A Frontier Land Deal on the Snoqualmie
A settler lists his 160-acre riverfront homestead for sale, citing his own failing health as the price of carving a life from the Washington wilderness.
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.
The undersigned offers his place in the Snoqualmie for sale. It contains 120 acres bottom land, and 40 acres timbered upland, sloping gently to the river. It is 12 miles from Snoqualmie City, at the river crossing, 9 miles from Lake Washington, and 20 from Seattle. Fifty acres slashed, 20 acres in grass, 4 acres of upland grubbed for an orchard; 20 tons of hay on hand. The place has three-quarters of a mile frontage on the river, is safe from overflow, and has a clear stream of water running through, which can be brought into the house, barn or milk house. Valuable for lumbering, having a good deal of timber on it, and is the first key point for getting to timber on the adjacent six or eight sections, and has a good bay for booming. The location is central, and affords a good steamboat landing. A hotel and store would do well there at the present, and it is convenient to six logging camps now in operation. House and tools on the place. Cause of selling: weak lungs. For further particulars inquire of Geo. Hoe White, Snoqualmie River, W. T.
“Cause of selling: weak lungs.”
This 1878 advertisement captures the brutal physical toll of homesteading, where 'weak lungs'—likely consumption or respiratory damage from labor—ended a dream of self-sufficiency. Today, the Snoqualmie Valley remains a central tension point between agricultural preservation and the relentless pressure of urban expansion.
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