Stevens Pass (elevation ) is a
mountain pass
A mountain pass is a navigable route through a mountain range or over a ridge. Since many of the world's mountain ranges have presented formidable barriers to travel, passes have played a key role in trade, war, and both Human migration, human a ...
through the
Cascade Mountains
The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, ...
located at the border of
King County and
Chelan County in
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
.
U.S. Route 2
U.S. Route 2 or U.S. Highway 2 (US 2) is an east–west United States Numbered Highways, U.S. Highway spanning across the northern continental United States. US 2 consists of two segments connected by various roadways in southern ...
travels over the pass, reaching a maximum elevation of . The
Pacific Crest Trail
The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), officially designated as the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail, is a long-distance hiking and equestrian trail closely aligned with the highest portion of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada mountain ranges, which lie ...
crosses the highway at Stevens Pass.
The
BNSF Railway
BNSF Railway is one of the largest freight railroads in North America. One of seven North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 35,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and nearly 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that ...
's
Cascade Tunnel
The Cascade Tunnel refers to two railroad tunnels (original and its replacement) in the northwest United States, east of the Seattle metropolitan area in the Cascade Range of Washington, at Stevens Pass. It is approximately east of Everett, wit ...
lies below the pass summit.
The pass is near
Stevens Pass Ski Area, which is on
Cowboy Mountain
Cowboy Mountain is a 5,853-foot-elevation (1,784 meter) mountain summit located in northeast King County of Washington state.
It is situated at Stevens Pass, on land managed by Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. This mountain is best kn ...
and Big Chief Mountain.
History
Stevens Pass is named after
John Frank Stevens
John Frank Stevens (April 25, 1853 – June 2, 1943) was an American civil engineer who built the Great Northern Railway in the United States and was chief engineer on the Panama Canal between 1905 and 1907.
Biography
Stevens was born in ...
, the first non-indigenous person to discover it.
Native Americans familiar with the area knew of the pass, although very little is known about Native American routes through the mountains. Hubert C. Ward, exploring the area for the
Northern Pacific Railway
The Northern Pacific Railway was a transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern tier of the western United States, from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest. It was approved by Congress in 1864 and given nearly of land grants, whic ...
in 1872, heard from some Native Americans that there was a low pass at the head of Nason Creek, a tributary of the Wenatchee River, which led to one of the sources of the Skykomish River. Albert Bowman Rogers of the
Great Northern Railway, learned from Native Americans in 1887 that the Skykomish River and Nason Creek had sources close to one another but that neither natives nor whites visited the Nason Creek area. Neither Ward nor Rogers had time to fully explore the area.
In 1890, Stevens conducted a thorough survey for the Great Northern, located the pass, and determined it to be the best suited for a railway crossing of the
North Cascades
The North Cascades are a section of the Cascade Range of western North America. They span the border between the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U.S. state of Washington and are officially named in the U.S. and Canada as the Cascad ...
. He wrote that there was no indication that the pass was used — there was no sign of any trails,
blazes, campsites, or old campfires, for at least in either direction and that the area was thickly forested and covered with almost impenetrable brush. Stevens wrote, "the region promised nothing to the prospector, while Indians and Whites crossing the mountains used either
Snoqualmie on the south or the
Indian Pass on the north."
Stevens had also charted
Marias Pass
Marias Pass (elevation ) is a mountain pass in the Rocky Mountains in the western US state of Montana. Lying on the southern border of
Glacier National Park, it is traversed by US Highway 2 and by the BNSF Hi-Line Subdivision.
The pass is the ...
in northwestern
Montana
Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...
, on the
Continental Divide
A continental divide is a drainage divide on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into one ocean or sea, and the basin on the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea, or else is endorheic, not ...
near
Glacier National Park.
Notable avalanches
On February 23, 1910, the two
Great Northern Railway trains, the "
Seattle Express
Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...
" local passenger train No. 25 and
Fast Mail train No. 27, were stalled on the tracks at the Cascade Tunnel Station on Stevens Pass because of a heavy snow storm and avalanches. Then on March 1, six days later, another avalanche pushed both trains down into the
Tye River
The Tye River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 tributary of the James River in central Virginia in the United States. Originating on the eastern slope ...
Valley, thus burying the train cars in snow and debris. The
Wellington Disaster killed ninety-six people – thirty-five passengers and sixty-one railroad employees – which made the Wellington avalanche one of the worst
train disasters in United States history.
Over a century later, an avalanche occurred on February 19, 2012 near Tunnel Creek Canyon Road, killing three of four experienced backcountry skiers, including the
Stevens Pass Ski Area's marketing director; professional skier
Elyse Saugstad
Elyse Saugstad is an American professional free skier. She was the 2008 Freeride World Champion. Saugstad gained additional notoriety after surviving the 2012 Tunnel Creek avalanche
The 2012 Tunnel Creek avalanche occurred in the northwest Un ...
, who was wearing an
avalanche airbag backpack, survived after tumbling down for more than 2,000 feet (600 m).
Climate
Stevens Pass experiences a maritime-influenced alpine
subarctic climate
The subarctic climate (also called subpolar climate, or boreal climate) is a climate with long, cold (often very cold) winters, and short, warm to cool summers. It is found on large landmasses, often away from the moderating effects of an ocean, ge ...
(
Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer
* Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan
* Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...
''Dsc''), with short, mild, dry summers and extremely heavy winter snowfall.
The following chart includes climate data from October 26, 1950 to April 30, 1994.
References
External links
Stevens Pass road conditionsfrom
Washington State Department of Transportation
The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT or WashDOT, both ) is a governmental agency that constructs, maintains, and regulates the use of transportation infrastructure in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. Establi ...
Stevens Pass ski areaofficial site
{{Coord, 47, 44.7, N, 121, 5.6, W, type:pass, display=title
Mountain passes of Chelan County, Washington
Transportation in King County, Washington
Landforms of King County, Washington
Mountain passes of Washington (state)
Rail mountain passes of the United States
Mountain passes of the North Cascades
Transportation in Chelan County, Washington