A Little High Point History

What’s so “high” about High Point? Many have wondered.

Well, you must think about travelling to High Point from Issaquah a hundred years ago by rail. The tracks left Issaquah in the vicinity of the Sunset on-ramp to I90 (Exit 18) at an elevation of about 200 feet. It’s a steady climb from there to High Point (Exit 20) at 450 feet – about a 2% grade. It then flattens between High Point and Preston before heading downhill into the Raging River valley between Preston and Fall City. So, if you were on the train heading east out of town, you would have noticed that the locomotive was working hard on the climb, and then when the grade flattened out, the train picked up speed and you would say to yourself – “Oh, we must have made it to the high point.” So there you go – “High Point.” (Even though it’s in the valley floor.)

And here is another question many have pondered: “Why does High Point even have a name – it’s not even a wide spot in the road?” True enough today, but a hundred years ago it was a bustling little town with a shingle mill, sawmill, hotel, store, church, school, and many houses. What happened? In short, two things happened: depletion of trees and our insatiable appetite for roads. The High Point Mill Company cut the last tree it had the rights to cut on Tiger Mountain in 1928. The mill closed in 1929, but later reopened under new ownership, milling logs brought from elsewhere. So, the mill lingered on, but the heyday was over. Then, in 1957 the widening of Highway 10 necessitated the complete removal of the mill. The valley floor is narrow in that vicinity and a wide, four-lane road consumed most of it. The hotel survived and was converted to the Sparkling Brook service station. It, too, had to go when Highway 10 was replaced by Interstate 90 around 1975.

Today, the only non-residential building that remains from the mill era is the old schoolhouse, now used as a church. It was built in 1911 as a one-room schoolhouse. A second classroom was added as the community grew. With the depletion of the timber, the growth stopped, and then reversed. By the mid-1930s only one classroom was needed again. The High Point Mission Church at that point in time was looking for a new meeting place as they had been using a building owned by the mill which now was needed for other purposes. And so the tenure of the church in the school house began, using the room no longer needed by the school. In 1940 the High Point School District merged with the Issaquah School District, and the school was closed. The church bought the building, and it has been used for church purposes ever since (now known as the I-90 Community Church).

The old High Point schoolhouse, now a church. The bell tower, typical of schoolhouses of the day, remains.

The mill has disappeared, but what about the remnants of the logging operation on the slopes of Tiger Mountain? Is there anything left to be seen? Yes - some easy to see and some more subtle. The High Point Trail follows the route of a logging tram that was used to bring the logs down the mountain from the West Tiger Railroad grade, and numerous artifacts can be found along the trail. And the West Tiger Railroad grade is itself a logging artifact as its sole purpose was the transport of logs from elsewhere on West Tiger Mountain to the intersection with the logging tram (known as the “Wooden Pacific”) that brought the logs down to the mill. That intersection is known as “Fred’s Corner.”

Fred’s Corner was a ‘T’ intersection where the Tiger Mountain Trail (TMT) rose to intersect the West Tiger Railroad Grade Trail. I say “was” because a reroute of the TMT in 2018 eliminated the intersection at that particular point. The TMT intersection was moved a bit eastward. Fred’s Corner is still marked with a diminutive sign on a maple tree, a useful waypoint on the TMT.

The location is the namesake of Fred Zeitler, a stalwart of the club during the construction of the TMT and for decades hence, a trail builder, hike leader and board member.

The signage looks a bit odd today with the trail sign facing downhill toward the now-defunct trail, but still, it provides useful guidance. Here is a view of the signage looking eastward with the West Tiger RR Grade/TMT in the background.

Fred’s Corner on the Tiger Mountain Trail/West Tiger RR Grade.

If you could turn back the hands of time to 100 years ago, you would see a bustling logging operation of the High Point Mill Company. This particular spot marks the convergence of three key elements of the operation: a steam-driven railroad to convey logs to this point; a tram to lower the logs to the mill in the valley below; and a logging camp to house the workers. The following photo captures all that, and more:

Logging Camp of the High Point Mill Company, circa 1926 (University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections, C.Kinsey-1495)

If you would like to learn more, and you are reading this before May 14, you might enjoy the logging history hike we have on the schedule for Saturday, May 14, in which we will visit this site (and others) to discuss the logging operations of the High Point Mill Company. Here is a link to the event:

https://www.issaquahalps.org/schedule/2022/3/31/high-point-logging-history-hike