About those Tokul tracks… Valley man remembers exploring historic railway

Published 9:55 am Monday, December 15, 2014

In an article about the railroad trestle over Tokul Creek (“Snoqualmie’s 100-foot Tokul Creek Trestle still draws travelers,” Oct. 17, 2014), which is now part of the John Wayne Trail, it was stated that the rail line extended from Moncton to Everett.

The Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad line only extended to Monroe. Milwaukee had trackage rights, granted by the Great Northern Railroad, from Monroe to Everett. Your article otherwise was very good. I used to play on the trestle many times, dropping boulders into the creek and climbing up and down. There was a railcar greaser box near the trestle, which of course applied grease to reduce friction for the sharp corner over the trestle. You could hear some of the wheels screech when the train went by.

There is a wide area, east of the trestle, where the Tokul train stop was located. A sign located there for many years read “Tokul.” The first big logging camp was located on the flat above the siding. It was called “Camp A”. When I was in school, all the kids from that area were called “Camp A kids”. I was a Highland Drive kid, born in the mill hospital a long time ago.

Dave Wilson

Snoqualmie