The Waterfront Brawl at Anacortes
A simmering land-boom rivalry between Fairhaven and Anacortes turns violent on the docks.
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.
It would seem that a large part of Seattle’s famous and infamous 'Whitechapel' had moved to Anacortes, and that the place is now in a towering rage because its bottom has fallen out. The viciousness and vindictiveness with which they attack anything pertaining to Fairhaven is contemptible. Last Saturday morning, one of the desperates of the place, urged on by his fellows, undertook to cut with an axe the lines of the steamer Fairhaven, which was lying alongside the wharf. The captain of the vessel gave the offender a sound thrashing. On the following evening, when the boat was returning to Tacoma, having touched at Anacortes, an officer came aboard to arrest the captain, and with the officer came a gang. One of these fellows flourished a revolver and was promptly knocked down a pair of stairs by a muscular passenger. The Fairhaven was then cut loose from the alleged wharf and went on to Seattle, taking the officer and gang along. The following day, the captain, accompanied by his attorney, Hon. W. Lair Hill, and Governor George Black, returned to Anacortes to make himself amenable to whatever charges might be preferred.
“Such performances only show the desperate condition of the people of this real estate flare-up on Fidalgo Island.”
This territorial-era rivalry mirrors the intense, sometimes bitter competition between Puget Sound boomtowns struggling to secure rail terminals and maritime prestige. Today, these same towns often collaborate on regional economic development, a far cry from the days when rival crews were physically battling on the docks.
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