U.S. Route 12 in Washington - History

History

The Washington State Legislature created the State Highway Board in 1905 and appropriated funds to construct—but not maintain—twelve highways in sparsely settled areas of the state. Main highways in more populated areas would continue to be entirely under county control, though sometimes built with 50% state aid. Six of these highways were east-west crossings of the Cascades, including one in the corridor currently served by U.S. Route 12—State Road 5, the Cowlitz Pass State Road, climbing east from a point near Salkum via the Cowlitz River, over Cowlitz Pass, and down towards Yakima. A 1907 amendment renamed State Road 5 the Cowlitz-Natches Road, moved the Cascade crossing north to Carlton Pass, and defined the portion east of the pass to follow the Bumping River and Naches River to a point near Naches. East of the mouth of the American River, this replaced part of State Road 1 (North Yakima and Natches State Road), which had been defined in 1897 to cross the Cascades north of Chinook Pass and included in the 1905 appropriations.

Under a 1909 law, the State Highway Board surveyed a connected network of proposed state roads. Included was a westerly extension of SR 5 via Chehalis to South Bend and Aberdeen and an easterly extension to Pullman. A route from Yakima southeast and east via the Tri-Cities to Idaho was also surveyed, mostly as an extension of State Road 8 (Columbia River Road). The legislature added most of these routes to the state highway system in 1913, when they formed a two-tiered system of primary and secondary roads. Primary roads were completely controlled by the state, including maintenance, and received only names, while secondary roads kept their numbers and county maintenance. The National Park Highway replaced State Road 5 west of Riffe, and extended as surveyed to and beyond South Bend, and the McClellan Pass Highway replaced State Road 1 and continued via State Road 5 to Yakima. The majority of the route from Yakima via Connell to Pullman was not added at that time; it was finally taken over in 1937 as Secondary State Highways 11A and 11B. Only the route via the Tri-Cities, forming part of the Inland Empire Highway, continued from Yakima to Idaho. East of Pomeroy, the original survey had curved south, using State Road 16 to near the Oregon state line; this was bypassed by the 1913 designation, which instead continued directly east to Clarkston. Unlike the earlier state roads, these primary roads mostly followed existing passable county roads. The incomplete roadway between Riffe and the American River remained as part of secondary State Road 5, and the legislature designated the surveyed route from the National Park Highway near Raymond north to Aberdeen as secondary State Road 20 in 1915.

A 1923 restructuring of the system re-assigned numbers to almost all the primary state highways. State Road 5 became a primary route and was greatly expanded, taking over the entire McClellan Pass Highway and the National Park Highway east of the Pacific Highway. The former secondary State Road 5 was realigned starting from near Packwood, heading north instead of east, alongside the Ohanapecosh River to the old McClellan Pass Highway at Cayuse Pass, west of the summit of the Cascades. The new State Road 5, named the National Park Highway System, now included four roads in the vicinity of Mount Rainier National Park, but as the road across the Cascades at Chinook Pass was not yet built, these roads did not connect with each other. Also included in this numbering was the designation of the Inland Empire Highway, including Yakima to Clarkston, as State Road 3. In 1925, a spur was added to State Road 9—the Olympic Highway, looping around the Olympic Peninsula—connecting Elma to the Pacific Highway at Grand Mound, and creating a shortcut between the Cowlitz River route and Aberdeen. The Olympic Highway from Elma west to Aberdeen had been added to the state highway system in 1905 west of and 1913 east of Montesano.

As part of the U.S. Highway system laid out in 1925 and finalized in late 1926, U.S. Route 410 connected Aberdeen with Clarkston, following the Olympic Highway (State Road 9) to Olympia, the Pacific Highway (State Road 1)—concurrent with US 99—to Tacoma, the National Park Highway System (State Road 5) to Yakima, and the Inland Empire Highway (State Road 3) to Clarkston. This differed from present US 12 between Elma and Naches in that it followed the route through Olympia and Tacoma rather than along the Cowlitz River. However, despite being part of the state highway system since 1897, US 410's crossing of the Cascades, the first between the Columbia River Gorge and Snoqualmie Pass, was not opened to traffic until 1931. A shortcut from near Packwood east across White Pass to Naches, very close to the original plan for the east half of State Road 5, was added to the state highway system in 1931 as another branch of the highway. The roadway between Packwood and Cayuse Pass, added to the state highway system on a different alignment in 1905, was finally completed in 1940, and the White Pass Highway was dedicated on August 12, 1951, opening a shortcut between southwest Washington and Yakima.

When the U.S. Highways were first established in 1926, US 12 ended in Miles City, Montana, and most of US 12's current routing in Washington was followed by US 410. U.S. Route 12 was extended westward in stages; an extension to Lewiston, Idaho, was approved on June 19, 1962. At various times in the early 1960s, the states of Idaho, Washington, and Oregon submitted plans for further westward extension to the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) to either Vancouver, Washington or Boardman, Oregon—or, a plan submitted in 1963 had the highway going only as far as Pasco—but all of these plans were rejected. Washington introduced a new system of sign route numbers in 1964. While US 410 was still signed as such, present US 12 became State Route 8 between US 410 at Elma and US 99/I-5 at Grand Mound and State Route 14 between US 99/I-5 at Chehalis and US 410 at Naches. The extension of US 12 to Aberdeen was finally approved on June 20, 1967, with US 12 taking over much of US 410's former routing. However, where US 410 had crossed the Cascades at Chinook Pass, US 12 used the all-weather White Pass, replacing SR 8 and SR 14. Signs were changed in late December 1967, and the bypassed segments of US 410 became a new SR 8 between Elma and Olympia, and SR 410 between Tacoma and Naches.