The Railroad's Grudge Against Old Yakima
A local resident warns travelers that the Northern Pacific is attempting to bypass and destroy the original town of Yakima to benefit their new company town.
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 said that the President of the Northern Pacific Railroad stated that only two towns in the Territory had opposed the policy of his company. He added that the company would make examples of these refractory towns. Since last winter, the railroad was completed through our town and accepted by the three commissioners sent out for that purpose. Immediately after, they ceased to stop their trains in Yakima and ran them on a four-mile spur north of it. They then made it known that Yakima could not feel the weight of their iron line. The writer requests the publication of this notice to prevent deception and to warn the unwary that the company expects to sell thousands of dollars' worth of lots to strangers at a distance in their new town, which is currently a small collection of box houses on a sage-brush plain.
“This town, the oldest settlement in Washington Territory, and the only town within a hundred miles eastward on its line, was to be wiped off the face of the earth.”
This reflects the absolute power railroad monopolies held over town development in the 19th-century West; when the tracks moved, the town died. It mirrors modern concerns about corporate 'land grabs' and how major employers can dictate the economic survival of entire regions.
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