The Quest for a Skagit Trail
A merchant from Ruby City visits Seattle to lobby merchants for a new wagon road, hoping to bypass the reliance on British Columbia for trade and supplies.
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.
A. V. Pressentin, a Ruby City merchant, arrived in the city yesterday. He says that within a few days a party of Ruby City residents will arrive for the purpose of interesting Seattle merchants in the opening of a wagon road or pack trail from Sauk City, the head of navigation on the Skagit river, to Ruby City, a distance of thirty-five miles. Mr. Pressentin said: 'Ruby City, which is the center of the Ruby creek mining district, is located in the northern part of Whatcom county, but all the trade is going by way of Fort Hope, B.C. Fort Hope merchants have subscribed and built a trail to Ruby City, a distance of eighty-five miles. All the freight and provisions for the town come from Victoria via the Fraser river and Fort Hope. At present there are about 170 men at Ruby City and the town is growing. We would all prefer patronizing Seattle merchants for we are Americans, and then, too, the Sauk City route would be infinitely shorter than the trail to Fort Hope.'
“We would all prefer patronizing Seattle merchants for we are Americans.”
This story highlights the early economic competition between Seattle and British Columbia for the remote mountain trade, showcasing how geography dictated supply chains and the fierce desire for local economic sovereignty in the mining boom era.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.