A Photographic History of the Great Northern Railway and the Towns of Highway Two
by Buddie Williams

Summary

Imagine for a moment that the only way over Stevens Pass is by railroad: through tunnels and treacherous switchbacks, through snowstorms in winter or dangerous heat in summer. Imagine that the railroad is the latest in modern transportation. Depending on the weather, it may take days to travel from Everett to Wenatchee.

Buddie Williams imagined, and recaptured the past, along with one hundred years of change, through the beautiful photographs that fill this book. Important towns along Highway 2 are featured. Before Highway 2 was built, this was the route of what was once the Great Northern, and is now the Burlington Northern Santa Fe.

Some once-booming towns now exist only as abandoned bridges, tunnels, or trails. Other places, such as the popular Bavarian-themed Leavenworth, have adapted and changed. Almost all of these towns came into being because of the Great Northern Railroad - the highway of steel.

Buddie Williams has lived in many of the towns featured in this book, and knows the rest first hand. He has dived into the pool below Wallace Falls, climbed Haybrook Lookout, waded through floods, ridden the Mukilteo Ferry, browsed Snohomish antique stores, and gentled horses at Riverside Ranch near Sultan.

"I hope you will enjoy looking at the many photographs and reading [the book] as much as I enjoyed putting it together." — Buddie Williams

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