The Narrow-Gauge Dream Through Naches Pass
A completed survey and North Yakima's $100,000 pledge push a rail line toward 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.
The Ellensburgh Localizer reported that the people of Yakima were talking earnestly about a narrow-gauge railroad through the Naches Pass to the Sound. North Yakima was willing to give $100,000 toward it—an exceedingly liberal offer that evinced the proper spirit and ought to insure success. Engineer George C. Mills returned from Bumping River Tuesday, having completed the location of the narrow-gauge road. He found an excellent route, with the exception of a short distance where a 300-foot tunnel will be required. The incorporators held a meeting that afternoon and made the necessary arrangements for starting out the right-of-way and soliciting committees, who are now at work.
“North Yakima is willing to give $100,000 toward it. That is exceedingly liberal, and evinces the proper spirit and the one that ought to insure success.”
Rail subsidies and route surveys were the venture capital of the 1890s, with towns bidding to become the next terminus. The line through Naches Pass was never completed as dreamed, but the episode shows how aggressively Yakima chased connection to Puget Sound—an impulse still visible in regional transportation debates.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.