The Unstoppable Surge: Washington Territory on the Eve of Statehood
A wide-eyed 1889 editorial captures a frontier territory on the brink of a population explosion, detailing the frantic expansion of railroads, coal mines, and lumber mills that turned a 'wilderness' into a commercial powerhouse.
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 splendid advance made by the territory of Washington during the past year was in no wise lessened in 1888. On the contrary, a greater and grander progress can be placed to the credit of the twelve months just gone than to any of the years preceding. Twenty years ago, Washington Territory was less known, more inaccessible, and generally considered less desirable than is Alaska today. Yet, despite obstacles, the territory grew. A settler here and there took a quarter section of land; a sawmill was built; the opening of coal mines was begun; and talk of railroads was heard more frequently.
The great development has come since 1880. To the pioneer, the changes of the last eight years have been almost bewildering. He had been accustomed to small things, and now that great ones have come, he is little prepared to realize them. The world has been forced to take notice. Washington has secured a place among the great business communities of the world. It no longer trades through and by the help of Oregon or California. The people have their own railroads, their own factories, their own banks, their own newspapers, their own ships; in fact, everything that goes to make up a great commercial power. What is needed now is statehood. With political dignity and a voice in the affairs of the nation, Washington will take a start that will keep her moving more rapidly during the coming decade than she has moved during the present. It will be disappointing if there are not 1,000,000 people in the State of Washington by the close of the nineteenth century.
“It is only a question of time—20 or 40 years perhaps—when Oregon and Washington will be peopled like Ohio, New York, Massachusetts, England, and other parts of the earth.”
This 1889 New Year's report mirrors the 'boomtown' anxiety that has defined Seattle for over a century. The article’s breathless cataloging of rapid population growth, infrastructure development, and the pressure on land mirror today’s headlines about the city’s transformation, proving that the 'unstoppable surge' is the only constant in Washington's history.
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