The Great Railway Race to Grays Harbor
Two railroad giants battle to lay tracks into Aberdeen as the town positions itself as the Pacific Northwest’s premier gateway.
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.
The best evidence of Aberdeen's importance as an ocean port and short-line cut-off to the sea is that offered by the efforts the Northern Pacific is making to reach this city in advance of the O. & W. T. R. R. This latter road, in turn, is striving to the limit of its powers to outstrip its formidable rival in the race to the head of navigation on Grays Harbor. These two roads have between them some four thousand men at work between Tacoma, Centralia, and this city. The Northern Pacific, having bought the Puget Sound & Grays Harbor railroad, will be able to make rail connection with Portland, Tacoma, and the east via Centralia and Montesano. At the present time they are at work with a large force of men in South Aberdeen clearing for freight yards, warehouses, docks, and passenger depot. In conjunction with the South Aberdeen Company, they are erecting a large number of buildings, both for business and residence purposes.
“Two roads have between them some four thousand men at work... [striving] to the limit of its powers to outstrip its formidable rival in the race to the head of navigation.”
In 1891, the arrival of the railroad was the singular obsession of Aberdeen's boosters, promising instant connection to global markets. Today, the town reflects on that legacy of extraction, as the physical infrastructure of that era—the rail lines and deep-water docks—remains the backbone of the local economy while the community grapples with the transition away from the timber industry that once necessitated these rail links.
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