Landmarks: Stone monuments mark road Capt. John Mullan built
The monuments have been there for a long time, but they’re hardly ever noticed any more – which is too bad, considering the impact on the region of the person they honor, not to mention all the hoopla that surrounded creation of the monuments themselves.
Capt. John Mullan was an Army engineer who, between 1858 and 1862, built a wagon road between the fort at Walla Walla and Fort Baker in Montana, the first wagon road to cross the Rockies to the Inland Northwest. The 642-mile road was designed to support the westward expansion of settlers.
In the Spokane area, the road crossed the Spokane River and moved southwesterly through the Edgecliff area.
Though the road never quite fulfilled its grand mission, according to historians, due in large part to heavy snows, swampy conditions and frequent bridge washouts, it was estimated that by 1866, some 20,000 people had traveled the road.
Mullan’s name graces modern-day roads and schools in this area, but there are also several historic monuments to his accomplishment – three of which include a tall lava-rock pyramid on 29th Avenue near Cherry Lane in Glenrose and, in Spokane Valley, a monument made of numerous small round stones at Sprague Avenue and Vista Road and another marker at Eighth Avenue and Coleman Road.
In 1954, the Glenrose Women’s Club chronicled how it created the monument on 29th Avenue at a right-of-way location where about a half-mile of the old road was still visible. In the neatly typed document, club members noted that in the fall of 1933, the County Home Bureau requested that rural and suburban organizations preserve things of history that were of interest to them.
The women then undertook a yearlong project, receiving a donation of a granite plaque from Empire Granite Co., securing the lava rock stone for the monument itself from “the foot of the hill on 29th” and holding a gala formal dedication at the site Oct. 28, 1934.
In “Glenrose Builds a Monument,” the ladies of the club described an elaborate ceremony that accompanied the dedication, including an escort wagon driven by six mules from Fort Wright, a parade in which local residents portrayed people of history, songs performed by children from Glenrose School and, of course, the requisite number of speeches. They knew how to throw an event.
Today, that monument is weathered and almost invisible by the roadside. The inscription reads: “Mullan Military Wagon Road crossed the highway here. Located 1858. Completed 1862. By Captain John Mullan. This monument erected by Glenrose Women’s Club and community, 1934.”
The flat-faced granite monument at Eighth and Coleman is just south of the East Spokane Water District No. 1 building and garage and now has a bright yellow fire hydrant snuggled up next to it. A large dedication event was also held at this site, attended by 400 people, also in 1934. The inscription reads: “Military Trail located 1858 by Captain John Mullan crossed the highway here. Erected 1934 by East Spokane Home Economics Club.”
The round-stone pyramid monument on the southwest corner of Sprague and Vista right in front of Ripley’s Plantation reads: “M-R Military Road located by Captain John Mullan A.D. 1858-A.D. 1862 crossed the highway here. This location monument erected by Washington State Historical Society 1922.”