The Pioneer’s Path to Port Hadlock
From gold mining to lumber milling, Samuel Hadlock reflects on the rugged early days of Washington Territory.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Samuel Hadlock, the founder of Port Hadlock, is stopping at the Grand hotel. He was born in New Hampshire sixty-three years ago. In 1852, he reached The Dalles and went gold hunting in lower Oregon and Northern California. During the winter, he endured great hardships and was almost starved. In the spring, with blankets on his shoulder, he walked to the Willamette Valley. In 1865, he came to the Sound looking for a mill site. After a failed initial site, he chose the location for the Port Hadlock mill. He laid out the town in 1884.
“During the winter, he endured great hardships, and was almost starved, for flour was a dollar a pound.”
Hadlock's journey is a quintessential Pacific Northwest pioneer story, tracing the shift from the transient gold rush era to the industrial development of timber towns that defined Washington's economy for a century.
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