The Promised Land of Mukilteo
Developers pitch a vision of 'valuable' homesteads and marshland ranches to settlers, promising a life of agriculture and industry on the shores of the Sound.
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.
Secure Homes: The best opportunity ever offered to secure homes on easy terms that will soon be very valuable. 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 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 also an excellent location for establishing warehouses from which to ship the products of Snohomish, Whatcom, and Island counties in deep water vessels. In addition to the above, will be sold 320 acres of the finest marsh land in the territory, known as the Harley Ranch, with 20 acres of upland. This is only four miles from Snohomish City on the Grand Marsh. Well drained, not subject to overflow, soil extra fertile, dry and nearly ready for the plow. There is a wagon road to the premises, and products can be taken by this road or by boats from the premises to market. Terms easy. The best chance ever offered in the territory to secure a home farm. Just the location for a colony, as it can be subdivided into forty-acre tracts, each of which will yield an abundant support for a family.
“The best chance ever offered in the Territory to secure a home farm. Just the location for a colony!”
This advertisement showcases the classic Pacific Northwest land-grab mentality that defined the late 19th century. Today, the dream of affordable 'homesteads' in the path of growth has morphed into the modern struggle for attainable housing, with the same coastal locations that were once pitched for mills and warehouses now being redeveloped for high-density residential use.
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