Jeremiah Borst

Who was Jeremiah Borst?

Jeremiah Borst was the first permanent white settler in the region and is considered to be the father of the Snoqualmie Valley community.

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.

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.

In 1875, the first small steamboats began bringing supplies up the Snoqualmie River.