The Battle for North Yakima’s Future
As the territory prepared for statehood in 1889, land agents and local boosters scrambled to convince newcomers that North Yakima—not Ellensburg—was the region's inevitable capital.
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.
A.W. Nye, who has been spending a few days in a survey of Ellensburg and North Yakima, booming towns in Eastern Washington, returned on Tuesday evening from his sojourn. He expressed the opinion that notwithstanding Ellensburg's present lead, North Yakima would eventually become the town of that section.
'A good support for this prophecy,' Mr. Nye observed, 'lies in the fact that the Northern Pacific railroad company is now making preparations to dispose of its property in Ellensburg as soon as possible, while it has withdrawn its large possessions in North Yakima from the market. It seems to me that this is a good indication that the railroad company knows, or thinks it knows, that the Ellensburg boom will soon collapse.
'Another slight straw which shows the direction of the wind is the fact that a syndicate of St. Paul capitalists has purchased two hundred and seventy acres of land near North Yakima for $125 per acre. This land the previous owner took up about five years ago, because he could secure no better, and afterwards held it because he was too poor to leave it. The good fortune which struck him was like a lottery drawing.'
Increased confidence on the part of North Yakimaites is caused by the supposition that the branch road of the Northern Pacific, diverging from Cheney, will strike their town, in the course of time, and this impression is sustained by the movements of the company. It is believed that the Northern Pacific is on the inside track, and that North Yakima will secure the capital.
“The good fortune which struck him was like a lottery drawing.”
The late 19th-century 'railroad urbanism' that shaped North Yakima—where corporate infrastructure decisions dictated which towns thrived—still echoes in the way modern zoning and transit access determine Yakima's current housing and commercial landscape.
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