The Fight for the First Cascades Rail Line
In 1880, Seattle editors appealed to the 'Walla Walla Statesman' to bridge the mountain divide and unite the Washington territory through trade.
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.
It is very gratifying to notice the attitude of the Walla Walla Statesman towards Seattle and the people residing there. We have been quite accustomed to read, from time to time in another paper published at Walla Walla, ungenerous comments and slurs on the so-called 'clam eaters' and the God-forsaken 'country of great expectations' which they inhabit. We have always felt the injustices of such treatment, because our people have always been and are now disposed to cultivate the most friendly relations with the people of Eastern Washington, with whom they earnestly seek social and commercial intercourse. This end is hoped to be accomplished by the speedy completion of one or more of the projected railroads across the Cascade Mountains.
We cannot blame the people of Eastern Washington for having the belief that the people of Western Washington entertain local, selfish and sectional views against them, because the mountain barriers which separate them, and the absence of all business and social intercourse, gave them no opportunity to judge for themselves. The conduct of the Statesman, under its present able and liberal management, presents a marked contrast with the other journal to which we have referred. It has grasped the key to the situation by its earnest advocacy of a railroad across the mountains, which is so mutually advantageous to both sections.
“We cannot blame the people of Eastern Washington for having the belief that the people of Western Washington entertain local, selfish and sectional views against them.”
This 1880 editorial highlights a foundational struggle in Washington state history: the physical and economic isolation caused by the Cascade Range. While the railroad eventually bridged this gap, the 'sectional' tension between the Puget Sound urban core and the agricultural East remains a dominant theme in Washington's political and cultural landscape today.
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