The Dream of the Mukilteo Homestead
Developers pitch the promise of self-sufficiency and deep-water access to prospective homesteaders in a growing Mukilteo.
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 valuable Mukilteo townsite property is divided into twenty-two strips of about nine acres each, extending back from near the water so as to include meadow and garden land already cleared, besides timber land on the bluff. Five of these fine homesteads are already sold. Credit will be given at low rates of interest to those unable to pay cash down. Also desirable property on the front is for sale or lease on reasonable terms for business purposes. Bargains are 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 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 some thirty or forty head of cattle, 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.”
This 19th-century land advertisement captures the enduring myth of 'homesteading' as a path to individual prosperity. Today's Mukilteo is defined by the very transportation infrastructure and commercial potential these developers promised, though the 'nine-acre homestead' has long since vanished under dense suburban development.
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