The Yakima River Canyon was historically avoided by Native Americans and later American settlers, who preferred wagon trails along nearby ridges and creeks. One of the main routes across the Umtanum Ridge was a toll road constructed in the 1880s by Jacob Durr through the Wenas Valley and Shushuskin Canyon, west of the canyon route. The toll road was bypassed by the Northern Pacific Railway in 1885, using a route along the west side of the river that was rejected for road construction due to a lack of space.