A Hot Ride to the Coast: A Summer Diary from 1905
A Kennewick minister's account of a grueling journey across the state, from dusty horse-and-buggy travel in the valley to a culture shock in the 'Red Light district' of Seattle.
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 Kennewick a week ago today at 5 A.M. with my own conveyance. I arrived at Kiona on my schedule time, 9 A.M., hot, dry and dusty. I drove through Euclid and Belma; the early frost killed the fruit. I forded the Sunnyside canal, put all my baggage on the buggy seat and waded in. I arrived at Zillah after another dusty ride and hit the trail for Parker and Stringle ranch. Saturday at 10 A.M., started for Seattle. All on the train were hot and dusty until we passed the Cascade Mountain tunnel. We got the first mouthful of cool air we had had for 30 days. Being unable to get a room at the Dilly hotel, I went on the advice of a policeman to the Alaska Commercial. We did not like our quarters, and found we had passed the night below the Red Light district and was vexed at the policeman who lied to us.
“We got the first mouthful of real cool air we had had for 30 days on emerging from the tunnel.”
Travel across Washington has evolved from days of horse-drawn carriages and dusty fords to the I-90 corridor, yet the contrast between the heat of the interior valley and the cool marine air of the Puget Sound remains a defining feature of the Pacific Northwest experience. Rev. Dry’s encounter with deceptive policing in Seattle’s early 20th-century urban core highlights a recurring historical tension between travelers and the city's shifting 'red-light' geography.
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