The Promised Rail Line from Seattle to Gray's Harbor
Investors from New York set their sights on a massive rail expansion to connect Puget Sound to the coast.
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.
The following statement of the affairs of the Seattle, Puget Sound and Gray's Harbor Railroad Company has been furnished by its attorney: This company has executed an agreement with W. H. Graves, of New York, a broker, who came to this Territory about two months ago looking for profitable investments. The company is to make all necessary surveys for a standard gauge railroad connecting the waters of Puget Sound with those of Gray's Harbor. They seek rights of way and terminal facilities, with donations of land not to be less than 500 acres, to be located principally at terminal points and valuable for townsites. The railroad company is to issue first mortgage sinking fund bonds, bearing six per cent interest, redeemable in twenty-five years, to the extent of $35,000 per mile. Mr. Graves is to negotiate the bonds, with one-half to be paid for by October 1, 1883, and the balance on April 1, 1884. The money is to be used in the building and equipping of a railroad and telegraph line.
“The company is to make all necessary surveys for the location of a railroad on standard gauge, connecting the waters of Puget Sound with those of Gray's Harbor.”
This reflects the era of aggressive rail boosterism that defined Washington's territorial growth. The frantic search for land donations and foreign capital for rail infrastructure remains a familiar echo in the history of the region's rapid, often speculative, industrialization.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.