By Marianne Lincoln

The Brookdale Golf Course at 17th aka Chesney Road and Brookdale Road is now a housing development called Trail’s End. That trail is called the Naches Trail and is the northernmost branch of the Oregon Trail that brought settlers across the newest territories of the United States in the 1800’s. Most notably, the Longmire Wagon Train is famous for attempting to cross the Cascades in 1853, but the road had not been completed. It was October, they could not stay in the Cascades. To this day, nearby Chinook Pass closes in the winter.

The Naches Trail brought several more wagon trains with less historical note. There are markers 10 miles into the 70 Road a mile above Greenwater that show where the Longmire Train stopped at Government Meadow and where they had to lower the wagons over the hill on leather ropes from cattle they butchered and tanned to make the rope on site.

Now the developers have released a little history of the Mahon Donation Land Claim where some wagon ruts have been preserved. They created a small park that they only expect local people to visit, but the history looms large, and they might be mistaken about visitor interest.

I am attaching the PDF report with the history and the proposed signage for the site. This is the Parkland Spanaway claim to their settlement past. Share this with your children, so they know too. Unincorporated south Pierce County is older and actually has more history than Tacoma and Puyallup. There is also a Naches Trail Marker on 70th Avenue just north of 160th Street.