North Cascades

EARLY IMPRESSIONS: EURO-AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS AND SURVEYS

SURVEYS

Austin/Lyle Party (1893)

In 1893 a Cascade State Road Commission was created, and the State legislature appropriated $20,000 toward the goal of the:

Establishment of a state road through the Cascade Mountains via a pass north of Mt. Baker, to connect eastern and western Washington, (commencing) . . . where Glacier Creek empties into the North Fork of the Nooksack, and running thence by the best practical route via pass north of Mt. Baker to a point on the Columbia River opposite the town of Marcus, Stevens County. [112]

Official cruising began that same year. Under the leadership of Banning Austin and R.M. Lyle, a small party of men set out from Whatcom (Bellingham today) to reconnoiter the west end of the proposed wagon road. Despite the dubious nature and inaccuracies of Austin's report, the party did locate two major passes: the pass over the divide that links Mt. Baker and Mt. Shuksan (named Austin Pass today after the surveyor); and another, named Hannegan Pass, located west of the Chilliwack River drainage and commemorating the chairman of the road commission. [113]

Austin discovered and recorded what appeared to be a feasible route over the northern Cascade range. His route led him to the Chilliwack River valley and Whatcom Pass, less than 20 miles from the Skagit River. Nevertheless, the route was shunned by the Commission and no road was ever constructed over Hannegan Pass to the Skagit River and beyond to the eastern portion of the state.