Snoqualmie Pass was historically used by the indigenous inhabitants of the Puget Sound and Columbia Plateau regions for trade and socializing in the summertime, as it was the lowest pass in the Cascades. The early trails from the pass were used by fur traders and settlers beginning in the 1850s, as it was the only route equipped to handle wagons and livestock. Snoqualmie Pass was later chosen for the region's first major cross-mountain road in the 1860s, having beaten the federal government's favored route over Naches Pass, and a rough wagon road was completed in October 1867 by a group of Seattle businessmen.