The Birth of the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway
Before the boom, Seattle's civic leaders incorporated a grand, million-dollar vision to pierce the Cascades and connect the city to the interior.
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 following, which explains itself, has been officially filed for record with the Auditor of King County and the Secretary of Washington Territory, as provided by law: Know all men by these presents, that we, the undersigned, James K. McDonald, F. H. Osgood, Thomas Burke, Thomas T. Minor, Daniel H. Gilman, John Leary, Henry L. Yesler, David T. Denny, George Kinnear, G. M. Haller, Griffith Davies, William Cochrane and James W. Currie, citizens of the United States and residents of Washington Territory, do hereby associate ourselves together as a corporation... The name of this corporation shall be 'Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway Company.' The objects for which this corporation is formed are and shall be: First, to lay out, construct, furnish and equip a railroad and telegraph line from the city of Seattle... through the Snoqualmie or other available pass in the Cascade range of mountains, to the most convenient and practicable crossing of the Columbia river, and thence by a practicable route to the city of Walla Walla... The work of construction has already begun, though on a small scale. The beginning made is at Smith Cove, from which the road will be built to Union Bay, on Lake Washington, and thence to Snoqualmie valley... A country rich in timber, coal, iron and agricultural resources, will be occupied, from which a ready traffic will speedily be obtained.
“A country rich in timber, coal, iron and agricultural resources, will be occupied, from which a ready traffic will speedily be obtained.”
In 1885, Seattle’s elite were busy sketching ambitious rail maps to conquer the Cascades and cement the city's role as a transit hub. Today, this 'visionary' legacy echoes in the region's massive transit infrastructure investments, as modern Seattle continues to grapple with the tension between private development interests and public connectivity.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.