The Struggle for Osceola's Road
A letter from an early settler argues that connecting the remote Osceola precinct to Seattle is vital to the county's economic future.
The greatest need for a wagon road in King county exists in the direction of Osceola precinct, which should be connected with the road system leading this way at the earliest possible moment. A generous appropriation should be made from the county treasury at the present session of the Board of Commissioners. A patron dwelling in that part of the county writes: 'Mr. Meeker urges the necessity of Pierce county constructing a road from Tacoma to the Boise creek country, but the facts are that Boise creek runs through a table land known as Osceola, or the Porter's Prairie country, which is much larger and more productive than the Puyallup valley. With an appropriation of $1,000 by our County Commissioners, the whole of this country will be made accessible from Seattle, our county seat. The necessity of bringing it into suitable communication with our county seat cannot be too strongly urged, as a delay might forfeit it to Pierce county. It would be money well applied and would bring a good reward to the county at large.'
“The necessity of bringing it into suitable communication with our county seat cannot be too strongly urged, as a delay might forfeit it to Pierce county.”
This 1885 dispatch highlights the perennial tension between regional development and the struggle to keep trade flowing into the city center. Much like current debates over transit infrastructure and connectivity in the Greater Seattle area, the argument was fundamentally about which municipal center—Seattle or Tacoma—would secure the economic loyalty of emerging settlements.
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