The Railway vs. The Town: A Forcible Relocation in Yakima
When the Northern Pacific Railroad tried to bypass the original town of Yakima to force residents and businesses to relocate to a new site, the citizens formed a committee to resist—and were met with cold corporate indifference.
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.
Last Saturday, Mr. James McNaught of the legal department and Mr. Paul Schulze of the land department of the Northern Pacific Railroad went to the town of Yakima for the purpose of talking with the people there relative to adjustments of any differences existing between the company and the people of that place. Upon their arrival there, a committee met them at Mr. Pray's office, Mr. J. A. Flint becoming chairman, and Messrs. Blair, Lumber, Pray, and Allen completing the committee. The chairman immediately informed Messrs. McNaught and Schulze that the committee did not come to consider what was best to be done, but to make a demand, and presented the demand in the following words: 'We demand that first, all freight and passenger trains shall immediately stop at a point in this city, and shall receive and deliver our mails, freight, and passengers at this point; second, that you immediately proceed to construct a suitable depot with freight and ticket offices, and all the usual facilities of a first-class depot, and shall make no discrimination against the city of Yakima.' Messrs. McNaught and Schulze then informed the committee that they were instructed by the president of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company to say that, under all the circumstances, it was impracticable to establish a depot at the old town; that the engineer department and land department had both reported upon the heavy grade and other difficulties, making it an undesirable location. And also informed the committee that they were instructed to deal fairly, justly, and liberally with every person who desired to remove from the old town to the new, and to locate such persons as near their original point of view as possible. Mr. Flint refused to consider any proposition other than the immediate establishment of a depot. The committee was also informed by Messrs. Schulze and McNaught that they were ready and willing to make reasonable and fair contracts with each person who desired to move, and that they would give them property in the new town in location and quality equal to their improved property in the old, and would also assist them in moving their residences and buildings.
“The chairman immediately informed Messrs. McNaught and Schulze that the committee did not come to consider what was best to be done, but to make a demand.”
The 1885 'New Yakima' struggle echoes today's debates over transit-oriented development and corporate-led urban planning. Just as residents once fought to keep their established town centers from being bypassed by rail-led displacement, modern communities continue to struggle against the top-down reorganization of neighborhoods for the benefit of external economic interests.
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