Speculation Booms at the New 'Tunnel City' Townsite
Investors swarm the Land Office to secure property at the site of the new Cascade Mountain rail tunnel.
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 townsite proprietors of Tunnel City are endeavoring to sell the townsite for $2,000, agreeing to give the turn of $1,000 to keep out other competitors. Boring of the tunnel is proceeding, though parties are growing worried about the difficulty of the rock. The tunnel’s east portal has been pierced for a distance of 40 feet, and if the rock proves to be a shale which crumbles, timbering will be required. Parties interested in the Tunnel City townsite appeared before the Land Office on Thursday and filed on 162 acres, thoroughly imbued with the feeling that they have struck it rich. Captain E. L. Broughton squatted on the land a year ago and has held fast with it ever since.
“They appear to be thoroughly imbued with the feeling that they have struck it rich.”
This reflects the frenetic, speculative energy of the late 19th-century Pacific Northwest, where the promise of a transcontinental railroad could turn a remote mountain plot into a 'boom' town overnight. Today, this mirrors the relentless development pressure on regional land use, though the 'tunnel' now refers to light rail extensions rather than steam locomotives.
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