Claiming the Puyallup Valley
A pioneer report from 1853 describes a rush of settlers onto rich timberland and the struggle to navigate the inaccessible river banks.
Dear Sir—As it may interest your readers to know what is going on in this part of the Territory, I embrace a spare moment to send you a brief communication. The attention of many settlers has been recently attracted to this interesting section of our new country, and the work of laying out claims is progressing very rapidly. As soon as one man’s stakes are set, another follows along who thinks the claim beyond is just as good. There are now some twenty or twenty-five claims taken, at and above the junction of the Puyallup and White Rivers, and hundreds more, just as good, that can be had adjacent to the settlement. As to our soil here, it is admitted, on all hands, to be the very richest yet discovered in the Territory; and the only reason why it was not the first land taken up was because the dense timber, lying between this and the Sound, had made it almost inaccessible. But the opening of the new immigrant road has not only revealed its richness, but opened the door for settlers.
“As soon as one man’s stakes are set, another follows along who thinks the claim beyond is just as good.”
In 1853, the Puyallup Valley was the frontier of a land boom driven by the promise of fertile bottomland. Today, that same ground is the site of intensive industrial development and regional infrastructure, yet the fundamental competition for space and land use remains a defining feature of the valley's history.
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