The Art of the Townsite Swindle
A cynical promoter explains to a traveler exactly how to manufacture a fake city out of thin air and poor land to bait unsuspecting investors.
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.
I was sitting on a bait barrel on the shady side of the depot when a farmer drove up. He went around and talked with the station agent for a few minutes and then returned to ask: 'Stranger, do you want to make $20,000 as easy as rolling off a log?' 'I do,' I said. 'Are you a religious man?' 'Not exactly.' 'Any scruples against lyin'?' 'That's according to circumstances. State your case.' 'The case is just this: I own 100 acres of land. As it stands it's worth about $8 an acre. Split her up into city lots and each one will bring $60. You can figure on $1,000 an acre.' 'But this is no site for a city!' I protested. 'That's where the lyin' will come in. I should calculate on your making the site. You've simply got a railroad junction, one house and 100 acres of mighty poor land to start on. I've known twenty towns out here to start on a heap less. You do the lyin' and the advertising and I do the selling, and in a year we'll clear up a carload of money.'
“You do the lyin' and the advertising and I do the selling, and in a year we'll clear up a carload of money.”
This piece perfectly captures the 'boom and bust' mentality that defined the Pacific Northwest's rapid development in the 1890s. While the methods of land speculation have modernized, the cycle of selling 'unspoiled' potential to investors—often on land unsuited for actual infrastructure—remains a recognizable feature of the region's growth politics.
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