The Next Pittsburg: Seattle’s Coal Rush
A new mine opens across the Cedar River, fueling hopes that the young city of Seattle will soon become a major center for iron and coal production.
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.
Captain Brown, of the Cedar River, has a number of men employed on his place opening the coal mine there. They have already sunk a shaft a distance of fifty feet and expect to strike the coal immediately. This deposit of coal is supposed to be quite extensive and of excellent quality. It is located just across the river from the Renton coal mine, and its transportation will cost but little if any more than the latter. There are a great number of coal claims in this portion of the county, and it is almost impossible to calculate how many coal mines King County can boast of 10 years hence. The completion of the first section of the Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad will greatly hasten the opening of these claims, for heretofore the greatest obstacle to their development has been the difficulties and expenses of transportation from the mines to Seattle. Not only will the road tend directly to develop the coal interests of the county, but rich deposits of iron ore will be opened up as soon as this expeditious and cheap means of transportation is within reach of them. The time is not far distant when Seattle will be shipping iron ore as well as coal, and the day is not very remote when it will be converted into pig iron in this city, when iron works will spring up here as an outgrowth of these interests. Then our city will be a full-fledged Pittsburg.
“The time is not far distant when Seattle will be shipping iron ore as well as coal, and the day is not very remote when it will be converted into pig iron in this city... Then our city will be a full-fledged Pittsburg.”
In 1877, Seattle boosters saw their future in the heavy industry of coal and iron, dreaming of becoming a 'Pittsburg' of the West. Today, that industrial ambition has shifted entirely, with the region’s economic identity revolving around tech and aerospace, though the legacy of the city's early resource-extraction boom remains etched into its regional geography and infrastructure.
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