The Inland Empire Land Rush
A massive regional promotion campaign is drawing interest from the Midwest, though Kennewick risks being left off the map.
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.
Inquiries about Inland Empire farming opportunities are being received by the Spokane Chamber of Commerce at the rate of from six to twelve daily as a result of the immigration campaign now being conducted throughout the middle west. Fifteen thousand large booklets, containing listings of 800 tracts, comprising 160,000 acres, and matter descriptive of all phases of farming in all parts of the Inland Empire, are being distributed. This edition will be exhausted within six weeks. In the first edition of booklets, Kennewick is not represented. At the beginning of the campaign the matter of securing listings of farms in this section was taken up by the Commercial club and placed in the hands of a special committee but as yet the committee has not reported on the work.
“High land prices in the middle west together with climatic conditions, have created a desire on the part of many farmers to settle in the Inland Empire.”
The 'Inland Empire' marketing campaign of 1914 represents the aggressive boosterism that defined the development of Eastern Washington. The failure of the local committee to get Kennewick into the promotional materials mirrors the perennial struggle of small towns to compete in regional development campaigns.
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