The Hop Fever Gripping Puyallup
As hop vines hit 21 inches in the fertile valley, a local developer and hop baron makes big moves to capitalize on the boom.
The town of Puyallup is very much interested in the developments which are taking place in railway matters on Puget Sound. This place promises to be amply supplied with railway accommodations in the near future. It is just now the changing point for travelers from the East for Seattle, and the direct road from Seattle to Portland has been located within the city limits. The right of way of the Puyallup Valley railway also passes through town, so that as soon as these lines are in working order the producers of this fertile valley will have easy and cheap transit to both Seattle and Tacoma for their productions. Col. Parker, of Walla Walla, is in town, here looking up the hop business, and intends raising some on his ranch at Yaquina Bay. E. Meeker, having placed the greater part of his property here on the market, is adding greatly to his Kent hop yards, and has already shipped there almost 30,000 hop poles. Most of the farmers are busy planting their poles here, the hop vines being in some yards as high as 21 inches. So far the weather has been very favorable for the cultivating and planting of hop roots.
“The hop vines being in some yards as high as 21 inches. So far the weather has been very favorable for the cultivating and planting of hop roots.”
Ezra Meeker’s hop boom in the 19th-century Puyallup Valley illustrates the same speculative pressures that define today's Puget Sound real estate market. Just as farmers and developers then jockeyed for position to serve the growing transport lines to Seattle and Tacoma, modern homeowners and investors are still tethered to the infrastructure and land-value booms of our transit-oriented growth.
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