The Dream of a 'Super Highway' for the 1870s

There is a proposal which ought to interest not only Snohomish, but all of Western Washington. It is the building of a road from Seattle north through the Snohomish river valley. The proposal is to build a road through the valleys of the rivers, thence direct to Bellingham Bay. This would place the land when in competition with others where the cost of hauling would be very slight. Finally, a road built by wagon down the river valleys would touch every important point, and the immediate benefit would be that there would occur within two years after its completion an increment of 100,000 acres of improved farm land. This could all be then improved at less than one-half the cost per acre of tide marsh land, whose aggregate productive capability would be ten-fold the amount of the current product of the tide marshes of the Sound. For twenty years, the talk has been of the mountain passes, but this does not discourage a proper desire to hasten the development of the whole Northwest. A road from Seattle to Bellingham Bay on this route could be built by the people of King, Snohomish, and Whatcom counties; its construction within two years would increase the wealth and population of these counties, where land is now nine-tenths vacant. If the people of the Sound want to create a community, funds can easily be raised to put a road through the counties.