puget Sound for Washington Territory and Olympia became the home of the customs house.

First People of the Skykomish Valley, called the Skykomish, the extended group of families for whom the river was named. The Treaty of Point Elliot, signed in January 1855 at Mukilteo, created a single reservation at Tulalip (northwest of Everett) for the indigenous peoples living along the Snohomish, Skykomish, and Snoqualmie rivers. That was the beginning of the end for the Skykomish People for there are no people left who identify themselves as purely Skykomish. Seven village sites existed between present-day Monroe and Index at the time of white contact in the 1850s.

Mrs. Pond, Clara, Clemens and Major Pond. Crossing the Rockies. The Great Northern. August 9.
Mark Twain Archive, Elmira College courtesy of Kevin Mac Donnell, Austin, Texas.

Major Pond either was mistaken about the location, "crossing the Rockies", or he was unaware that these were the Cascades they were crossing. Twain remarked in his journal that they had stopped a short distance from Wellington and threw rocks down the precipice. Embro is the most likely spot for this.