184 
GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES. 
After a long climb the railway reaches Martin, the last station on the 
east side of the range, and a short distance beyond turns sharply to 
the left and faces the east portal of the Stampede 
Martin. tunnel. At this point there are visible on the right 
Plevation2,781feet. remnants of the old line, which wound up to the 
St. Paul 1,823 miles, 
top of the mountain before the tunnel was built. 
The Stampede tunnel is nearly 2 miles long. So many trains pass 
through it that great difficulty has been experienced in keeping it 
free from smoke and gas, but now an enormous fan has been installed 
at the west end, in a building which the westbound traveler will see 
on his right as the train emerges from the tunnel. It is expected that 
this fan will free the tunnel of smoke and gas in a very short time. 
Stampede Pass has an elevation above sea level of about 3,600 feet, 
but the long tunnel enables the railway to cross the range at a much 
lower level. In order to maintain a regular grade 
down the west side of the range, the track winds in 
and out and around spurs in a most confusing man- 
ner to one who is endeavoring to keep directions or to 
see the mountains. From Stampede two lines of rails are visible far 
below on the left, which seem to belong to another road, but later it 
appears that they are parts of a large loop which the Northern Pacific 
4s forced to make in order to get down the mountain side. 
The mountain slopes are generally smooth and round, and the thick 
mantle of trees and brush covers all except here and there a lava cliff 
or an old scar that marks the passage of some forest fire.’ The out- 
look is confined generally to the valley of Green River, which the 
railway descends, but at one place, if the weather is favorable, a 
fleeting glimpse may be caught of the towering white cone of Mount 
Stampede, 
Elevation 2,852 feet. 
St. Paul 1,826 miles. 
‘The traveler from the train can get 
only a very imperfect idea of the charac- 
ter of the country, for he is looking at it 
from a position below the level of the 
mountain tops and hence can not see its 
upper surface. Although it is not possi- 
ble to see much of the Cascade Range, a 
study of the contours on sheets 26 and 27 
. 
same elevation, ing from 4,000 to 
6,000 feet above sea level. It will show 
also that the range is not sharp crested, 
ike those in the vicinity of Helena and 
Butte, buta broad plat hich has bee 
so cut into by the streams that its origi- 
er Se BS SG REN Shae ae Rages GE ERS ee 
Sheet 26 also shows the location, about 
12 miles south of the Stampede tunnel, of 
Naches Pass (altitude 4,923 feet) and the 
old Naches trail, which was the first road 
to be opened across the Cascade Range 
north of Columbia River. The early ex- 
plorers learned of this route from the In- 
dians and utilized it in their wanderings 
around the headwaters of Yakima River. 
It was not, however, used to any great 
extent until the rush of homeseekers 
about 1850 made it desirable to find a 
shorter route to the Puget Sound ports 
than that by way of Fort Vancouver, on 
Columbia River. Accordingly in 1853 
wagons, though probably a pretty rough 
road, and many settlers found their way — 
to the Sound by this route. 
