To a great extent, the town of Thorp owes its existence to the arrival of the Northern Pacific Railroad. While some of the initial settlement was undoubtedly influenced by the convergence of wagon trails which would eventually cross Snoqualmie Pass, it was the location of the Cascade spur that ultimately determined the location of the town. In 1887, the Northern Pacific Railroad reached the town of Thorp, when the railroad's management built a sidetrack out one mile west of the current town site and named it after the intrepid pioneer F. M. Thorp and his family.