A New Transcontinental Rail Route Surveyed Through Yakima
Engineers claim a new route from the Midwest to Puget Sound is shorter and more economical than the Northern Pacific line.
In May last, the associated press dispatches conveyed the news that a party of engineers of the Illinois Central railroad had left Sioux Falls, Dakota, to find a feasible route to the Sound. These same engineers arrived in North Yakima Monday. The head of the party was Geo. M. Nix, who is the general manager of the Midland Pacific R. K. Co. Mr. Nix, with his chief engineer, Chas. A. Dewar, left Sioux city early in May, traveling westerly up the Lugenbee river, through the Big Horn and Wind river mountains, across the Rockies, and down the Salmon and Snake rivers to Lewiston. From Lewiston, the route traveled to Palouse, crossed the Northern Pacific at Palouse Junction, then west via Crab Creek coulee, crossing the Columbia river at Priest's rapids and through the Moxee coulee to North Yakima. Mr. Nix claims the line is feasible and the grades are economic, draining a splendid country untapped by railroads. It is claimed to be 300 miles shorter from Chicago to Puget Sound than the Northern Pacific. The party left on the following day for the Sound via the Natchees pass, and Nix stated that if no further obstacles were found, engineering parties would be in the field by March to permanently locate the road.
“A splendid country untapped by railroads is drained, and fewer difficulties are encountered on this route than have been surmounted by the other transcontinental roads.”
The fierce competition between rail giants to secure mountain passes defined the rapid, often volatile growth of Yakima in the late 19th century. Today, these historical surveys remind us of how the geography of the Pacific Northwest was actively reshaped by corporate infrastructure interests long before modern interstate planning.
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