The Northern Pacific Railroad's PR Pitch
A railroad executive reflects on the 'hard times' and the massive campaign to lure Easterners to the Washington territory.
General Passenger Agent Fee, of the Northern Pacific, who visited South Bend last Friday, said to a Portland Oregonian reporter that he had no doubt that the Northern Pacific would do a great deal for Hoquiam. Speaking of his own department of the road, Mr. Fee said: 'Travel has not quite come up to the expectations I had formed when I was here in April, so far as the second class and immigrant travel is concerned. The hard times has had something to do with it, no doubt. Of first class travel, however, we have had a large amount, so that the increase for 1891 over 1890 will be between 135 and 148 per cent. Very few people of Washington appreciate the amount of advertising we do for the state. Last year we sent out 1,800,000 parcels through the mails to addresses in answer to letters of inquiry. We take great pains to provide eastern editors with transportation for making trips to this country. Last season fully a quarter of a million columns were written upon the region traversed by our lines.'
“Last season fully a quarter of a million columns were written upon the region traversed by our lines.”
This provides a transparent look at how the Northern Pacific Railroad acted as a primary engine for the colonization and branding of the Pacific Northwest. The focus on 'first class' travel versus 'immigrant' travel highlights the era's class-based approach to state building that mirrored the growth of Aberdeen itself.
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