A Local Pastor’s Traveling Sales Pitch for Kennewick
Rev. C. D. Rarey brings the Kennewick gospel—and agricultural slides—to the Midwest, turning his vacation into a promotional tour for the local soil.
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.
Rev. C. D. Rarey of the M. E. Church left Tuesday for a three-week visit to his old home in Indiana. While away, the Rev. Rarey expects to do some missionary work, though not the traditional kind. As a matter of fact, he went East to keep from preaching; his missionary work will be in the nature of hard plugging for Kennewick. Down in the bottom of his grip, he carried some two dozen stereopticon slides, typical of Kennewick city and rural scenes, which he will use in a series of lectures on the possibilities of the Kennewick country. From his travels, he notes: 'One day’s journey on the Northern Pacific gives abundant chance to notice many contrasts. Last week I rode on a combine harvester where they were finishing harvesting seven hundred acres of splendid wheat in Horse Heaven, one field of which went over 40 bushels to the acre. This week I am riding past wheat and threshers in Montana, North Dakota and Minnesota, and much of the grain does not go below 40 bushels and some goes 25 bushels. The appearance of the crops and stock in Montana is not as good as in Kennewick—some nice alfalfa hay and other hay, but nothing seems better than at Kennewick, except the mountain scenery and pine trees. The days seem to be as hot and Kennewick still looks good to me.'
“His missionary work will be in the nature of some good hard plugging for Kennewick.”
Long before digital marketing, local boosters used stereopticon slides to lure newcomers to the Tri-Cities. The preacher’s comparison of wheat yields remains a classic tactic in the perpetual regional competition for agricultural dominance and economic growth in Washington State.
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