The Promised Land: How Washington's Natural Wealth Was Pitched in 1885
A government survey reveals the territorial ambition of early Washington, touting a future of coal mines, hop fields, and naval supremacy.
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.
Washington Territory is bounded by British Columbia on the north, by Idaho on the east, by Oregon on the south, and on the west by the Pacific. It contains about 70,000 square miles, of which 4,000 are water. Within the past few years, a more serious interest has been manifested in the pursuit of hop raising. The yards have been multiplied and extended. During the fifteen years since the beginning of its important cultivation in this region, this crop has never failed, nor been attacked by disease. It is believed that the White river, the Snoqualmie, and the Puyallup valleys could easily produce as many hops as are now raised in the United States, if labor could be obtained to pick them. Indians have been mainly relied upon to do the picking, and they have flocked to the Sound from nearly all parts of the Territory. Washington Territory is the Pennsylvania of the Pacific coast. The coal interest of the Territory promises to be the most important of its industries. With better coals, such as the lower beds of the formation will probably yield, the production from the field would command at least 50 per cent of the coast trade, which is now largely in the hands of the foreign dealers.
“It is believed that the White river, the Snoqualmie, and the Puyallup valleys could easily produce as many hops as are now raised in the United States, if labor could be obtained to pick them.”
This 1885 report reads like a prospectus for the resource-driven economy that built modern Seattle. While today's headlines focus on tech and housing density, the document highlights how early industry—coal, timber, and hops—shaped the geography of the region, much of which remains the foundation for current land-use debates in the Pacific Northwest.
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