The Steamboat Battle for the Okanogan
Ellensburg’s attempt to challenge Spokane for the lucrative Okanogan mining trade is dismissed as a fool’s errand by regional competitors.
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 dispatch from Ellensburg states that during high water on the Columbia River, another attempt will be made to run the little steamer 'City of Ellensburg' up the river to connect with the Okanogan mines. The effort of Ellensburg merchants to compete with the merchants of Spokane Falls for the trade of the Okanogan country will henceforth be an up-hill undertaking. Ellensburg is some thirty miles from the landing on the Columbia, and the road is on the side of a mountain. The steamer on the river to reach this landing must pass over the Rock Island rapids, making navigation practically out of the question. Reaching the nearest point on the river to the Okanogan mines the distance inland is still to be covered, whereas Spokane Falls has two railroads extending out within an easy distance of the Okanogan mines, and before the present season closes one or both of these roads will be nearly to the mouth of the Okanogan river. Ellensburg will have to look for trade in some other direction; and this sending out of telegrams to the effect that Idaho miners are coming to Ellensburg to start to the Okanogan mines will not change the situation a particle.
“The effort of Ellensburg merchants to compete with the merchants of Spokane Falls for the trade of the Okanogan country will henceforth be an up-hill undertaking.”
This reflects the early logistical struggles of Washington's interior cities, where control over mining routes determined economic survival. Just as Ellensburg tried to bypass physical geography to compete with Spokane, modern small towns in Central Washington continue to vie for infrastructure and economic connectivity to larger hubs.
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