The Boomtown of Prosser
A new city in the Yakima Valley reports rapid settlement and high demand for land registration.
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.
Colonel Prosser, of Prosser Falls—the new city in the Yakima Valley—is in the city. We learn that many immigrants are pouring into that section of country and are settling up the Horse Heaven and Rattlesnake countries very fast. Two notaries public at Prosser are busy all the time taking filings. The country around this new town is good for anything that grows and is very favorably situated for trade. A post office has been applied for and will soon be started. In case the Northern Pacific ever decides upon building the Cascade route, it will be right upon the main line, and therefore its prospects are very good.
“Many immigrants are pouring into that section of country and are settling up the Horse Heaven and Rattlesnake countries very fast.”
Prosser's origins as a 'boomtown' in 1884 reflect the rapid, often speculative colonization of the inland Pacific Northwest as the Northern Pacific Railroad expanded. It serves as a reminder of how quickly small agricultural outposts were manufactured by the promise of rail access.
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