Another Railroad Rumor, Another Promise That Newport Will Be a Railroad Town
A Northern Pacific engineer says the Burlington wants its own line from Sandpoint through Newport to Chewelah, Conconully and Rockport — and the Miner is already dreaming of division-point shops.
And still there are rumors of another railroad that is heading toward Newport and will help to make this town one of the largest railroad centers in Eastern Washington.
The railroad is a transcontinental line, too, according to report, and is none other than the extension of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy to the Puget Sound country. This road now has its western terminus at Billings, Mont., and is controlled by the Hill interests. From Billings to Seattle it now operates over the Northern Pacific, through passenger service being maintained between Chicago and Seattle.
The traffic on the Washington portion of the Northern Pacific is ordinarily very heavy and the increased business of the Burlington has seriously interfered with the operating department. The demand for greater trackage caused the construction during the past year of the Spokane, Seattle & Portland Railroad by the Hill party. It is now reported that the same interests will find a new route for the Burlington from Sandpoint to the coast.
The plan, as told here by a civil engineer in the employ of the Northern Pacific, is to build a line from Sandpoint to Newport and then to Chewelah, where they would strike a fine mineral and fruit country. From Chewelah the road is to be built to Conconully, in Okanogan county, and then to Rockport, in Skagit county, where a connection will be made with another Hill line running to Bellingham.
The route proposed would open up an immense territory, rich in mineral, timber and agricultural resources, that is without railroads at the present time. In addition the road would open to the public a territory, now practically closed on account of the lack of railroads, containing some of the most beautiful mountain scenery in the world.
The Miner hopes that this road will be built and that this place may be a division point and have the shops of the company. Its construction would develop a large scope of country tributary to Newport and would greatly increase our population and the volume of business transacted here.
It is certain that engineers in the employ of some road have been working on a proposed line between Sandpoint and Newport for the past two years. Reports have also been current at other points along the proposed route of the work of engineers, who would not divulge the name of the company they were working for.
Let the good work go on.
“The Miner hopes that this road will be built and that this place may be a division point and have the shops of the company.”
Newport spent the first decade of the century collecting railroad rumors the way other towns collected debts — and the promised Burlington line through town never came. The Great Northern and the Idaho & Washington Northern did build here, but the division shops and the boom that would have justified them went elsewhere. A century later, Newport is still a small border town courting the next big employer, and the language of 'tributary country' and 'division point' has barely changed.
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