The High-Stakes Bet on the Great Northern Railway
Two Ellensburg men wagered a horse and a city lot on the specific location of the future Great Northern railroad crossing.
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.
Charles B. Pond, a prominent stock-grower from the Crab creek country, and George W. Elliott, of this city, engaged in a discussion today which resulted in an interesting wager. Pond asserted that the line of the Great Northern crossing the Columbia at some point within twenty miles of Fort Eaton, where the line of the Ellensburg & Northeastern intersects the river, will lie definitely located by June 15, and backed his judgment by depositing a bill of sale of the celebrated white horse 'Snipes' in a local bank. Elliott deposited against it a deed to a valuable city lot, the winner to take down both instruments.
“Pond asserted... and backed his judgment by depositing a bill of sale of the celebrated white horse 'Snipes' in a local bank.”
Railroad speculation fueled the growth of many Washington towns in the 1890s, with civic futures often hanging on the exact placement of tracks. This wager captures the restless, gambling spirit of boosterism that defined the period.
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