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American Road Magazine
Celebrating our two-lane highways of yesteryear…And the joys of driving them today!

Dusty Rustyford

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Posts posted by Dusty Rustyford

  1. I've enjoyed reading all of the interesting new information. Those strip maps are really great! Sometime when you’re exploring in eastern Washington be sure to check out the Kittitas County Museum in Ellensburg. They have a very early steam automobile which actually belonged to Henry Ford. The last time I was there, on display by Henry's old car was an incredible old panoramic photograph of the dedication of the Sunset Highway at Snoqualmie Pass.

     

  2. There are quite a few scanned PDF copies of the Automobile Blue Book that can be downloaded for free from http://books.google.com/ You can just do a search in quotes for "Automobile Blue Book" and then be sure to click on the "More editions" link to bring them all up. If you click on the main link rather than the Full View link you'll find the download link on the top right corner of the page. They're each about 40MB - 60MB downloads, but they're free.

  3. Hi Dusty!!

     

    Right!!! and welcome back!

     

    There is even an old painted Yellowstone Trail sign on a rock along the road. Did you take the old road? It is worth the trip.

     

    Keep the Show on the Road!

     

     

    Yes! I've traveled that road many times. I noticed the arrow painted on the rock cut there over 20 years ago, but at that time I didn't know the significance. Unfortunately the historic old bridge near that location has now been replaced with a new one.

  4. That is the answer! The Olympic Hotel. You must have a significant knowledge of Seattle history to know that. I certainly didn’t, and it explains the starting point Hobbs selected. It isn’t a coincidence that the Olympic is described as “new and magnificent.” Is the Washington Hotel anywhere nearby? It follows the Olympic in the description.

     

    The Hobbs Guides are not widely recognized, but they are valuable for their descriptions of commercial sites along the old roads, whereas the Automobile Blue Books are better with directions.

     

    Thanks!

     

    Keep the Show on the Road!

    I think the Washington Hotel was an even earlier large, grand, hotel, somewhere near that same vicinity. It seems like I remember seeing photographs of the building in Seattle history books, and as I remember, I think it was about fifteen stories tall and had a prominent sign on top. Unfortunately, I don’t remember any of the history about the building. Also, thank you very much for the information about the technique that you used to enhance the digital images that you posted.

  5. Keep the Show on the Road,

     

    I’m interested in history in general, but I’m particularly interested in old transportation routes. I know about the brick section of road in Shoreline, Washington that you mentioned. That section of brick road, dating from 1913, is the last remaining brick surfacing of what was the North Trunk Road, the first paved highway through northwest King County. It’s now named Ronald Place North and it is now being torn up for urban redevelopment. Within the last couple of years a section of the old brick road was torn up to construct another chain drug store and the rest of the road will undoubtedly be torn up for other short sighted urban redevelopment. Getting back to the Yellowstone Trail, I’ve followed parts of that old route across eastern Washington and have noticed yellow paint showing through white paint on old cylindrical concrete posts with cable guard rails. I’ve also noticed old weathered yellow paint along the Yellowstone Trail route on the ends of old concrete bridge railings. I’m wondering if the yellow paint is unique to designate the Yellowstone Trail route or if the yellow paint was simply the color that was used at one time in Washington State to paint guard rail posts and the ends of bridge railings. Lastly, I would also like to know your secrete for creating the vibrant colored images that you have posted.

     

    Dusty Rustyford

  6. Thank you very much for the information! The route from Pioneer Square probably makes more sense then from the intersection of Madison Street and Railroad Avenue, which though more direct, it would have been much steeper. There is still an original red brick paved segment of the Yellowstone Trail route over by Redmond, Washington (see: http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=2363 ).

  7. Excellent photos! Does anyone know where the official western end of the Yellowstone Trail automobile route was located in Seattle? I think it was probably located at the intersection of Madison Street and Railroad Avenue, but I’ve never seen any route information that gives that much detail. Madison Street runs across Seattle from the old Madison Park ferry landing, on Lake Washington, where the ferry from Kirkland used to land, directly to the Seattle waterfront on Puget Sound. Railroad Avenue used to run along the Seattle waterfront, about where the Alaskan Way viaduct is now located.

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