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The Mukilteo Land Rush

A frontier real estate advertisement reveals how developers sold the dream of independence to prospective settlers by subdividing the rugged waterfront into 'homesteads.'

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 best opportunity ever offered to secure the valuable Mukilteo townsite property. It is divided into twenty-two strips of about nine acres each, extending back from the water so as to include meadow and garden land already cleared, besides timber land on the bluff. Five of these fine homesteads already sold. Credit will be given at low rates of interest to those unable to pay cash down. Also desirable property on the front for sale or lease on reasonable terms for business purposes. Bargains offered in tracts of 40 and 80 acres of land adjoining the Mukilteo townsite. The natural advantages of Mukilteo are not excelled by any other place on the Sound for fishing, milling, ship-building or manufacturing purposes. All the steamers down the Sound to Snohomish, Whatcom and Island Counties, stop there going and returning; it is also on the direct route of ocean steamers up the Sound. There is also an excellent location for establishing warehouses, from which to ship the products of Snohomish, Whatcom and Island Counties in deep water vessels. On these premises will also be sold a band of cattle, some thirty or forty head in all, thus affording those purchasing homes a chance to secure stock if they so desire.

“The natural advantages of Mukilteo are not excelled by any other place on the Sound.”

— Printed in The Northern Star (Snohomish City, W.T. [Wash.]) 1876-1879, 1878
Then · 1878148 years apartNow · 2026

This advertisement showcases the classic Pacific Northwest land-grab mentality that defined early development in places like Mukilteo and Snohomish. Today, while the 'homesteads' have given way to suburban sprawl and industrial corridors, the tension between preserving natural advantages and marketing land for rapid growth remains a central theme in Washington's housing and land-use debates.

The original page

The Northern Star (Snohomish City, W.T. [Wash.]) 1876-1879, 1878-07-20. Library of Congress, Chronicling America.

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About this story

From
The Northern Star (Snohomish City, W.T. [Wash.]) 1876-1879, JUL 20, 1878, Page 5
Rights
Public domain
Place
47.94740, -122.30370 · placed automatically
The paper in the Library of Congress catalog ↗