The Absurd Scheme to Build a Railway to the Top of Mount Rainier

And now that the Puyallup vein of coal has ended in a gravel bed just as the road was completed to the mines, and Congress was about confirming the land grant to the land ring, the builders of that road are casting about for some profitable use for the rails. To allow the iron to rust on the roadbed would be a positive loss. In this dilemma, a new project is being developed, which it is thought will sell all of the lots in Tacoma at prices ranging from $1,000 to $90,000 each, and secure all the unoccupied lands on the Sound to the land ring. The plan is to send out parties of surveyors to find a practicable route for the continuation of the road to the summit of Mount Rainier. This at first glance would seem impracticable and ridiculous, but the novelty of a railroad excursion to the top of Mount Rainier will make the move so popular that no difficulty will be experienced in securing loans from foreign capitalists. We await anxiously the day when from Seattle we can watch the iron horse circling old Rainier, ascending in easy grades to the snowy summit.