The Bucoda Road
By Curt Cunningham

Frost Prairie

The highway between Bucoda and Tenino runs through Frost Prairie. This prairie is situated southeast of Scatter creek and west of the Skookumchuck river. The prairie was named after Gilbert Frost who settled there in the 1850's. This was a part of the Coal Bank precinct. The first school in Tenino was built on Frost Prairie in the 1860's. The area is considered Upper Chehalis territory though there were no known villages there. The first settlers would arrive in the 1850's.

The first wagon road through Frost prairie came from Olympia in the early 1860's and then followed the Skookumchuck river southeast for about 5 miles passing the farms of Reuben Crowder, Gilbert Frost, Phillip Northcraft, Alexander S. Yantis, Gideon Miller, J. Prince, Christopher Thompson, Jeremiah Mabie, Joel Ticknor, and terminated at W. C. Hawk's Place. Hawk's was located where Salmon and Johnson creeks empty into the Skookumchuck at Johnson Creek Road. Today this old wagon road is known as Skookumchuck Road SE.

The first road between Centralia and Tenino through Bucoda would be constructed in 1869. Traveling north from Centralia, the road originally crossed the tracks at the south end of Bucoda and connected to Main Street. the road continued north through the downtown business center and then leaving town following the Skookumchuck on the east side of the railroad for about a mile and a half. Part of the old highway is now the driveway for the Riverbend Ranch as it meets 184th Ave. SE. Here the old road made a zigzag to connect with Crowder Road.

The old road continued north on Crowder Road for 1.25 miles when it crossed back over the tracks. This crossing is no longer there and was known as the Blumauer crossing. It was located just past Northcraft Road. After crossing over the tracks the old road follows the current road into Tenino.

Running out of Gas on the Bucoda Road

On April 4, 1912, a party from Portland, took a trip north to Olympia for a visit with Judge Israel. When the party reached Centralia, it was late in the afternoon and darkness was setting in. The driver took the shorter route that lead through Wabash and Bucoda. Not long after passing Bucoda, they ran out of gas. This is what he said;

"It was getting dark, with a moonless night coming on. We ran out of gasoline. At Bucoda my son had looked into the tank and reported a sufficient supply to see us through to Olympia, but his calculations apparently were wrong, for we stopped dead about five miles farther on, and the tank was empty. There wasn't even a farmhouse in sight. We were much concerned on account of Mrs. Winstock and the baby. We decided the only thing to do was to walk on ahead and try to find a farm."

"We hadn't passed any for three miles or so. We trudged on for a mile or so longer and the prospects didn't seem any better, they became worse, since we had been getting farther and farther away from the house we had passed back on the road. We kept going for nearly two miles, when be heard the welcome honk of a horn. In the fraternal spirit which all motorists have, the driver, when he learned our plight, proceeded to help us out of our difficulty. His own gasoline had run low, however, and if we took enough from his tank to start our machine, it would probably result in his car getting stuck."

"So I got into his car with Mrs. Winstock and the baby, and we drove back to the farmhouse we had passed. Dogs barked, and a pirate in the guise of a farmer came out with a lantern to greet us. From him we purchased, for $5.00 a piece of rope less than three yards long, and with this we went back and took my Chalmers in tow, pulling it back to Bucoda, where we got gasoline and bade our friend goodbye. We then started for Olympia and reached Judge Israel's home little before midnight."

"It was a long time before any of us forgot that pitch dark walk through the Washington woods, and it will be still longer before I forget the bargain that farmer drove for his eight cents worth of rope. There were pleasant experiences on that trip, however, particularly the delightful, rolling prairie which we drove over for about 15 miles just before reaching Tacoma. Judge Israel and his family joined us there for a run to Seattle. Our trip home was uneventful, but pleasant except for the same bad stretch of road. This poor excuse for a public highway certainly needs attention from the good roads workers. It is a disgrace to the Northwest."

The Railroad Crossings

The 2 railroad crossings at Bucoda were some of the most dangerous crossings in Thurston county. In 1911 the railroad laid new double tracks between Vancouver and Tacoma. This made the old Blumauer crossing very dangerous as trains now began to speed down the tracks from both directions.

On January 25, 1916, Isey Goodman was his driving from Chehalis to Tacoma in their automobile, when they collided with a train at the old Blumauer crossing. When Isey attempted to cross the double track between Tenino and Bucoda, a passenger train was obscured from view as a freight train was going in the opposite direction on the other track. The driver attempted to cross the tracks but ran his machine into the passing freight train. They Goodman family who were from Chehalis, narrowly escaped death. Nobody was seriously hurt, though the car was a total loss.

Another accident occurred at the old Blumauer crossing in January of 1918, when William G. Churchill, who was an employee of the St. John & Titus garage, in Tenino, was instantly killed when he was driving one of the company's service cars. Churchill was struck at the crossing by northbound Northern Pacific passenger train No. 5921. The truck was demolished. Churchill was only 19 years old.

The Bucoda Road was once a candidate for the Pacific Highway in 1913, but it lost out to Grand Mound. The 2 dangerous crossings were the main reason why the highway department chose the Grand Mound route instead of the Bucoda Road. In the 1930's, the new highway was being constructed through Bucoda and the new road remained west of the tracks eliminating the dangerous crossings. To get into Bucoda, the tracks still have to be crossed.

The Wayside

At the south end of Tenino is a railroad underpass, and today there is a little wayside park where you can stop and have lunch. You can watch the trains go by while eating a sandwich. There is a section of the old Bucoda Road on the east side of the wayside behind the trees next to the tracks.