The Pioneer's Exit: Selling a Life in Snohomish
Royal Bashum, a fixture of the Snohomish landscape, puts his substantial ranch, mill site, and home on the market in 1878 to return East.
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.
Wishing to return to the East, I offer for sale all my real and personal property in this county, consisting of a very fine ranch adjoining Snohomish City, of 417 acres; 700 acres of bottom land, the balance upland adjoining, 30 acres cleared, and excellent stock range. An average of over 50 head of stock kept on the place the past two years, 35 now there, of which 13 are milch cows. $200 worth of fruit is annually produced by the orchard on this place. The location is one of the best for a dairy ranch in this county. 80 tons of hay was cut on this place last year. I also offer for sale 170 acres of land at Sultan, near the forks of the river, with a valuable mill privilege and building for a mill ready to put in the machinery. Besides these two valuable places, I will sell one house and lot in Snohomish City. The house is well built, hard finished, one and one-half stories high and contains 7 rooms. For terms apply to the undersigned at Snohomish City. Royal Bashum.
“The location is one of the best for a dairy ranch in this county. 80 tons of hay was cut on this place last year.”
Bashum's advertisement offers a window into the 1870s economy of Snohomish, where land, timber, and agricultural potential were packaged as the ultimate exit strategy for a pioneer. Today, as Snohomish grapples with rapid development and the conversion of historic agricultural lands into residential tracts, this notice highlights the enduring cycle of land turnover and the high value placed on 'mill privileges' and acreage in the river valley.
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