Dr. D.B. “Doc” Rushing
© Copyright, 2026, Duncan Bryant Rushing
Preface
The Northwest Greyhound Lines was a regional operating company of the Greyhound Lines.
Contents
Introduction
The Name of the Company
Origin
North Coast Transportation Company
Washington Motor Coach Company
Auto Interurban Company
Back to the WMCC
Creation of the Northwest GL
Merger of the NWGL
Beyond the NWGL and the WGL
Meeting Other Greyhound Companies
Pool (Interline) Operations
Betrayal in the Northwest
Conclusion
Very Special Articles
Related Articles
Bibliography
Introduction
The Northwest Greyhound Lines (NWGL) was a regional intercity motor-coach carrier in the system of the Greyhound Lines (GL). It was based in Seattle, Washington, USA. It existed from 1947 until ‑57, when it became merged into the new second Western GL (formerly known as the Pacific Greyhound Lines).
The NWGL ran along 2,678 miles on a network of routes in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana.
On 01 June 1957 The Greyhound Corporation (the parent umbrella Greyhound firm) renamed and reorganized the Pacific GL (PacGL) as the Western Division of The Greyhound Corporation, called also the second Western GL (WGL). That was the second of the four huge new divisions, after the second Eastern GL (in 1955) and before the fifth Central GL (later in 1957) and the Southern GL (in 1960).
The parent Greyhound firm then merged the Northwest GL into the new second WGL.
Thus ended both the Pacific GL and the Northwest GL, and thus began the new second WGL. [Details about the first WGL are available in my article about the Pickwick-Greyhound Lines.]
The Name of the Company
Through the years The Greyhound Corporation (with an uppercase T because the word the was an integral part of the official name) had six regional operating companies (divisions, subsidiaries, and affiliates), among others, bearing names derived from six of the points of a compass. Five of those names – all but one of them – used the ‑ern suffix. They were the Eastern Greyhound Lines (GL), Western GL, Southern GL, Southeastern GL, and Southwestern GL.
However, for one or more reasons no longer known with certainty, when came the time to select the name for the new Greyhound operation based in Seattle, those in charge chose to call it not the Northwestern Greyhound Lines (consistent with the five other names above) but rather the Northwest Greyhound Lines (without the ‑ern suffix).
Origin
The Northwest GL came mainly from two previous carriers – the North Coast Transportation Company and the Washington Motor Coach Company, each of which had already developed from other previous firms.
The North Coast Transportation Company had run mostly on north-south routes in western Washington, and the Washington Motor Coach Company had run mostly on east-west routes, largely in northern Washington.
North Coast Transportation Company
The North Coast Transportation Company had arisen from three diverse and very different sources – the Park Auto Transportation Company, the Northwest Transportation Company, and the Camas Stage Company.
The Park Auto Transportation Company had begun as an association of owner-drivers. On 05 July 1921 the State of Washington issued separate certificates to William Ferguson and to Reginald Rice for the route between Seattle and Auburn via Kent, reaching to the south of Seattle. Soon G.L. Standring bought the rights of both Rice and Ferguson. Next C.M. Park bought the operation of Standring. Then Park and six other owner-drivers formed the Seattle-Everett Stage Lines, reaching to the north of Seattle to Everett via Bothell. Then on 22 December 1921 those seven people incorporated their combined firm as the Park Auto Transportation Company.
[The State of Washington began in 1921 to exercise its jurisdiction over highway carriers under its new Auto Transportation Act of 1921.]
On 27 September 1921 the State of Washington issued certificates to a group of 13 other owner-drivers, using the name of the Seattle-Tacoma Union Stage Line, to run between the two named cities; however, on 21 March 1922 the Park Auto Transportation Company bought the rights of all 13 of those owner-drivers.
Further, on 16 August 1923 the Park firm bought the rights of the Thompson-Smith Transfer Company to haul both cargo (package express) and riders between Tacoma and Olympia, and on 04 February 1924 Park bought also the rights of the Enumclaw Transportation Company to the routes between Auburn and Enumclaw (to the southeast of Auburn) and between Enumclaw and Buckley (to the southwest of Enumclaw).
Meanwhile on 13 July 1921 Albert Blair began hauling people between Chehalis and Olympia, on 29 September 1922 he incorporated his firm as the Northwest Transportation Company, and by 27 October 1923 he extended his route southwardly from Chehalis to Longview, on the way toward Portland, Oregon. On 07 August 1924 the Northwest firm bought the rights of Fred Clifton to run between Tacoma and Yelm (which is southwest of Tacoma and southeast of Olympia). To close the gap between those two routes, on 14 March 1925 Northwest extended from Yelm to Rainier and onward to Tenino (between Chehalis and Olympia). Then on 16 March 1925 Northwest began running between Tacoma and Tenino via Yelm.
Next on 01 October 1925 the Park Auto Transportation Company, under new ownership (of the Puget Sound Railway, as I describe below), bought the Northwest Transportation Company.
Thus on 01 October 1925 the Park firm completed acquiring all the routes described above.
During that time on 18 July 1921 the State of Washington issued a certificate to the Camas Stage Company for passenger service from Portland, Oregon, across the Columbia River, through Vancouver, Washington, and onward eastwardly along the north shore of the river (and along the state line between Oregon and Washington) to Washougal via Camas – and between Vancouver and Castle Rock, reaching to the north toward Seattle. Then on 19 June 1924 the Camas firm bought the rights of the Portland-Vancouver Stage Line (connecting the two named cities), which three partners had started on 18 October 1923.
Next, on 01 December 1924, the Puget Sound International Railway and Power Company, known also simply as the Puget Sound Railway, bought the Park Auto Transportation Company.
On a date no longer known the Park firm then began the Portland-Seattle Stage Lines (connecting the named cities).
Sometime early during 1926 the Park Auto Transportation Company, under the ownership of the Puget Sound Railway, formed the North Coast Transportation Company – to take over its several properties and to run all of them under the brand name, trade name, or service name of the North Coast Lines. The new firm then conducted all those motor-coach operations – except the route between Tacoma and Olympia, which the railroad took for itself – until 01 June 1927, when it conveyed the route to North Coast. [On 01 November 1948 the North Coast Transportation Company became renamed as the North Coast Greyhound Lines, which on 01 December 1949 became merged into the Northwest Greyhound Lines.]
However, on 01 June 1926 the Pacific Northwest Traction Company bought the Puget Sound Railway, including its subsidiary Park firm, which continued in turn to hold its own subsidiary North Coast firm.
And on 01 August 1926 Park, under the ownership of the railroad, bought the Camas Stage Company.
Thus on 01 August 1926 the Park firm – and therefore also the Pacific Northwest firm – completed acquiring all the routes described above (except the one between Tacoma and Olympia, which the railway had taken for itself).
The Pacific Northwest Traction Company had already acquired several other motor-coach lines. On 16 March 1922 it bought the route between Everett and Mount Vernon from the Interurban Motor Company. On 18 January 1924 it bought from A.W. Davison his routes between Sedro-Woolley and Clear Lake and between Sedro-Woolley and Mount Vernon via Burlington. On 11 January 1926 it bought also the rights of C.S. Davis and J. Blackburn to their route between Sedro-Woolley and Clear Lake.
Pacific Northwest on 16 January 1926 became an international carrier – by starting its service between Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia (BC), Canada, barely across the northern border. Five years later, on 01 April 1931, it eliminated its competition on that route – by buying the International Stages, which had run between Portland and Vancouver via Seattle. It then wound up its rival and closed it.
After the Pacific Northwest firm bought the Puget Sound Railway and its Park and North Coast subsidiaries (on 01 June 1926), Pacific Northwest continued to expand. On 13 January 1927 by application it gained a certificate for service between Seattle and Everett, thus giving an extended north-south route between Seattle and Mount Vernon via Everett. And on 01 May 1927 it bought from Amel Larson the east-west route between Seattle and Stillwater via Redmond, which Larson and a partner, Mike Lutes, had run since 15 February 1923.
Further, Pacific Northwest increased its local and intrastate rights, including branch and feeder lines, along its corridor between Seattle and the Canadian border.
Then on 01 June 1927 the Puget Sound Railway transferred to the North Coast firm its route between Tacoma and Olympia, which it had kept when the railroad formed the North Coast Transportation Company (sometime early in 1926).
At the same time, on 01 June 1927, the railway sold to the United Auto Transportation Company the local rights between Tacoma and Camp Lewis, an Army post (which after World War II became renamed as Fort Lewis), between Tacoma and Olympia. That route segment soon included Tacoma Field (just northeast of Camp Lewis, on the way to Tacoma), which opened on 14 March 1930 as an airfield of the Army Air Corps [and which on 03 July 1940 became renamed as McChord Field and in 1947 became renamed as the McChord Air Force Base (AFB)].
On 01 February 1929 the Pacific Northwest Traction Company – as the owner of the Puget Sound Railway and its two subsidiaries (the Park Auto Transportation Company and the North Coast Transportation Company) – carried out a consolidation and a reorganization of all its motor-coach properties.
Then on 01 June 1929, in one last move, Pacific Northwest moved all the rights of the Portland-Seattle Stage Lines (which the Park firm had formed) into the North Coast Transportation Company.
Thus on 01 June 1929 the certificates to all the routes described above were in the name of the North Coast Transportation Company, which continued to run under the brand name, trade name, and service name of the North Coast Lines.
On 14 March 1930 North Coast bought the Lincoln Stages, a rival that also ran between Seattle and Portland; then on the next day North Coast started what it called a second-class service between those two cities under the name of the Independent Stages. The purpose of that move was to try to compete against the wildcat operators who had begun to run along that busy and lucrative corridor.
Further, on 30 June 1930 the Pacific Northwest parent traction firm conveyed to its North Coast subsidiary all its franchises between Seattle and Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Next on 01 October 1930 the North Coast firm bought the Ridgefield-Vancouver Stage Lines, which ran northerly from Vancouver toward Seattle – to eliminate a restriction on local traffic between Vancouver and Pioneer.
And on 01 April 1931, as I first mentioned above, North Coast eliminated its competition on another major route – by buying the International Stages, which had run between Portland and Vancouver, BC, Canada, via Seattle. It then wound up its rival and closed it.
During 1933 North Coast sold two of its services – its route between Tacoma and Rainier via Yelm, which went on 20 January 1933 to the Rainier Transit Lines – and its local lines in Everett (which it had acquired from the Puget Sound Electric Railway), which then went on 28 December 1933 to the Everett Bus Lines.
Then on 13 February 1940 North Coast bought from two partners (Thomas Myers and R.L. Stubbs) the Valley Stages, running between Seattle and Puyallup (southeast of Tacoma). The Valley Stages had acquired that route from two other partners (John and Jacob Shield), who, doing business as the Shield Transportation Company, had begun it (on a date no longer known) and had conveyed it on 24 October 1934 to Myers and Stubbs.
Next on 01 November 1948 The Greyhound Corporation, the parent Greyhound umbrella firm, bought a majority (controlling) interest in the North Coast Transportation Company and then changed the name of the company to the North Coast Greyhound Lines, Inc. The new NCGL then temporarily continued as a partially-owned subsidiary of Greyhound.
Washington Motor Coach Company
The story of the Washington Motor Coach Company began on 08 April 1924, when the Yakima Northern Stages received its certificate for service between Yakima and Ellensburg, reaching northwestwardly toward Seattle. It started with a converted 1919 Cadillac sedan.
On 24 July 1924 the Yakima Northern firm bought a part of the rights of two partners (A.E. Wilson and George Hunt), who ran as the WEC Transportation Company – the route between Ellensburg and Wenatchee. Sterling Long had begun WEC on 26 September 1923. [The initials WEC apparently represented the routes of the company – from Wenatchee to Ellensburg (in the south) and to Chelan (in the north).] Yakima Northern, as I describe above, bought the rights to the route segment between Ellensburg and Wenatchee. [The other segment, between Wenatchee and Chelan, went to George Hunt alone, who then formed the Wenatchee-Chelan Transportation Company.]
[WEC had previously, on 01 January 1924, bought from three partners (H.H. Mathe, W.D. Gunkel, and J.J. Kendall) the rights to the route between Ellensburg and Wenatchee, which Mathe alone had begun an unknown number of years before.]
Then on 01 January 1926 Yakima Northern bought also the rights of the Wenatchee-Chelan firm.
When Yakima Northern extended its route between Ellensburg and Chelan (via Wenatchee) onward to Lake Chelan and other points beyond, it offered the first service into the Okanagan Valley. It did so along a part of US‑97, which had become designated in 1926 under the original version of the US Numbered-highway System.
Soon, on a date no longer known, Yakima Northern started also a route eastwardly between Wenatchee and Almira via Waterville.
On 13 January 1926, in a major and significant move, the owners of the Yakima Northern Stages changed its name to the Washington Motor Coach Company (WMCC).
The largest acquisition by the WMCC during 1926 – sometime early in the year – was the purchase of a majority (controlling) interest in the Wolverton Auto Bus Company.
Two partners (A.D. and Clay Wolverton) had founded their namesake firm on a date no longer known – to connect four towns – Port Angeles, Carlsborg, Dungeness, and Sequim – on the north shore of the Olympic Peninsula and north of the Olympic Mountains. On 31 January 1923 they had added nearby service on the northeast corner of the Olympic Peninsula between Maynard and Port Ludlow. Then on 07 March 1924 the Wolverton team had bought the Blue Star Stage Line, a property of Robert Anderson, which extended westwardly from Port Angeles to Forks, Clallam Bay, and the Sol Duc region. Sometime early in 1926 the Wolverton firm had bought a route between Port Townsend and Quilcene, also on the northeast corner of the Olympic Peninsula, from Mike Dileo and Sons, who on 07 November 1923 had bought it from Sam McGhee.
Also during 1926 the WMCC made two other purchases – the rights of Walter Keys for the routes between Wenatchee and Cashmere and between Ellensburg and Easton via Cle Elum – and the rights of Frank Dimock for the route between Cashmere and Leavenworth (which Dimock on 07 November 1923 had bought from H.A. Gartner). The segments between Wenatchee and Cashmere and between Cashmere and Leavenworth made a complete direct route between Wenatchee and Leavenworth. And the segment from Ellensburg to Easton reached toward the Snoqualmie Pass and onward toward Seattle (almost halfway from Ellensburg to Seattle).
On 01 April 1927 the WMC Company bought from R.O. and A.F. Wahlgren their certificate for cargo (package express) between Port Angeles and Mora, near Forks and near the northwest corner of the Olympic Peninsula; WMCC placed that right into its Wolverton subsidiary, which ran across the northern shore of the Olympic Peninsula.
Also sometime in 1927 the WMC Company extended its service from Yakima in two different directions – southeasterly to Pasco – and northwesterly to Naches and Tieton, on the way toward Mount Rainier and its developing tourist attractions.
During 1928, in anticipation of the impending opening of highway traffic across Snoqualmie Pass, along the road that in 1927 had become designated as US‑10, the WMC Company made many short extensions and consolidation of rights (westwardly from Ellensburg toward Seattle via Snoqualmie) – so that it would be in a good position to offer cross-state service between Seattle and Ellensburg – and, the owners hoped, onward eastwardly later to Spokane and beyond (parallel to US‑2).
Also during 1928 WMCC finished acquiring rights between Seattle and Wenatchee, thus completing a cross-state route between Seattle and Spokane along US‑2, which had become designated in 1926 under the original version of the US Numbered-highway System.
On 01 April 1930 the State of Washington opened US‑10 to traffic across Snoqualmie Pass.
Meanwhile on 06 March 1929 the WMC Company changed the name of the Wolverton Auto Bus Company to the Olympic Peninsula Motor Company, although WMCC still owned just a controlling interest in it and not complete ownership. [On 31 December 1936 WMCC gained the total ownership of its renamed Olympic Peninsula subsidiary.]
During 1931 the WMC Company exchanged several routes with the Auto Interurban Company (AIC), which used the brand name, trade name, or service name of the Auto Interurban Lines. The AIC was based in Spokane. WMCC gained the route between Spokane and Almira, thus completing a route between Leavenworth and Spokane, and thus a cross-state route along US‑2 between Seattle and Spokane via Leavenworth. In return the AIC gained the route between Spokane and Umatilla, Oregon, on the south shore of the Columbia River, barely in Oregon, via Pasco. [In the meantime WMCC had extended its Spokane-Pasco route from Pasco to Umatilla.]
Sometime later the Auto Interurban Company sold that same route (between Spokane and Umatilla) to the Union Pacific Stages (UPS), which even later, on 05 November 1943, became a major part of the Overland Greyhound Lines (OGL). [Details about the UPS and the OGL are available in my article bearing the name of the OGL.]
Further, the Auto Interurban Company sold also two other routes to the WMC Company – a north-northeasterly one from Spokane to Eastport, Idaho, on the Canadian border, in a general direction toward Calgary, Alberta, Canada – and a much longer easterly one from Spokane to Beach, North Dakota, barely inside North Dakota, via Missoula, Butte, and Billings, all three in Montana. The dates for those two routes are not now known – except that the AIC had started the Beach route on 07 July 1933, and that the AIC sold the Eastport route to the WMCC sometime late in 1940.
Auto Interurban Company
As I describe above, in the previous section, the Auto Interurban Company (which used the brand name, trade name, or service name of the Auto Interurban Lines) in 1931 exchanged certain routes with the Washington Motor Coach Company and later sold two other routes (one of them in 1940) to the WMCC.
Although I’ll not delve into all the details of the story of the AIC, I do present here, below, certain parts of its story – some sad, tragic, and regrettable – some endearing and entertaining – all of which I find to be extremely interesting and engrossing.
The founder of that company was Herbert Spencer Hawley. He had lived in West Mount Vernon, about 64 miles north of Seattle, and he had worked there as a machinist in an automotive garage. Then in Priest River, Idaho, about 55 miles northeast of Spokane, he started the Auto Interurban Company – to offer service between the town of Priest River (especially its train station) and the areas around the south and southeast shores of Priest Lake, about 40 miles to the north. He began with two automobiles [an EMF 30 (of a short-lived and little-known brand) and a Wilcox Six (of a well-known brand, which later led directly to the WMC and Will motor coaches and then to Yellow Coach and GM Coach)].
Sometime in the fall of 1913 a terrible fire completely destroyed not only both cars and all the other business property but also every bit of the family’s home and their household goods and personal effects (other than the clothes on their backs).
Hawley next moved his family to Spokane, where he worked temporarily as a chauffeur until, in the spring of 1914, he had gathered enough cash to enable him to start another operation. Using the same previous business name, he began anew by running between Spokane and Reardan, about 22 miles due west of Spokane along the road that later (in 1926) became designated as US‑2.
Then the Auto Interurban Company grew and prospered.
In 1937 Hawley bought three new Twin 23‑R coaches, relatively short ones (23 feet and 6 inches) with 23 seats, products of the Twin Coach Company (based in Kent, Ohio), which was a property of the legendary Fageol brothers (Frank and William). [The 23‑R was one of three curious and unusual models (along with the longer 27‑R and 30‑R), with a transverse (crosswise) Hercules gasoline engine directly above the drive axle at the extreme rear of the coach, propelling via a vertical driveshaft running directly downward to the drive axle. The builder had introduced the 23‑R in 1935.]
Here the fun starts. Herbert piled his wife, Eva Kate Merritt Hawley, plus three others – Gladys Anne Hawley (the fourth of their five daughters), a friend of Gladys (by the name of Mabel), and Sidney (the fourth of their five sons) – into their family car. Then they traveled to Kent – to pick up his three new coaches and to drive them back to Spokane.
According to Herbert’s plan, the family returned to Spokane in a convoy. Herbert drove one bus, Sidney drove one, and Gladys drove one. And Eva, the wife and mother, followed in the car.
The charming and delightful fact is that Gladys was then just 19 years old at a time when it was almost unimaginable for a teenage girl to drive a bus at all, even a small bus, to say nothing of a girl driving a bus most of the way across the nation. [Sidney Allen Hawley, the brother, was then 29 years old.]
Another author has described the age of Gladys as 16, but she had been born on 29 November 1917, so she obviously was not 16 but rather 19 in the summer of 1937; still, though, it’s no less impressive for a 19-year-old girl to have carried out such an assignment and adventure.
The reported comments of Gladys herself at the time clearly and admirably show her gritty, plucky, determined, independent, can-do spirit, which she appears to have caught from her father.
[If I at age 19 in 1959 had gotten such an opportunity, I would have joyfully and enthusiastically seized it and then thoroughly enjoyed it.]
Gladys had grown up around cars and buses, so the air brakes, Armstrong steering, and unsynchronized gearbox (which, of course, required double-clutching) were already familiar to her, so they did not present any roadblock to her. [Unsynchronized gearboxes were indeed all around her; Cadillac introduced synchronized (“synchromesh”) transmissions in its 1929 models, and most other car builders introduced them in their 1932 models, so plenty of cars in her world still required double-clutching.]
And that’s not all, as Ed McMahon and others have often said. Gladys continued and maintained a close connection with the motor-coach industry for almost all of the rest of her life.
During her senior year, 1939‑40, at Whitworth College (now named as Whitworth University), a Presbyterian school in Spokane, Gladys married Oscar Werner Rosenquist, a classmate whom she had met there. Her sweetheart, known consistently as Werner, was the older of the two sons of a pair of naturalized lawful immigrants from Sweden (Oscar Rosenquist and Ingeborg Lavinia Pearson Rosenquist). Gladys and Werner married on 02 November 1939.
After graduation, in 1940, Werner went to work for the Washington Water Power Company; however, sometime during the next year, 1941, he joined his father-in-law, Herbert Hawley, at the Auto Interurban Company, and he stayed there.
In 1940 Herbert Spencer (H.S.) Hawley, the founder of the AIC remained as the president of the firm; by that time another of his sons, Spencer Herbert (S.H.) Hawley, his second oldest child and second oldest son, had joined the family firm, and Herbert had appointed Spencer as the superintendent of operations.
By 1949 Herbert had promoted Spencer as the vice president and the general manager, and he had appointed Werner Rosenquist as the assistant traffic manager.
By 1951 Herbert had raised Werner to the traffic manager.
Herbert Hawley died at age 78 on 02 March 1953, and his widow, Eva Hawley, died at age 76 on 14 November 1954.
After Herbert died, Spencer succeeded to the presidency, and he appointed Werner as the secretary and treasurer of their corporation.
Sometime in 1955 the survivors in the Hawley family sold the Auto Interurban Company to T.J. Manning.
Manning sometime in 1956 sold the long-distance routes. The rights between Spokane and Metaline Falls (both in Washington) went to Eric Thunberg; the rights to the other routes – between Spokane and Cheney (both in Washington), between Wallace and Coeur d’Alene (both in Idaho), between Colville (in Washington) and Trail (in British Columbia in Canada) – went to the Northwest Greyhound Lines.
Then Manning sold also the local routes – to the same Werner Rosenquist, who formed the Spokane Suburban Lines to take them over and to run them.
Thus ended the Auto Interurban Company.
At an unknown time the Spokane Transit Authority eventually took over the routes of the Spokane Suburban Lines.
Meanwhile Werner, continuing to act on his love for travel, formed too a travel agency of his own, which offered group and individual tours to local, national, and international destinations.
Further, at an unknown time, he started the Empire Lines, known also sometimes as the Empire International Lines. Unfortunately, details of that carrier have not survived – except that the Empire Lines continued to run until 2006, the year before Werner died – and that at the end the firm had 10 coaches and 16 drivers. It appears that Werner, at age 88, either sold his business or closed it shortly before he died.
Werner took active parts as well in various civic organizations, including the board of trustees of Whitworth College, the alma mater of both Gladys and himself, on which he served from 1950 until his death. He acted besides as the president of the Whitworth Foundation during 1972‑89.
Werner died on 12 January 2007, and Gladys died on 24 January 2008. Their common gravestone, at the Fairmount Memorial Park in Spokane, bears two images – the seal of Whitworth College, where the two of them had met and courted, and an MCI MC‑8 coach, which shows the name of their Empire International Lines.
“Here endeth” (in the words of the Book of Common Prayer) the stories of Gladys and Werner Rosenquist and the Auto Interurban Lines.
Back to the WMCC
In 1933 the Washington Motor Coach Company opened a temporary route between Coulee City, on US-2, and the site of the Grand Coulee Dam (construction of which started in 1933), thus offering a valuable service to those who built the dam (during 1933‑42).
With a cross-state route between Seattle and Spokane – along US‑2 – the executives and managers of the WMC Company turned their attention to their reaching farther toward the East.
WMCC, along with the Spokane-Butte Motor Coach Company and the Northland Greyhound Lines, in 1933 established an important route, the Northern Short Route between Seattle and Chicago via Spokane and Butte, Montana. WMCC ran between Seattle and Spokane, the Spokane-Butte firm ran between their two named cities, and the Northland GL ran between Butte and the Windy City via Fargo and Minneapolis. On 08 December 1933 the WMCC bought a one-half interest in the Spokane-Butte firm, then on 31 December 1936 it bought the other half, thus gaining the entire ownership of the carrier, which it merged into itself (and then dissolved the newly-empty corporate shell of the previous company).
Further, by 1936 WMCC had reduced the travel time between Seattle and Spokane by forming an alternate parallel route – along US‑10 via Ellensburg – by acquiring the rights between Ellensburg and Spokane via Moses Lake and Ritzville.
The Greyhound Corporation allowed WMCC to buy several Super Coaches for its use in the interlined service along the Northern Short Route (between Seattle and Chicago). [Because of a contractual term between Greyhound and the GM Corporation, the Super Coaches (Yellow Coach models 719 and 743) were exclusive coaches for Greyhound and for other carriers with the consent of The Greyhound Corporation.] In 1937 WMCC received a small unknown number of the 743 with GMC gasoline engines, and in 1939 WMCC received a likewise unknown small number of the 743 with GM 6‑71 diesel engines.
In 1938, during the start of the recovery from the Great Depression, the WMC Company began to offer two-day all-expense tours (based in Seattle) of the Olympic Peninsula and its dramatic views of the rugged north coast and the snow-capped Olympic Mountains.
Next The Greyhound Corporation allowed WMCC to buy several Silversides coaches for its use in the interlined service along the Northern Short Route (between Seattle and Chicago). [Because of a contractual limitation between Greyhound and the GM Corporation, the Silversides also was an exclusive coach for Greyhound and for other carriers with the consent of The Greyhound Corporation.] WMCC received five Yellow Coach PDG‑3701s in December 1940 and then two more in August 1941. [The last two were also the last two PDG‑3701s ever built.]
Then, of course, starting in 1942 and continuing through the end of World War II (WW2), the demands of wartime needs severely challenged the capacity (and the equipment) of the WMCC, the North Coast Lines, and all other carriers. That caused the temporary end of tours, special or dedicated civilian services, sightseeing, and charters (except charters for military movements).
Creation of the Northwest GL
After the end of WW2 both the North Coast Lines and the Washington Motor Coach Company returned to peacetime tempo and operations, and they began to buy new rolling equipment – including the Silversides – GM PD‑3751s – to replace their older coaches, many of which the wartime requirements had badly worn out.
[In 1943 the GM Corporation changed the brand name of its coaches from Yellow Coach to GM Coach; further, the designations of the post-WW2 Silversides models were PD‑3751 and PD‑4151 (depending on whether the seating capacity of a given coach was 37 or 41). Greyhound first assigned the PD‑4151 to only three divisions – the Teche GL, Great Lakes GL, and Pacific GL – although in later years some of the ‑4151s became redistributed to other divisions. Even those three divisions got also PD‑3751s. Of the 2,000 post-WW2 Silversides, just 357 were PD‑4151s; all of the other 1,643 were PD‑3751s.]
During the 1930s and early during the 1940s The Greyhound Corporation bought an increasing ownership interest in the WMC Company; then by a time about the first of 1947 it had bought 96 percent of the outstanding shares of its common stock – thus making the WMCC a partially-owned subsidiary of Greyhound.
Next Greyhound renamed its WMCC subsidiary as the Northwest Greyhound Lines, and it appointed as its new president Clifford Emil “Cliff” Graves, a longtime employee of Greyhound and its predecessor firms in Hibbing and Duluth in Minnesota.
Graves had started driving in Hibbing, Minnesota, for Carl Eric Wickman, the main founder and spark plug of what later developed into Greyhound, while Cliff was still a teenager. In 1918, while he was 19 years old, when he registered for the draft for military service in the “Great War” (World War I), he stated his occupation as a chauffeur for the Mesaba Transportation Company, which Wickman and his four partners had incorporated under that name on 15 December 1915. Clearly, therefore, Cliff was no older than 19 – and maybe as young as 16 or 17 – when he started driving for Wickman (while still living in Hibbing in the home of his parents). [Cliff was born on 11 March 1899.]
By 1930 Graves had worked as a manager in Muskegon, Michigan, for the Safety Motor Coach Lines, which, sometime during the second quarter of 1924, Edwin Carl “Ed” Ekstrom had founded with the financial backing of Wickman. [More about that company is available in my article bearing the name of the Great Lakes GL.]
In a crucial move on 20 September 1926 in Duluth, Carl Eric Wickman and his collaborators had formed a holding company, named as the Motor Transit Corporation (MTC), which on 05 February 1930 became renamed as The Greyhound Corporation. [More about the MTC is available in my article bearing the name of the Northland GL.]
The MTC, not an operating company but rather a holding company, promptly began to buy controlling interests in operating companies in the highway-coach industry in a growing number of parts of the US.
The MTC, in its first purchase, on 15 October 1926 bought the Safety Motor Coach Lines, which in 1924 Ed Ekstrom had founded, as I describe above in a previous paragraph.
The Safety Motor Coach Lines had continued as a subsidiary of the MTC until 23 January 1930, when it became renamed as the Eastern Greyhound Lines of Michigan (the EGL of Michigan), which in 1935 became renamed as the Central Greyhound Lines of Michigan (the CGL of Michigan), making the third use of the name of the Central GL, which in 1936 became a part of the main undenominated second Central GL, a part of which in 1948 became merged into the Great Lakes GL (the third major part making up the Great Lakes GL). [More about the CGL and the GLGL is available in my articles bearing their respective names.]
By 1940 Greyhound had transferred Graves to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he first served as the vice president of the Capitol GL (under Arthur Middleton Hill, one of the two founders of the Atlantic GL, as the president) and then as the president of the Capitol GL and of the short-lived (1945‑49) Valley GL (which became merged into the second Central GL). [More about the Capitol GL, the Atlantic GL, and the Valley GL is available in my articles bearing their respective names.]
Then in 1947 The Greyhound Corporation transferred Graves to Seattle. On 27 February 1947 he arrived there, and on 01 March 1947 he assumed the presidency of the newly renamed Northwest Greyhound Lines (formerly known as the Washington Motor Coach Company).
On 01 November 1948 Graves assumed also the presidency of the North Coast GL (NCGL, formerly known as the North Coast Transportation Company). On that day, as I describe above, in a previous section, Greyhound had just bought a majority (controlling) interest in the North Coast firm and renamed it as the North Coast Greyhound Lines, which temporarily remained as a partially-owned subsidiary (rather than a division) of The Greyhound Corporation – and not yet merged into the new NWGL – because the Hound had not yet gained the total ownership of the NCGL.
By 01 December 1949 Greyhound had bought the remaining minority interest in the North Coast GL, so it merged the NCGL into the Northwest GL, and then it dissolved the newly-empty corporate shell of the NCGL.
Further, by 27 December 1949 Greyhound had bought the remaining minority interest in the Northwest GL, so it merged the newly-enlarged NWGL into itself as a division of The Greyhound Corporation, and it then dissolved too the newly-empty corporate shell of the NWGL.
Thus ended the separate existence of the North Coast GL, and thus ended the Northwest GL as a separate corporation.
However, Cliff Graves continued as the president of the NWGL as a division of The Greyhound Corporation.
Then on 01 January 1953 The Greyhound Corporation conveyed to the Northwest GL the three routes of the Overland GL (OGL) within the State of Washington – that is, the ones between Spokane and Lewiston, Idaho, via Pullman; between Spokane and Pendleton, Oregon, via Walla Walla; and between Spokane and Umatilla, Oregon, via Pasco. [More about the OGL is available in my article bearing its name.]
If you wish, please feel free to read my article about the differences between divisions and subsidiaries of corporations.
Merger of the NWGL
On 01 June 1957 the parent Greyhound firm renamed the Pacific GL as the Western Division of The Greyhound Corporation, called also the second Western GL (WGL). That was the second of the four huge new divisions, after the second Eastern GL (in May 1955), and before the fifth Central GL (later in 1957) and the Southern GL (in 1960).
Thus ended the Pacific GL and the Northwest GL, and thus began the second Western GL.
Then Greyhound merged into the new second WGL not only the Northwest GL but also the route segment [from the Northland GL (NGL)] between Salt Lake City, Utah, and Rock Springs, Wyoming. [That segment had previously been a part of the route of the Overland GL (OGL) between Chicago, Illinois, and Salt Lake City via Omaha, Nebraska, and Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Greyhound on 01 August 1956 had merged the OGL into the NGL.]
[More about the Pacific GL, the Northland GL, and the Overland GL is available in my three articles bearing their respective names, and information about the first Western GL is available in my article bearing the name of the Pickwick-Greyhound (with a hyphen) Lines.]
Beyond the NWGL and the WGL
Information about the continuing history of the Greyhound Lines (all the way to 2026) is available in my article entitled “Greyhound Lines after WW2.”
Meeting Other Greyhound Companies
The Northwest Greyhound Lines met these other Greyhound regional operating companies:
to the north: the Western Canadian GL;
to the east: the Northland GL;
to the southeast: the Overland GL;
to the south: the Overland GL and the Pacific GL.
Pool (Interline) Operations
During the 1950s the Northwest Greyhound Lines took part in interlined through-routes (using pooled equipment in coöperation with other Greyhound operating companies) – that is, the use of through-coaches on through-routes running through the territories of other Greyhound regional operating companies. The interlined routes of the NWGL were these:
between Idaho Falls and Los Angeles;
between Seattle and Los Angeles;
between Seattle and Minneapolis;
between Seattle and San Francisco;
between Spokane and San Francisco.
The NWGL collaborated with the Northland GL on its through-coaches between Seattle and Minneapolis, and it collaborated with the Pacific GL on its through-coaches to and from California (that is, Los Angeles and San Francisco).
Betrayal in the Northwest
Sadly and regrettably, in 2004, during a time of incompetent and unconscionable leadership at the top of the Greyhound Lines, Inc. (GLI), while Laidlaw International (an operator of trash trucks and school buses) owned the GLI, the formerly great and formerly respected carrier abandoned its through-route between Seattle and Minneapolis – that is, it abandoned the uncounted riders who had depended on the Hound. For many years Greyhound previously had consistently run three through-coaches every day in each direction between Seattle and Chicago via Minneapolis, then suddenly Greyhound withdrew from that market.
Now in 2026 Greyhound does not offer any service whatever between Seattle and Spokane, although FlixBus, the current owner of the GLI, offers two daily trips from Seattle to Spokane. Northwestern Trailways also offers two daily trips from Seattle to Spokane. FlixBus offers one daily trip from Spokane to Seattle, and Northwestern Trailways offers three of them.
Further, Greyhound now offers from Seattle to Chicago just two absurdly long, slow, and roundabout trips, each of which requires three transfers – one via Denver, Saint Louis, and Nashville (including a wait of 5 hours and 35 minutes in Saint Louis) – and one via Sacramento, Sparks (in Nevada, near Reno), and Denver (including a wait of 2 hours and 20 minutes in Sacramento).
Likewise, westbound back from Chicago to Seattle, Greyhound now offers just two absurdly long, slow, and roundabout trips, each of which requires three transfers – one via Indianapolis, Saint Louis, and Denver (including a wait of 4 hours and 30 minutes in Indianapolis) – and one via Nashville, Saint Louis, and Denver (including a wait of 4 hours and 55 minutes in Nashville and a wait of 2 hours and 25 minutes in Saint Louis).
Lo, how the mighty has fallen!
Conclusion
The Northwest Greyhound Lines made major, significant, and lasting contributions to the present Greyhound route network – although, as I describe above, in the preceding section, a recent owner of the Greyhound Lines has destroyed and cast aside a huge part of the value of those contributions (between Seattle and Chicago).
Very Special Articles
Please check also my very special cornerstone articles at my website:
“Northland Greyhound Lines” (NGL): It tells not only the history of the NGL but also the origin and the early years of the overall Greyhound Lines, starting in 1914 in Hibbing, Minnesota. [The people and the events involved in the early part of the story of the NGL are the same people and events involved also in the origin and the early development of the larger Greyhound empire (including its many divisions and subsidiaries).]
“Greyhound Lines after WW2”: It describes:
the major mergers and consolidations (during 1948‑75);
the changes in leadership at the top;
the move from Chicago to Phoenix (in 1971);
the sales of the Greyhound Lines, Inc. (the GLI);
the purchase (the one in 1987) of the Trailways, Inc. (the TWI, previously known as the Continental Trailways) and the merger of the TWI into the GLI;
the sad and regrettable deterioration in the level of service of the formerly great and formerly respected (but now utterly disgraced and discredited) Greyhound Lines;
and the latest development of Greyhound under the ownership of FlixMobility (a German firm) and under the oversight of Flix North America (with a recent Turkish immigrant as the chief executive).
“The Scenicruiser”: It covers the background, conception, evolution, development, design, creation, production, rebuilding, repowering, and operation of the GM PD‑4501, the famous, beloved, unmatched, and iconic Scenicruiser (an exclusive coach built for Greyhound alone, which served in the fleet from 1954 until about 1975).
“Growing Up at Greyhound”: It tells about my growing up at Greyhound – as the title says – while my father worked as a longtime (37‑year) coach operator for the Greyhound Lines, starting in 1940.
Related Articles
Please see also my articles about the Atlantic Greyhound Lines, the Capitol Greyhound Lines, the Central Greyhound Lines, the Dixie Greyhound Lines, the Florida Greyhound Lines, the Great Lakes Greyhound Lines, the Illinois Greyhound Lines, the New England Greyhound Lines, the Northland Greyhound Lines, the Ohio Greyhound Lines, the Overland Greyhound Lines, the Pacific Greyhound Lines, the Pennsylvania Greyhound Lines, the Pickwick-Greyhound Lines, the Richmond Greyhound Lines, the Southeastern Greyhound Lines, the Southwestern Greyhound Lines, the Teche Greyhound Lines, the Valley Greyhound Lines, The Greyhound Corporation, the Greyhound Lines after WW2, the Greyhound Lines in Canada, the Tennessee Coach Company, and the Scenicruiser.
Bibliography
Ancestry.com.
Coachbuilt.com.
FamilySearch.com.
Grams, Brian, and Andrew Gold, GM Intercity Coaches. Hudson: Iconografix, 2001. ISBN 1‑58388‑099‑2.
Greyhound.com.
Harris, Eva, Driving America for 100 Years. Victoria: Friesen Press, 2017. ISBN 978‑1‑4602‑5290‑1.
Jackson, Carlton, Hounds of the Road. Dubuque: Kendall Hunt Publishing Company, 1984. ISBN 0‑87972‑207‑3.
Jon’s Trailways History Corner, an online Trailways history by Jan Hobijn (known also as Jon Hobein) at http://cw42.tripod.com/Jon.html.
Luke, William, Yellow Coach Buses. Hudson: Iconografix, 2001. ISBN 1‑58388‑054‑2.
Luke, William, and Brian Grams, Buses of Motor Coach Industries. Hudson: Iconografix, 2001. ISBN 1‑58388‑039‑9.
Luke, William, Fageol and Twin Coach Buses. Hudson: Iconografix, 2002. ISBN 1‑58388‑075‑5.
Meier, Albert, and John Hoschek, Over the Road. Upper Montclair: Motor Bus Society, 1975. No ISBN (because of the age of the book).
Motor Coach Age, ISSN 0739‑117X, a publication of the Motor Bus Society, Paramus, New Jersey, various issues, especially these:
March 1954;
Fall 1960;
April 1965;
February 1966;
April 1966;
July 1967;
November 1967.
Plachno, Larry, Modern Intercity Coaches. Polo: Transportation Trails, 1997. ISBN 0‑933449‑27‑5.
Reflections, a publication of the Museum of the Antique-automobile Club of America, Hershey, Pennsylvania, spring-summer 2026. No ISSN.
Rushing, Duncan Bryant, Wheels, Water, Words, Wings, and Engines. Orange City: Fidelity Publishers, forthcoming.
Russell’s Official National Motor-coach Guide, a publication of Russell’s Guides, Inc., Cedar Rapids, Iowa, various issues. No ISSN.
Schisgall, Oscar, The Greyhound Story. Chicago: J.G. Ferguson Publishing Company, 1985. ISBN 0‑385‑19690‑3.
Seattle Star, The, Seattle, Washington, 28 February 1947.
Spokesman-Review, The, Spokane, Washington, 18 January 2007.
Von Fange, Paul, Scenicruising. Raleigh: Lulu Press, 2015. ISBN 1‑329425‑08‑1.
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Posted at 04:58 EDT, Friday, 03 July 2026.
© Copyright, 2026, Duncan Bryant Rushing