The Dream of the La Grande Marsh Colony
Developers in the 1880s marketed a fertile Snohomish County marshland as an ideal site for a family colony, selling the promise of self-sufficiency just four miles from town.
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 La Grande Marsh, well drained, not subject to overflow, is 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 boat from the premises to market. Terms easy. The best chance ever offered in the Territory to secure a fine farm. Just the location for a colony! As it can be sold divided 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 fine farm. Just the location for a colony!”
This advertisement highlights the persistent regional cycle of land speculation and development. While the 'La Grande Marsh' was pitched to 19th-century settlers as a paradise of self-sufficiency, today's Snohomish County continues to debate the same tension between preserving agricultural wetlands and expanding residential housing.
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