The Promised Land of the Skagit Valley
A booster’s vision of Fairhaven as the essential gateway for the vast mineral and agricultural wealth of the Skagit Valley.
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.
Mr. Mussetter, returning from the Skagit valley, reports that the region is one of the greatest in the state. Its valleys are marvels of fertility and its hills are seamed with coal, iron, gold, and silver. A massive deposit of high-quality clay near Sedro has also been discovered, perfect for earthenware and queensware. Since the Skagit river is not navigable above Hamilton, the products of the valley must seek an outlet by rail. That cut is by way of Fairhaven. I assert that the greater portion of the valley, with all its marvelous wealth, is tributary to Fairhaven—a feeder, which if carefully cultivated, will grow to mammoth proportions.
“If Fairhaven had nothing else whatever behind it, I really believe that that portion of the Skagit river valley which is directly tributary to Fairhaven, and Fairhaven alone, would make this a great city.”
This reflects the 1890s era of 'boosterism' where town promoters viewed rural hinterlands purely as resource colonies to fuel their specific municipal growth. Today, this extractive mindset is replaced by debates over regional planning and the environmental cost of that very same 'mammoth' growth.
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