Every time I drive up Canyon Road I wonder what it took to carve a road out of side of a rock wall. And how hard would that be back in 1920 when the road was built?
It took a lot of strong men, hard work, what would today be considered extremely primitive machinery — and explosives.
Here are shots (courtesy of Pat Van Eaton) of the making of Canyon Road.






7 responses to “Creating Canyon Road – Pictoral (first set)”
[…] lucky that during the building of the Canyon Road in 1920, someone was up there taking a lot of photos. This second set of photos shows the […]
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[…] The paving of Mountain Road (known now as Highway 7). It was paved except through the Nisqually Canyon and Ashford celebrated with a dance in […]
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[…] he’s featured in many of the pictures documenting the explosives used in the building of the Canyon Road. In reality, I have no idea what his name was, and if anyone does know who this scruffy gentleman […]
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[…] went across the Nisqually Canyon near the Tacoma Power pipeline There were homesteaders on the south side of the canyon that used […]
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[…] For more pictures of the building, click HERE. […]
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[…] are a number of pictures of the crews toiling away (and blowing away) on the site and here are a few […]
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[…] Thank goodness for postcards. They give us true glimpse into the past. Here is a hand-colored postcard sent in 1911, from Montana to Wisconsin, but depicting the Nisqually Canyon. […]
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