The Dream of an All-Rail Path to the North
A proposal for a massive rail corridor connecting Vancouver, B.C., to Alaska is being hailed as the natural evolution of Pacific commerce.
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.
Seattle now has all-rail connection with Vancouver, B.C., and the people of the latter city are discussing the construction of a railroad to Alaska. The plan is entirely feasible and will undoubtedly be carried to a successful issue by the business men and capitalists to whose attention the matter is brought. There is a natural highway all the way from Vancouver to Alaska. The route contemplated leaves the Canadian Pacific at a point sixty miles east of Vancouver, thence running northerly, parallel with the Fraser River, into the Chilcotin plains, across the Chilcotin river to the headwaters of the Peace river. Still going northwest, the Skeena river would next be encountered, a natural gateway through the Cascades. Farther north are the Naas and Stikleen rivers. Imagine a country as rich as King, Snohomish, Skagit and Whatcom counties, in this state, continued north hundreds of miles, with sheltering mountain ranges on either side, and you have an idea of the region through which the railroad is projected.
“Imagine a country as rich as King, Snohomish, Skagit and Whatcom counties, in this state, continued north hundreds of miles, and you have an idea of the region through which the railroad is projected.”
The dream of a northern rail link to Alaska remains a recurrent fantasy in Pacific Northwest politics and boosterism, though it has never reached fruition. This 1891 report underscores how early Seattle viewed itself as the natural command center for the entire Pacific Rim, a framing that defined the city's economic identity for decades.
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