In the 1860s small logging camps sprung up along the Tolt and Snoqualmie rivers, giving birth to an industry that would prosper for another 75 years. Oxen were used for the first logging operations. The logs would be dragged out of the woods on skids to the river. The earliest loggers cut down only the choicest timber, convenient to the market or to water. During the early 1870s lumber technology went from hand sawing to small water-powered sawmills. Steam donkeys were commonly used for Continue reading

In the early days of settlement the Snoqualmie River served Tolt’s major transportation needs. Land travel in King County’s dense forested terrain remained difficult and slow for a long time. The few roads built by settlers followed the contours of the land, hugged the ridges, had a very steep grade and wound around big trees, rather than moving them. The early roads, built by settlers, were often constructed as puncheon roads. These were slabs of cedar like railroad ties layed across long Continue reading

The town’s next phase of prosperity came with the arrival of the railroads, a lifeline for import and export of goods and services as well as mail and passengers. In 1910 the Great Northern Railway built a branch line from Monroe to Tolt. The Snoqualmie Valley line was sold to the Milwaukee Railroad in 1917. The Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad Co. build their branch line from Cedar Falls north to Monroe along the east side of the Snoqualmie River. The Milwaukee, as it was known, Continue reading

Carnation Historical Context, by Christine Savage Palmer (King County Office of Cultural Resources, 1995) A History of Tolt-Carnation a Town Remembered, Second Edition, by Isabel Jones (Tolt Historical Society, 1997) Least We Forget, Article by Vern Pickering (1972) Continue reading