The Great Pasco Land Grab of 1889
Capitalists from across the U.S. descended on the junction of the Columbia and Snake Rivers, pitching a 'Gate City' to Seattle investors.
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.
Follow the rush to Pasco! Some large city will spring up at the junction of the Snake and Columbia Rivers, at Pasco. The Pasco Land Company has been formed with a paid-up capital of $300,000 for the purpose of developing and building up a city where one is destined to be. There is not a spot on the map of the whole of North America where another such a junction of large rivers makes such near-water transportation faster than Pasco, save St. Louis, Mo. As a railroad center, it is the point from which the Northern Pacific's lines east, west, north, and south will soon have their terminus at the junction. The Union Pacific survey of a road from Pasco to Lewiston along the Snake River has been completed. Other enterprises are being formulated into shape, such as the First National Bank, the Grand Hotel Company, and the Pasco Lumber and Manufacturing Company. Seattle, as the metropolis of the State of Washington, can only be maintained by her aid in building up cities and towns east of the Cascade range. Help build up Pasco.
“There is not a spot on the map of the whole of North America where another such a junction of large rivers makes such near-water transportation faster than Pasco.”
This 1889 advertisement reflects the historic 'boosterism' culture of early Washington, where land speculators viewed Eastern Washington as a colonial frontier for Seattle capital. Today, while the infrastructure projects described evolved into the modern Tri-Cities, the rhetoric of speculative growth remains a staple of regional real estate marketing.
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