The Gateway to the Interior
Boosterism surrounding the progress of the Cascade Wagon Road, intended to bridge the gap between Puget Sound and the Eastern territory.
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.
The company are soon to begin work in earnest on this important thoroughfare. Thirty miles of the road is already complete, the result of the individual effort of Geo. H. Smith, last year. Mr. Smith has also stations established at convenient points between Ellensburg and the Summit. It is thought by the Railroad company that it will require three years to complete the three-mile tunnel at the summit of the Cascades. Should this time be required, the Wagon Road will become an important factor in the settlement and development of this section. People familiar with the facts claim that hundreds of immigrants who land on the Sound would investigate the interior of the Territory before settling, could they do so without the delay and expense of a journey by way of the Columbia river.
“There is little doubt the Wagon Road Company will find its enterprise profitable from the outset.”
The infrastructure debate—how to physically connect the Puget Sound to the interior—was the defining economic struggle of the 1880s. This early advocacy for a wagon road mirrors the ongoing civic obsession with mountain passes and cross-state transit that dominates Washington state politics today.
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