Forging a Gateway Through the Cascades
A new mountain road promises to replace a 350-mile detour with a direct 120-mile route, finally linking Seattle to the agricultural bounty of Eastern Washington.
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.
Business has been shaping itself within the last year, creating a new situation for renewed efforts on the part of the people of both Yakima and King counties to make the most of the opportunities presented by the wagon road enterprise. When the road shall have been completed, a stage route and mail line will be in order, connecting Seattle on the west with Ainsworth, Walla Walla, Colfax and Spokane Falls on the east. By the building of the road, the mines of Yakima, which contain gold, silver, copper, lead, manganese and magnetic iron ore, will be of access. Then too, the long and expensive route by rail and stage to Yakima can be avoided. By the present traveled route via Portland and The Dalles, 350 miles are necessarily traveled to reach Ellensburg. Travel by the wagon road is less than 120 miles. We are especially pleased over the prospect that the time is near at hand when we will be able to greet our brothers of the press, as well as other enterprising citizens, with a cordial 'how-dye-do'; when we can clasp hands over the snow-clad mountains that have been for so many years a barrier of no small proportions to both sections.
“When the road shall have been completed, a stage route and mail line will be in order, connecting Seattle on the west with Ainsworth, Walla Walla, Colfax and Spokane Falls on the east.”
This reflects the 19th-century struggle to physically conquer the Cascade Mountains, a precursor to the modern reliance on Snoqualmie and Stevens Pass highways. The 'wagon road' was the economic lifeline that preceded the transcontinental railroad dominance, illustrating how Seattle's geography dictated its early frantic efforts to connect with the agricultural interior.
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