How Railroads Built the State

of Washington
 Before the Railroads

•San Francisco was the major economic heart of

the Pacific due to the amounts of gold found
there.
•Spokane relied on the Columbia River.
•Seattle depended on direct shipping via Puget
Sound for its trading livelihood.
•Northern Pacific Railroad reached Spokane in
1883.
•The Great Northern Reached Seattle in 1893.
•Fur trapping was the main economy.
 Spokane

 1920s: a network of interconnected feeder lines, owned by the

Northern Pacific or the Great Northern, branched out from Spokane,
connecting with mines in the Idaho panhandle, farms along the
Columbia or Snake Rivers, and resorts in the Rocky Mountains.
Spokane referred to its vast tributary region as “the Inland Empire.”
 Glacier National Park was formed because of the railroad.
 Great Northern was the biggest promoter of Glacier National Park,
they offered many packages, some including an overnight stay in
Spokane.
 The city of Spokane was created as a town to house railroad riders.
 The Davenport Hotel was made as hotel to house important people
and lumberjacks alike.
 Seattle

 The Northern Pacific in 1883, choose Tacoma over Spokane. When James J. Hill
proposed building his Great Northern Railway between St. Paul and the Pacific
Northwest, Seattle tried to be the western terminus. Hill agreed and began to
lay the groundwork to make Seattle his hub. The tidelands were the ocean
gateway for Hill’s railway. He and other Seattle leaders envisioned a trans-
Pacific trade network of rails and steamships, playing upon an old theme in
American commerce with China and East Asia. Seattle’s exports to Asia grew
dramatically, as did its shipments to the Midwest. Unlike lumber milled earlier
at the water’s edge for shipment by boat to San Francisco, Weyerhaeuser
timber traveled east to yards in the Twin Cities or Chicago. Seattle had finally
escaped from dependency upon California, but like Spokane it was now
dependent on Midwestern markets for its livelihood as well.
 The railroad also enabled Seattle to take over the Alaska markets that had
once belonged to San Francisco, but Seattle did not depend on the railway
alone. As a maritime town, Seattle would claim even more tributary territories
than Spokane. The 1897 Klondike gold strike gave the city its justification for
this expansive hinterland that eventually included Alaska, Canada’s Yukon
Territory, and East Asia. Seattle made its fortune on miners who passed
through its ports to Alaska and Canada. Companies like Schwabacher
Hardware and Filson’s Clothing outfitted prospectors. The 1909 Alaska-Yukon-
Pacific Exposition, held in Seattle, celebrated such ambitions. Emigration to
boost the territory’s population. By helping Alaska to help itself, Seattle
benefited its own economic interests.
 Railroad Towns

 Several towns and cities across Washington were created just as railroad hubs
or load zones.
 Some examples of these cities are: Aberdeen, Adams County, Benton,
Bellingham, Cedar Falls, Clallam, Clark County, Columbia County, Cowlitz
County, Ellensburg, Enumclaw, Franklin County, Garfield County, and Issaquah.
 In some of these counties and towns, railroads was the basis of their economy.
 In Adams County, nearly every towns survival depended on the railroad.
 Othello, Hatton, Ralston, and Marcellus, along the Chicago, Milwaukee, St.
Paul, and Pacific Railroad; Twin Well, Providence, Lind, Paha, Ritzville, and
Keystone along the Northern Pacific Railroad; Washtucna, Hooper, Benge, and
Lantz along the Spokane, Portland, and Seattle Railroad were all made for the
railroads.
 Benton City came into being when OWRN decided to build a railroad across
from Kiona in 1907.
 Economy

 The railroads brought with them a leap in economy.

 At first, the State of Washington's economy depended on Fur
Trapping.
 With the railroad came new opportunities for making money.
 Gold and Silver deposits near Washington.
 Lumber in Washington could be exported across the country.
 Fishing and trapping started to boom, railroads could ship large
amounts of fish from the coast of Washington.
 Increased Social Life

 People from everywhere were able to start populating the Northwest because of the
railroads.
 The railroads brought new people into to Washington and the U.S.
 Chinese were brought in to help construct the railroad lines.
 African Americans were also railroad workers.
 The Northern Pacific Railroad, and the Great Northern railroads help to create small towns
called “railroad camps”. These camps made social life boom.
 Thomas Burke was an attorney for the Great Northern Railroad in the 1890’s and one of
the first lawyers to establish railroads, harbors and utilities for the Puget sound area.
 The first proposal of a national transcontinental railroad was thought of in 1845. With the
development of the transcontinental railroad new workers were taken from China to lay
track and mine coal.
 After years of respect towards the Chinese (workers), Americans started to resent them
because of economic downfalls and eventually rioted in the 1880’s across the cities of
Tacoma and Seattle. Washington was a state that welcomed freed men and runaway
slaves.
 Alongside the Chinese, African Americans also helped to build railroads and mine. With
the recent creation of the Northern Pacific Railroad and the Great Northern Railroads,
more and more small towns began construction in Washington. With these small towns
brought more people, like the Chinese and African American worker.
 Politics

he Political aspects that the railroads brought about were often dramatic.

he name of Gilman (Squak) Issaquah, had to undergo a name change because the USPS didn’t want to get it confused

with Gilmer, so the state legislature tried to change the town name to Olney, but the Gilman Town Council petitioned

the legislature, keeping the name. In 1889 (before the name change) they named the town Gilman, after Daniel Hunt

Gilman a promoter of the railroads.

eorge F. Cotterill (1865-1958), Seattle’s mayor between 1912-1914, was brought to the northwest to work on the

Northern Pacific Railroad at the age of 18.

he town of Slaughter had a population of 25 in 1886 and mail was delivered twice a week. The next year, there was a

population over 300 due to railroads. The name was changed to “Auburn” after a petition in 1893.

ohn J. McGilvra, a friend of Abraham Lincoln, was appointed U.S. Attorney for the Washington Territory. One of his

main jobs was to secure rail services for the city of Seattle.