Naches Pass Monument
Greenwater, Washington
Oregon Trail Monument
The first wagon train of settlers to travel over Naches Pass was in the autumn of 1853, the same year that
Washington Territory was established.
The stone tablet inset into the left front side of the monument is engraved with the following information:
“Marker erected in memory of pioneers who came
over the Naches Branch of the Oregon Trail. Financed by students of Yale College, Pierce County Pioneer
Society and other friends. Sponsored by Washington State Historical Society, 1941.”
The stone tablet inset into the right front side of the monument is engraved with the following information:
“Names of Pioneer Families that came over the
Naches Pass 1853. Aiken, Baker, Bell, Biles, Bowen, Bowers, Brooks, Brunett, Byles, Clinton, Davis, Day,
Downey, Finch, Fitch, Frazier, Gant, Gordon, Greenman, Guess, Hampton, Hill, Himes, Judson, Kincaid,
Lane, Light, Longmire, McCollough, Melville, Mitchell, Mueller, Neilson, Ogle, Porter, Risdon, Sargent, West,
Woodward, Woolery, Wright, Young.”
The round bronze plaque by James Earle Fraser and Laura Gardin Fraser, inset into the right front side of
the monument, depicts a covered wagon drawn by a pair of oxen heading westward into a setting sun over
the caption “Oregon Trail Monument.”
The monument is located in Greenwater, Washington, along the east side of SR 410, just south of the bridge
over the Greenwater River. The Washington State Historical Society built a number of these pyramidal
shaped stone historical monuments around Pierce County. The monuments were built at least from the mid
1920s to at least the early 1940s. A few other of these monuments still exist in Pierce County, marking
various historic events and places.
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