The Boomtown Frontier: A Traveler's Account of New Tacoma and the Puyallup Valley
As the Northern Pacific Railroad carves its path into the frontier, a correspondent journeys from Snohomish to witness the rapid, chaotic, and industrious birth of New Tacoma and the hop-heavy Puyallup Valley.
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.
On Friday evening, Sept. 14, we left New Tacoma, the Western Terminus of the N. P. Railroad, on the evening train up the Valley for a visit to the hop fields and coal mines. Prior to the advent of the railroad, there was nothing there that could be called a town. Now, one sees furniture factories, general merchandise stores, and blacksmith shops. The town’s location is excellent, situated on a dry tract of bottom land high enough to avoid the floodwaters of the Puyallup River. Within the immediate vicinity, timber—consisting mostly of Balm of Gilead trees—is being utilized by a stave factory that produces 25,000 staves per day. We also passed the race course, where Indians, Chinamen, and white men meet to race horses and gamble; the variety of dress and character presented there makes for an interesting study of human nature. Our journey concluded with a walk from South Prairie to the end of the railroad track near the residence of pioneer Mr. Lane, where we boarded a construction train to return to Tacoma, and then home to Snohomish by steamer.
“Prior to the advent of the railroad there was nothing there that could be called a town.”
This account captures a pivotal moment when the Northern Pacific Railroad fundamentally altered the Washington landscape, turning quiet river valleys into industrial hubs. Today, the rapid growth described in the Puyallup Valley mirrors modern concerns regarding land use, industrial development, and the pressure of a booming population on historically rural areas.
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