Victoria’s Million Dollar Bet on a Railway
The city of Victoria, B.C., plans to bond itself for a million dollars to lure the Northern Pacific Railroad to build a northern route through Aberdeen.
It was learned yesterday that the city government of Victoria has made arrangements to bond that city for one million dollars, offering the sum to the Northern Pacific Railroad as a bonus to extend its line north along the Olympic mountains. The proposed route would go from Aberdeen north up the Wishkah valley, through the Humptulips valley, and onward to Port Crescent to meet a steel steam ferry connection to Victoria. This expansion would solidify Aberdeen as the 'throat of a great country,' forcing all regional rail traffic to pass through its harbor.
“Aberdeen, with her magnificent harbor and extensive water front on two rivers... was the throat of a great country.”
This story captures the Gilded Age obsession with 'boosterism'—the belief that if a town could just land a railroad terminal, it would guarantee eternal prosperity. It reflects a time when municipalities routinely bankrupted themselves trying to win the favor of corporate monopolies, a precursor to modern debates over corporate subsidies for development.
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