The Fight Over the Cascade Mountain Pass
A debate unfolds regarding whether the Northern Pacific should build its new Cascade line through the Naches Pass or the Stampede Pass.
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 building of the Cascade line is of great prospective value to the Northern Pacific Company, and of no less value to the people of Kittitas Valley. The road as surveyed up through the Yakima Valley and through the Stampede Pass is the one to which allusion is made; the tunneling of the mountain is the main obstacle to be encountered in its progress from here to the inland sea, Puget Sound. A project has been broached lately of building this division through the Naches Pass, which is said to be forty miles nearer, although the altitude of the summit is several hundred feet greater. There is very little farming land on the Naches and its tributaries, while on the Stampede roadway there is farming land all the way up to the foot of the mountains. We prefer to have one more substantial than that. We have had enough of such roads. Let us have a regular wood and iron road that can be run in good style.
“Let us have a regular wood and iron road that can be run in good style.”
The determination of railroad routes in the late 19th century was the primary factor in deciding which towns would thrive and which would wither. This conflict over Stampede versus Naches Pass highlights the intense lobbying and boosterism that defined Washington's infrastructure development.
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