The Boom Town on the Sound: Labor and Industry in 1877 Tacoma
A traveler’s dispatch from New Tacoma reports on the frenetic pace of local timber mills, the arrival of new industrial machinery, and the rapid expansion of the labor force as the city builds its future.
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 left Seattle this morning on the fast steamer Messenger, Captain Parker in command. I found on board at least $1,000 worth of goods for several points on the route from Schwabacher & Co., and other merchants of your city. At New Tacoma, I found the Dashing Wave just putting on her last few feet of lumber to complete her cargo. Captain Nichols told me they had been four days loading; they put on board 150,000 feet of lumber. The Tacoma mill can hold her own with any on the coast; their new gang, called the Prescott patent, is from the Marietta Iron Works, Wisconsin. Mr. Welch, the engineer, informs me it will saw one-third more lumber per day than any other king saw on Puget Sound. At New Tacoma, everything seemed full of life, especially on the hill, and the hotels seem to be doing a rushing business. Many Seattleites are here getting good jobs, and we learn that men are wanted on the Puyallup road. They have now about 200 white men employed in chopping and grading, 250 Chinamen, and 50 Indians. Dick Atkins' pile driver is launching the piles in a lively manner, and a big job he has too.
“At New Tacoma everything seemed full of life, especially on the hill, and the hotels there seem to be doing a rushing business.”
This 1877 dispatch captures a snapshot of the intense industrial competition between Seattle and the emerging town of Tacoma. Much like today, the region was defined by rapid infrastructure development, the import of specialized technology, and an economy heavily reliant on the labor of diverse migrant communities.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.