The Untamed Wilderness of Snohomish County
A survey of the rugged landscapes, booming timber industry, and frontier settlements that would define the region's future.
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.
Snohomish County is situated on the east side of Puget Sound, bounded by King County on the south, the Cascade Mountains on the east, and Skagit County on the north. Snohomish City is the county seat. The county covers over 1.2 million acres of land. Within its boundaries are found almost every variety of soil and many kinds of climate. Nearly all of the surface is covered with very heavy timber, the heaviest and best of any region near Puget Sound. The rainfall is high, which is the reason why the timber is denser and vegetable growth of all kinds ranker than elsewhere on the same grade of soil near the Sound. Generally speaking, the surface of the west half of the county is nearly level, while the eastern half is quite mountainous. The Snohomish River and its tributaries drain the southern half of the county, while the northern part is drained by the Stillaguamish. The timber industry is currently the leading one here; over one-fourth of all the timber cut on Puget Sound has been cut from lands in this county. As the timber is cut from the front and near the rivers, the ordinary logging skidded roads are superseded by logging railroads or tramways. Before many years, several lines of railroad will be built from tide water way up into the mountains. The Snohomish River was first occupied by the whites in 1855-6, the time of the Indian war. James Laing and Frank Clum came here to live in 1858. The first considerable settlement was made here and at Mukilteo in 1864-5. The county was organized in January 1861, though few families settled here before 1871.
“The Snohomish River and its tributaries drain the southern half of the country; the northern part of the county is drained by the Stillaguamish.”
This 1888 report highlights the transition from a timber-extraction frontier to a permanent settlement. Today, the 'heavy timber' and river-centric geography described are the foundations of the suburban and industrial corridors of modern Snohomish County, reflecting the same struggle to balance rapid development with natural land use.
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