- Jeremiah Borst
Jeremiah (Jerry) Borst (1830-1890) [cite web
url=http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=25
title=Borst, Jeremiah (1830-1890)] was the first permanent white settler in the region and is considered to be the father of theSnoqualmie Valley community. [cite news
url=http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/getaways/107345_hikebar06.shtml
date=February 6, 2003
title=A brief history of Snoqualmie Falls
publisher=Seattle Post Intelligencer ]Born in 1830 and raised in Tioga County, New York, Borst traveled west by ox team in 1850 to seek gold in California. He found gold and used it to rent a farm near Sacramento. By 1858, he had made $8,000 from raising barley, and moved north to
Seattle .In the spring of 1858, Jeremiah Borst was on his way to Eastern Washington over the Cedar River trail, decided that the Valley was too good to pass up. He settled down in what was left of Fort Alden, a blockhouse that had been abandoned the previous year. Jeremiah raised hogs and apples and carried the goods for sale back to Seattle. He owned land in what is now Snoqualmie and North Bend. [cite web
url=http://www.snovalley.org/vl_history.html
title=A Short History of the Upper Snoqualmie Valley]In 1865, Borst accompanied Seattle pioneer Arthur Denny, William Perkins and a Snoqualmie Indian guide visited the pass to make a plan to widen the trail to a wagon road. He became one of the first non-Indians to travel over what is now
Snoqualmie Pass . In 1868, Borst took charge of building the first road through the pass. [cite web
url=http://www.alpental.com/history.htm
title=History of the Snoqualmie Pass area]In 1875, the first small steamboats began bringing supplies up the
Snoqualmie River . The Boham Brothers sold their claims to Jeremiah Borst. Borst hired the firm of Gordon & Dockery to harvest the timber. Sometime in the mid-1880's, Borst and his wife, Kate, moved to Fall City. He hired B.C. Majors to survey and plat the town of Fall City with the anticipation of the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern coming through the property. The plat was recorded in 1887 but, to Borst's disappointment, the railroad missed the town by a mile when the tracks finally arrived in 1889. [cite web
url=http://www.fallcity.org/history.html
title=Fall City History]ee also
*
North Bend, Washington
*Snoqualmie, Washington
*Fall City, Washington
*Snoqualmie River
*Will Taylor
*Cedar River Trail
*Iron Horse State Park References
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