Kent Farmers Demand the Electric Railway Seattle Promised
A Kent Valley letter-writer says freight costs to Seattle are strangling the valley — and calls out the Rainier electric line to finally reach Renton and Kent.
Kent, June 17, 1895.
To the Editor: I see that the sale of the Rainier electric railway to one Edson called him out to say that he intended to push the line to Renton. Yes, by all means. Let him or any company do so, and also push it to Kent. It is what we farmers are in need of. It costs us more to ship our products to Seattle, a distance of sixteen miles, than it costs our more fortunate brothers of Whatcom County to ship their products to market. We pay almost double what it costs them. Our valley should be the best settled valley on the Sound; in fact a garden. As it is, we have not grown any in the last six years to speak of, all on account of the great cost of getting our products to market.
Where is the electric railway that Fred Sander so long ago promised us? This valley now offers a great opportunity to some electric line to carry our products at a reasonable rate to your Million City. As the canal will need our products badly, we want to supply them. Even if the county would give us fair roads, we could make a living in the valley, but not as it now stands. The merchant would get more trade from us could we get a way to reach your city with our products without costing all we get to get it to you. Yours, A. L. Paulmier.
“It costs us more to ship our products to Seattle, a distance of sixteen miles, than it costs our more fortunate brothers of Whatcom County to ship their products to market.”
The complaint is a familiar one in Seattle's exurbs: growth follows transit, and freight or commute costs can decide whether a farm town thrives. The Kent Valley became an industrial and logistics powerhouse, but the fight over who pays for access to the city still shapes regional planning.
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