The Fight for the Sunnyside Belt Line
Residents are firing back at rumors of railroad abandonment, insisting their fertile soil promises a profitable future for the Northern Pacific.
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.
SUNNYSIDE, Dec. 3.—The people here are very indignant at the report in a city paper that 'Sunnyside has lost its railroad,' inasmuch as there is every reason to believe that the branch line from Prosser to Zillah via Sunnyside will be built. The statement that President Thomas Cooper turned the project down is an impeachment of his integrity. Thomas Cooper, of Granger, president of the construction company, approved of the building of the proposed belt line, and later that Mr. Mellen approved it and recommended it to the board of directors. In the meantime, Mr. Howard, the new president, having full knowledge of the situation, can not consistently do anything other than what he has—hold it under consideration. Sunnyside is preparing to show President Elliott that it has a larger acreage of soil equal if not superior to that surrounding North Yakima, and that she can therefore produce as much or more freight per year. And as North Yakima furnishes the largest freight traffic the Northern Pacific has between the mountains and the coast, there can be no doubt whether the proposed belt line would pay.
“The statement that President Thomas Cooper turned the project down is an impeachment of his integrity.”
The struggle to secure reliable rail transport was the 1903 version of advocating for broadband or highway expansion. Today, Sunnyside remains a vital agricultural hub, but its reliance on infrastructure remains a central theme for local economic development.
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