The Bold Bid for a New Pacific Emporium
Speculators and city-builders are betting millions on a new town at the mouth of the Columbia River, hoping to eclipse Portland and Victoria as the premier trading hub of the North.
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.
California papers are filled with notices of the new city in prospect at Baker's Bay. From the tone of the Portland papers, it is plainly seen that the residents of that city greatly fear the power of their new rival. The incorporation is composed of wealthy and energetic men from California, including Frank M. Pixley, Attorney-General of that state. One hundred families, each head of which received $100 in coin, along with several hundred laborers, were to have sailed on the Hermann last week for the new city to begin the erection of wharves, warehouses, and buildings. The capital of the incorporation is estimated at over a million dollars in coin. It is proposed to place a line of steamers on the Columbia to ply between Pacific City and the Cascades to connect with the mining region. If Portland lacked the energy to improve navigation on the Willamette, it is not likely to prove a serious drawback to this new enterprise.
“The new city, next to San Francisco, will have the best location on the Pacific coast, and will eventually command all the trade of Oregon, Washington and the mines of British Columbia.”
The ambitious vision for 'Pacific City' at the mouth of the Columbia reflects the perpetual 19th-century struggle to control the region's geography and trade. While Portland ultimately secured the dominance the boosters feared losing, the constant cycle of real-estate speculation and regional rivalry remains a defining feature of the Pacific Northwest.
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