The Price of Progress in Whatcom County
Farmers bear the burden of new road construction, but the infrastructure boom promises a prosperous future for the region.
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.
County Commissioner Gillette has returned from a week's trip with Commissioner Malloy through the northern portion of the county inspecting highways. He says that while the burden of the construction of the new roads this year under the new law has fallen heavily upon many of the farmers, the great value of the improvement is already so clearly manifest that the settlers in nearly all sections of the county are anxious for the extension of the system. The live trunk lines all radiate from Whatcom, and upon them thirty-four miles have been built this year. Mr. Gillette will go to Skagit county Thursday to confer with the county commissioners there about the proposed water front road from here to the Samish flats. If they agree to build from Edison up to the county line, work will be commenced on this side about July 1, and the three and a half miles along the water front between the city limits here and the line will be completed this year. The grade is good and the road will be one of the finest and most picturesque in the state. The commissioners hope to get work started this year on several lines of road with a view to completing at least twenty-five miles more next year. Then, they say, Whatcom county will be the banner county in the state for highways, and interior development will be rapid and will greatly increase the amount of taxable property.
“The burden of the construction of the new roads this year under the new law has fallen heavily upon many of the farmers, the great value of the improvement is already so clearly manifest.”
The tension between infrastructure costs and the promise of economic development remains a central theme in Washington's growth. Whatcom County’s 1894 push for 'trunk lines' mirrors today’s debates over transit expansion, with the same arguments about tax bases and the long-term benefit of connectivity.
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