The Fever for Puget Sound Land
A traveler reports a 'bewildering' rush of immigrants, leaving little land available as settlers quarrel over every acre.
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.
Mr. James Kennedy arrived in this city a few days ago from Portland. Mr. Kennedy visited most of the places about the Sound and reports that the rush of immigrants to that region is perfectly bewildering. They are coming in hundreds and thousands, and all the available land is being taken up with such rapidity that there will soon be none left. A part of the land is very inferior to that in British Columbia, but people are buying it and quarreling over it everywhere. Washington Territory is settled right up to the boundary line, and towns and cities are springing up everywhere.
“They are coming in hundreds and thousands, and all the available land is being taken up with such rapidity that there will soon be none left.”
The 'bewildering' rush described in 1883 mirrors the land-fever cycles that have defined Seattle's history, where rapid influxes of population consistently outpace the availability of affordable land. The description of people 'quarreling' over even inferior plots is a recurring theme in the city's housing and land-ownership narrative.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.