The 'Folly' of Tacoma: A Steamboat Traveler’s Skeptical Report
An 1876 visitor finds the new city of Tacoma lacking and highlights the tragic loss of local boys at sea.
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.
Accepting the kind invitation of Mr. Otis Freeman, the resident agent of the P. M. S. S. Co., for a trip to Tacoma on board the City of Panama, we went aboard the staunch craft, and during a heavy squall the lines were cast off and we steamed up the bay. After having been presented to Capt. Seabury and the balance of the gentlemanly officers, we were shown by Mr. Freeman through the velvet-lined cabin, staterooms, and the pantries. The cabin we saw was commodious, the staterooms well ventilated, and the mattresses of the beds were covered with linen that is washed as well as the sheets every trip—an innovation that will be hailed with pleasure by every traveler. After exploring between decks and inspecting the precautions taken to prevent fire from contact of the boilers, we were introduced to Mr. J. H. Matthews, the Chief Engineer, and were piloted by him down to the depths of the hold.
The engines are compound high and low pressure, of 1400 horse power, with super-heating boilers attached. The strangest part was the super-heating boiler, which so dries the steam that it will neither scald nor burn the flesh, but glance off like hot air; 'seeing was believing' with us, and we saw it was a fact. Thanking the engineer for his courtesy, we went on deck to have pointed out to us three houses and a hotel, which marks the site of the city of Tacoma. At length reaching the wharf, we went into the Depot Hotel, and after supper went up on the hill and had a jolly evening tripping the light fantastic toe at the hall. However, when we reached our stateroom, we had an idea that Tacoma was not much of a place anyway, and that it should be called the North Pacific's folly.
A painful accident occurred here on Wednesday, the 29th. Three young lads, named respectively John and Harry Balston, aged 16 and 11 years, and Willie Pratt, aged 12 years, were out gunning in a canoe, when on their return they took aboard Mr. John Croft, engineer of the Black Diamond. After leaving the Puyallup river, nothing has been seen of them save the canoe, bottom up, the paddles, and a hat. The bay has been dragged but to no purpose and Mr. Joseph Balston has to mourn the death of his two eldest boys.
“We had an idea that Tacoma was not much of a place anyway, and that it should be called the North Pacific's folly.”
In 1876, Tacoma was a tiny, skeptical frontier project dubbed a 'folly' by Seattle observers, who were clearly defensive about their own city’s prominence. Today, that rivalry has morphed into a massive regional interdependence, though the 'housing' and 'development' debates mentioned in the surrounding ads reflect a Seattle that is still wrestling with the same expansionist growing pains.
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