The Railroad's Greed: How the Northern Pacific Extorted Kittitas County
Newly discovered reports reveal how the Northern Pacific railroad company used its immense corporate power to extort land from settlers and small-town business owners in Kittitas County.
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 meaning of the foregoing is that the Northern Pacific Company—that philanthropic and beneficent corporation, the praises of which are sounded so loudly by its organs in this Territory—is not content with a gift by the Government of 20 square miles of land for each mile of road, but still wants a few acres more, that now belong to private individuals. In other words, if the people of Ellensburg do not give enough to the company in such free grants for the building of a town in their vicinity, it will go out of its way to hurt them. It will build a new town, as at Tacoma, in order to divert their business, and will refuse all depot accommodations, etc. Can it be wondered at that the people are sick of a company that uses its power in such a shameful, injurious way?
“Can it be wondered at that the people are sick of a company that uses its power in such a shameful, injurious way?”
This 1885 account of corporate bullying in Ellensburg mirrors the modern-day struggles of Pacific Northwest cities grappling with tech giants and real estate developers who dictate local infrastructure and growth patterns based on their own profit margins rather than community needs.
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