This document discusses the history and growth of several cities in Washington state, categorizing them into three groups: agricultural cities, government-held cities, and information transitioning cities. It provides a brief overview of each group before focusing on individual cities. For Bellingham, it describes how the city began with the lumber and salmon industries in the late 1800s and transitioned to become dominated by education and Western Washington University in the mid-1900s. Everett's growth is attributed to large private investments that incorporated the city and attracted manufacturing in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Olympia is characterized as relying primarily on its designation as the state capital since the 1850s, with no major private industries taking hold.

1. Capital, Railroads, and Riots
What Built Washington’s Cities
Jeremy Frank

2. Purpose:
This research was designed to determine basic trends which cause cities to grow in population
over time.
Why I chose this:
Over the summer of 2015 I interned at Costco Wholesale in Issaquah, WA. The internship was
fantastic but I was astonished by traffic. In doing more research I found negative effects of long
commutes from lost productivity in the economy to significantly higher divorce rates for those
who commute more than 40 minutes each way. During my internship I commuted 4 hours daily
and I met someone who commuted 5-6 each day. That is appalling and, while not as extreme as
5-6 hours per day, not uncommon in metropolitan areas like the Seattle Metropolitan area. I
wanted to see what makes a city and area grow so large and why others do not. It is a very base
level question, one that leaves more questions than answers. In fact, if graduate school
becomes an option, I would love to continue research on this very broad topic.
Methodology:
For this research I took a qualitative approach to looking into the history of 10 cities in the State
of Washington. I chose Washington as, being one confined area, each of the cities will have
interrelated aspects. Additionally, Washington is host to a diverse range of cities from
agricultural centers, to crumbling old-day metropolitan areas, to current booming metropolitan
areas rapidly growing. I researched their history and created timelines which I then wrote into
short essays on each city. From there I created graphs of their history, highlighting key points in
their history as to be able to analyze the effects that each event may have had on growth. From
there I drew conclusions on what brings a city to grow and what does not.
First Thoughts:
The trends of Washington State follow the trends of numerous regions around the world. They
broke into three broad categories: Agriculture, Government Held, and Information
Transitioning. “Agriculture” refers to cities which depend primarily off of the growth and sales
of agricultural products. They never transitioned significantly to manufacturing or information
based economies. “Government Held” refers to cities which may have disappeared if not for
significant and continued public funding. The third category, “Information Transitioning” varies
on the in terms of intensity. It’s, purest form is these cities are ones which follow the more
common than not path of ‘extraction’ to ‘manufacturing’ and then into the ‘information’ based
economies. Unfortunately, as has been seen, most of these Information Transitioning (or IT)
cities are much more on the transitioning end than the information end.

3. For the Agricultural cities the history follows a similar path: First, settlers find land which is
suitable for crop or livestock production. Second, a large railroad comes through allowing the
settlers to export their crops or livestock over greater areas. Third: More settlers come and
companies pop up to take advantage of the area agricultural capacity and the cycle of new
transportation routes bringing more business and more people continues.
Yakima – Wenatchee
For Government Held (or GH), with one exception, the cities followed a path beginning with
first: extractive industry potential found. Second: Business builds around the extractive
industries. Third: manufacturing may take small hold however at this point the Federal
Government invests massively in the city and the city begins to grow around these Federal
Government projects. Even though most of the extractive industry may be gone, and
manufacturing never took on fully, the Federal investment continues to drive the city forward
as a consistent population center.
Bellingham – Olympia – Tri-Cities
The Information Transition (IT) cities follow the most classic private sector city path. They
almost all began as extractive economies which took hold as population centers thanks to the
arrival of the railroads or port access. The proximity to minerals and more importantly railroads
and ports lead the cities to become great manufacturing centers. This is where the difference
between simply Information City and Information Transitioning City becomes important. For
several cities, the coming of Microsoft acted as a catalyst for the information revolution which
swept over the Seattle Metropolitan Area. Proximity to this boom brought in high skilled
workers from around the nation and world to the area which in turn created a loop of high-
skilled workers coming for good work, and tech companies coming to the area in search of
those high-skilled workers. The second portion of this Information Transitioning Category
focuses on more those who have not yet had its catalyst. These are cities which had strong
transportation centers which lead to strong manufacturing, but have not yet been able to
establish themselves as powerful information based economies.
Everett – Seattle – Spokane – Vancouver – Tacoma
These could categories could have been changed very easily to “transportation, Government
Investment, agriculture, and information” however I found these three work best to explain the
basics of these economies.
Individual Cities:
Bellingham – the shipyard turned college town
The City of Bellinghamboated roughly 81,000 residents as of 2010. Being just shy of the
Canadian border, Bellinghamis known for its amazing views, wonderful nature filled
landscapes, and of course Western Washington University. Of course, Bellinghamand

4. Education were not always associated with one another. In fact, in its beginning, Bellingham
was not even a city but rather four distinct towns.
The story of Bellinghambegan in 1790, where like most Western Washington Cities, the land
was visited by George Vancouver. His expedition and he discovered the bay and named it
BellinghamBay after Sir WilliamBellinghamwho sold George Vancouver his supplies. It was not
settled for another sixty years.
These first settlers were two Californians named Captain Henry Roeder, and Russell V. Peabody.
Roeder and Peabody came to the Northern Puget Sound in the early 1850’s on a quest to find
the perfect spot for a lumber mill. The fire in San Francisco set them on this journey as, being
pioneering businessmen, they knew the demand for lumber would skyrocket for the rebuilding.
The location of BellinghamBay was finally chosen due to its location near both lucrative forests
as well as streams and the bay for power and transportation. Unfortunately, by the time the
lumber mill was built San Francisco had been mostly rebuilt and their demand for lumber had
fallen significantly. Roeder and Peabody, being the businesspeople they were decided not to
leave but rather to direct their lumber shipments to the growing Vancouver Washington just
over the Canadian border. Additionally, in 1852 coal was found in the area and these natural
resources brought settlers looking for work to the region.
The mid-1850’s brought more growth. In 1855 the local Lummi American Tribe along with a
cohort of other Native American Tribes signed the Treaty of Point Elliott, ceding most of their
tribal land to the United States in exchange for a 15,000-acre reservation on a peninsula
between Lummi and BellinghamBays. These tribes worked in the Bellinghamregion and helped
to stimulate its economy. Just a year later in 1856 Bellinghamreceived another blessing in the
form on a military fort set up by Captain George E. Pickett to protect the coal mines from Native
Americans.
The coal mines and lumber demand in Vancouver, BC kept the economy humming along until
1873 when a fire destroyed the lumber mill. It was rebuilt, and then burned down again in
1881. At this point the heirs of Roader and Peabody, who at this point had inherited the mill
and land decided to sell their stakes to a group of utopians from Kansas. These Kansans bought
the land off the premise of continued development in the region in order to bring in more
business, workers, and capital. By 1883 the mill made its first shipment to San Francisco, its
original goal. A benefit of the time came as well during the 1880’s as steampower enabled the
Kansans to gather lumber from much farther upstream. In 1886 a small teaching school for
women opened up called the “Northwest Norman School.” It would later become a much larger
part of the Bellinghameconomy.
The last two decades of the eighteen-hundreds saw Bellinghambegin to take shape into the
form it would hold for many years after. In 1891 another mine opened which was immediately
sold to the Navy, however what brought Bellinghaminto its later stage was the first bit of
merging of the four towns that made up the area. Until the 1890’s Bellinghamas it is known
today was really four towns: Whatcom, Schome, Bellingham, and Fairhaven. By this point

5. Whatcom and Schome had merged into Whatcom, and Bellinghamand Fairhaven had merged
into Fairhaven. The merging came as the four towns realized, after losing two railroad terminus
bids to Tacoma and Seattle respectively, realized they needed to grow tighter in order to stay
relevant. This came to a headway in 1903 when Whatcom and Fairhaven finally merged into
one town. Being as both towns were relatively proud of their histories and identities, town
officials decided to choose the non-controversial name of “Bellingham”.
During the merge, the townspeople of the newly found Bellingham discovered and near
perfected a method for catching Salmon along the many rivers and streams in the area. This
industry boomed and in fact from 1900-1945 all of the largest employers were from the Salmon
Industry. This brought in swaths of immigrants and the possibly of a railroad caught wind and
brought in fresh investment on that anticipation. Populations fluctuated as thousands of Asian
immigrants arrived to support the Salmon industry but were ran out during anti-immigration
protests and beatings in the early 1910’s.
Salmon continued to be the primary driver of the economy all the way through 1945 when the
baton was passed on to education. While Bellinghamdid not contribute significant muscle to
the manufacturing war effort, the GI Bill opened up the possibility for thousands of soldiers
returning home to attend college. By this point The Northwest Norman School had transformed
into a reputable state college and the influx of Soldiers forced it to grow at a rapid pace. Before
World War Two Western Washington College of Education was just that: a college of Education.
However, by 1947 it had expanded into both Chemistry and English, allowing even more
soldiers returning home to attend. By the 1950’s the extractive industries such as lumber,
salmon fishing, and coal no longer formed the center of the Bellinghamidentity. Most lumber
had bee cut and sold and the the rest of that industry fell away as well. The 1960’s a US
Highway came through a western BellinghamSuburb and Western Washington College saw
huge growth as more people chose to attend four year universities. The final name change to
the school came in 1977 it became Western Washington University and added more colleges
under its banner. Since then Bellinghamhas begun projects to restore its downtown and gained
historical landmark status for many of its buildings.
Since then Bellinghamhas grown on the back of WWU and the supporting businesses.
http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=7904
http://www.cob.org/documents/planning/Census2010/BellinghamApril1stPopulation1980ToCu
rrentYear.pdf

7. Everett – A Private Company Incorporated
In 1792, George Vancouver landed on the beach just south of the native American Village on
the Port Gardner Peninsula. He claimed the entire area for the King of England before
continuing his expedition. This area did not see European Settlers again until the 1850’s when
the first White Settlers established a water-powered sawmill on Tulalip Bay. The Puget Sound
gained more settlers as logging camps sprung up and in 1859 a military road was pushed
through between Fort Bellinghamand Fort Steilacoom, bringing traffic through the Everett
Area. The 1860’s saw land grabs by Ezra Hatch who claimed the land which would become
downtown Everett, and George Sines claimed land on the riverside.
The last decade of the nineteenth century began with massive investments in the region. E.D.
Smith builds a large lumber mill on the Peninsula, and huge investment pour in when word of
the North Pacific Railroad coming to the Pacific Northwest arrived. During this fervor, Henry
Hewitt Jr., a businessman, learned that a Rockefeller associate arrived in the area in search of a
new site for his American Steel Barge Company to open. Hewitt convinced him that the river
and access to the bay made the area of Everett the perfect location. They pulled together 800
acres among other business persons in the area and in 1890 incorporated the “Everett Land
Company”. By 1891 the peninsula began land clearing for a nail factory, barge works, paper
mill, and a smelter. Five hundred men graded, surveyed, and platted the town site. Small
businesses begin to open, accommodating the growth in population. Docks were opened and
the Seattle and Montana Railway developed a line running along Everett’s bay front.
By 1892, Everett began resembling a city. There were schools, churches, theaters, and roughly
5,600 citizens. One third were foreign born. Everett incorporated in 1893 by election. That year
also happened to be the year the Northern Pacific Railway finally came into town.
Unfortunately, may of that year saw the Silver Panic caused national depression which
slammed Everett, shutting down factories, banks, and caused wages to fall by 60%. Fortunes
began to improve in 1899 when the Everett Land Company transferred its holdings to the new
“Everett Improvement Company”.
Through the 1900’s Everett became a flourishing manufacturing city. The industry employed
over 2,835 men. 1907 saw a phenomenal boom after the San Francisco earthquake and fire
created massive demand for Northwest Lumber. A small fire occurred in 1909 and Unions
dominated the city. During WWI Everett benefited from demand for lumber however the great
depression brought on severe downturns. Benefitting from the new deal, the Works Progress
Administration built Faine Field on 640 acres of land in 1936. Thus Everett became a prominent
aviation city. During World War Two the field became a military base. From here the city of
Everett follows mostly the same path as the general path of the Seattle Metropolitan area.
Boeing created phenomenal growth, and Weyerhaeuser reinvigorated lumber. However Everett
remains a strong city as part of the Seattle Metropolitan Area.
http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=7397
http://www.downtowneverett.com/history/timeline

9. Olympia Washington – The Capital, and not much else
Olympia Washington is a medium sized city with roughly 46,000 citizens in 2010. It has been the
capital of Washington since it was a territory, and the largest employers are the state and local
government with no signs of any private companies taking hold. Throughout it’s history,
Olympia has primarily been the proud recipient of State Government Funds, hospitals, and
recently local colleges. Only in its very beginning was it reliant in any way on natural resources.
The site which would later be known as Olympia was visited and mapped out by the British
Vancouver Expedition. The expedition went on was not met again by Europeans for another 50
years. Those Europeans, who would become the first official residents of the area were Lathrop
Smith and Edmund Sylvester who claimed the town in 1846, naming it “Smither and Smithster”.
The town of Smither and Smithster officially became platted in 1850. Soon thereafter a name
change was suggested by a local resident and Smith and Smithster became “Olympia” after the
beautiful view of the Olympic Mountains from the town. Smith and Sylvester laid out the town
like a New England town, lining streets with trees, setting aside land for schools, churches, and
a capital hill.
An expansion began as settlers were attracted to the dual access Olympia had to both the
Pudget Sound and the Columbia River. By 1953, just three years after it became platted,
Olympia boasted just shy of 1,000 citizens. The town soon became a maritime hub being build
primarily around the waterfront. In that same year Olympia was named as the territorial capital
by Isaac Stevens, the first territorial Governor of Olympia. This honor was bestowed due to its
popularity by the voters and the fact that Vancouver (the runner up) was to close to Oregon for
Stevens to feel comfortable naming it the state capital. He feared Washington may lose some
sovereignty to Oregon.
Throughout the rest of the eighteen hundreds Olympia primarily progressed upon its maritime
trade as well as the state government. A number of events helped shape Olympia in terms of
accessibility to trade in that time. The first being the 1968 bridge connecting Olympia and
Westside bridge, allowing much easier immigration and trade. Perhaps the largest change came
in the 1870’s when the citizens of Olympia build their own railway extension to meet the
Northern Pacific Railway which had recently named Tacoma to be its terminus.
With that the book closes on the nineteenth century and the twentieth century begins with
World War one and the stimulus. Almost 22 blocks of city were built in the downtown in order
to create deep water harbors in the late nineteen tens. This cheap money also ushered in an
age of cheap lumber processing and plywood creation. It was said that the waterfront was a
line of busy smokestacks. This lumber and plywood continued to add significant gains to
business and population. As with much of Washington lumber it was primarily shipped to
California.
After WWI lumber and plywood began to taper off as the demand slowed. The next major
change in Olympia came as a result of World War Two. An Earthquake in 1949 destroyed much

10. of the town which was rebuilt while stimulating the economy to an extent. The greatest impact
of the war became the increased size of the State Government. After the war the Washington
Government grew rapidly to accommodate programs set up by both the federal and state
government since the beginning of the war and great depression. However, this did not have an
immediate effect as there was a dishonesty running throughout the State Government.
Throughout its history, the Washington State Government had always been home in Olympia.
This did not bode well for senators and representatives who wished to work closer to centers of
industry or their constituents. This created issues with Washington Residents looking to find a
centralized location for their representatives. This came to a headway in 1954 when the
Washington State Supreme Court mandated that all state office headquarters must be located
in Olympia. In addition to this redistribution of state funds and employees, Interstate-5 was
built up through Olympia.
Moving further into the second half of the twentieth century, by the 1960’s almost all lumber
processing mills and smokestacks had closed. Evergreen State College was authorized by the
Washington State Legislature and built in Olympia. Beyond this modest accomplishment, most
of Olympia’s recent success came as a result of the general Pacific Northwest and specifically
the Seattle Metropolitan Area of which Olympia is considered a part of. In 1994 Olympia
created its first comprehensive growth plan to accommodate this growth.
Olympia began as a Prosperous city in a golden location connecting the Puget Sound to
Columbia River. After being blessed with the crown of territorial then state capital Olympia
continued to use its location and position as home of the city government to continue a strong
community which is self sufficient, and well equipped to accept out of state migrants flocking to
the Seattle Metropolitan Area.
As seen in on the graph and data page corresponding to Olympia, eight of the top ten
employers are either State/local governments or hospitals. This shows Olympia’s reliance on
the State Government for its economic footing. The growth seen consistently throughout the
twentieth and twenty-first century mirror the rate of migration to the Seattle Metropolitan
Area. However, it should be well understood that if the State Government were not located in
Olympia, it would be a significantly smaller, more suburban focused city much more akin to
Puyallup than Tacoma.
http://olympiawa.gov/community/about-olympia/history-of-olympia-washington.aspx
http://www.thurstontalk.com/2012/06/05/olympia-washington-history/

12. Seattle – The Emerald City
The City of Seattle is one of the largest cities in the world and has spawned the urban region
now known as the “Seattle Metropolitan Area” which spans over many cities around the Puget
Sound. Arguably the economic engine of Washington State, Seattle has beaten back against its
unfortunate location on a confined stretch of land, sandwiched between two bodies of water to
port and starboard, and cities surrounding its bow and sternum. The story of Seattle begins
even after many other much smaller cities in Seattle; in 1851.
These were the first white settlers to come to Seattle. The man leading the charge was Hentry
Yesler, who set up a large lumber mill in the land where Seattle now sits. Yesler came to the
region in search for an amazing forest to harvest. The lumber Yesler milled was immediately
sent to San Francisco, creating a large demand for the lumber as it grew and rebuilt. 1856 saw a
brief war with the Native Americans which interrupted development. By the 1870’s Coal was
found near Lake Washington which brought in immigration. This coal was shipped to San
Francisco as well. Fortunes continued to grow as the Northern Pacific Railway contemplated its
new transcontinental terminus. Hope came crashing down when the Northern Pacific Railway
Company announced that it’s transcontinental railway would connect to Tacoma instead. The
people of Seattle did not take that lightly and local officials rallied to force a connection to
Seattle shortly after the railroads completion. This made Seattle significantly more accessible
and craft unions began to form. By 1883 lumber and coal became the primary industries.
Fishing, shipbuilding, and wholesale trade also took hold thanks to its river and Puget sound
access. These extractive industries brought massive amounts of industry and settlers.
This came crashing down in 1889 when a devastating fire leveled buildings across 116 acres in
the of the city’s business district. This turned into more of a blessing than a curse however, as it
allowed for capital to come in the form of new buildings, and economic stimulation for the
workers. In 1893 the Great Northern Railroad connects to Seattle. Unfortunately, a nationwide
depression hampered growth, at least until later that same year when gold was found. This gold
rush got another boost as all Alaskan gold began being traded through Seattle before entering
the rest of he nation. The turn of the century brought great fortunes for Seattle as in 1900 the
city began o advertise itself as a destination for those looking for a better life. Two more trains
also joined Seattle, and the Port of Seattle sees Asian trade boom, bringing in massive amounts
of capital. As the city to boom zoning begins, and city planners begin creating parks and
boulevards. In 1911, the city made one of its larger public decisions and consolidated the port
system into one port ran by the local government. A sign of the great fortunes Seattle was
seeing was evidence in 1914 when the L.C. Smith building was completed, becoming the tallest
building in America at the time.
World War One saw Seattle’s shipyards power into overdrive building ships for the US Military.
After this demand shrank after the war, Seattle’s shipping and lumber industries became
depressed. This slid right into the 1930’s great depression. It seemed as though Seattle may fall
the way of so many great Washington Cities which simply ran out of the extractive industries
they grew from. Luckily, with World War Two came huge demand for an industry ran by a

13. medium sized Seattle based aerospace company: Boeing. During World War Two Boeing
increased its workforce by 1200%, almost all great paying jobs. As continued demand for
airplanes grew Boeing held Seattle’s economy. In 1945 SeaTac airport opens as an international
airport. Boeing success is very well credited with building the city into a city of manufacturing
from a city of extraction. In 1962 Seattle hosts the world fair, however even with the companies
which grew out of this manufacturing economy, Seattle’s growth began to slow. As the United
States moved away from manufacturing and into technology and know-how, Seattle’s fate
seemed unknowable.
The jump to the 21st century came with the thought of a young man in college trying to figure
out where to headquarter his business. That young man was Bill Gates with his partner Paul
Allen who chose to relocate their new company Microsoft to their hometown of Seattle. The
entry of Microsoft ushered in the digital revolution in Seattle, turning it into a tech beacon. It
acted as the catalyst which brought in more tech firms such as Amazon. The self feeding loop of
talent coming for work, and new companies coming for the talent, has shot Seattle to the
forefront of the 21st century cities. Where once Detroit was the economic envy of the world
due to its stellar manufacturing sector, Seattle is now the economic envy due to its tech sector.
http://www.seattle.gov/cityarchives/seattle-facts/brief-history-of-seattle
http://www.seattle.gov/visiting-seattle/history-and-culture-of-seattle
http://www.historylink.org/

15. Spokane – The Trading Post that got Lucky
The city of Spokane, like much of Washington’s larger cities began as a small trading post. In the
early 1810’s Fur Traders set up a post between the little Spoken river and the larger Spokane
river. This location was chosen primarily thanks to the large beaver population which the
traders used to make their furs.
This became the norm of this small trading post until 1871 when JJ Downing and SR Scranton
purchased 160 acres around the Spokane Falls. They built a sawmill squatted on the land as the
Oregon trail brought people through Northern Washington on their way west. Ultimately
though Downing and Scranton underestimated the value of their property and in 1873 James N.
Glover and Jasper Matheney, two Oregonians, purchased it from Downing and Scranton for
$2,000 each, totally just $4,000. The drivers of this massive purchase by Glover and Matheney
was the potential of the Spokane Falls for hydro-power and the knowledge they kept in their
back pocket that the Northern Pacific Railroad had a charter to travel through Northern
Washington. Spokane was in an optimal position for a railroad being between two great rivers
and with optimal land. Unfortunately, Matheney becomes skeptical of the prospects of a
railroad and sells his share of the property to Glover; a very costly miscalculation.
During this time as well the US and numerous native American tribes waged war in the area. In
1877, US soldiers claimed the area just outside Spokane to build Fort Coeur d’Alene. By the
early 1880’s more troops came to the area. This time their objective was not to wage war on
Native Americans, but to protect the building of the Northern Pacific Railway and encourage
settlement in the region. This was great news to Glover and in 1881 the Northern Pacific
Railroad was finally completed. Glover became a successful businessman in the small city and
even became known as the “father of Spokane” due to his contribution as early investor,
businessman, and second mayor of Spokane.
Thanks to the Northern Pacific Railway, the population of Spokane began to balloon. This
growth also gained momentum by the gold rush in Northern Idaho and Washington which
started in 1883. During this same year the city of Spokane Falls was incorporated with 350
residents. Thanks to the access given to Spokane by the Great Pacific Railway and the allure of a
inland northwest gold rush, the population grew to 19,000 by 1890. Thanks to this phenomenal
growth, Spokane claimed the county seat from Cheney in 1886. Unfortunately, in 1889 Spokane
saw a fire which destroyed 32 blocks. The fires were tamed and the rebuilding came primarily
by the coin of a group of Dutch investors who came to Spokane to invest in real estate. Thanks
to the fire this group were able to purchase one fourth of all Spokane real estate by 1893. Much
of this was sold off during the depression of that same year which allowed the some of the
capital to return to native Spokane residents.
This saw a resurgence for Spokane as in 1891 the city of Spokane Falls reincorporated into
simply Spokane. Later, in 1892 Spokane saw the arrival of the Great Northern Railway and with
it Spokane became known as an important transpiration hub. A small bump in the road

16. happened as shipping companies charged outrageous and discriminatory rates for shipping to
or out of Spokane. This made it even cheaper for a company to ship an item to Seattle and then
to Spokane than simply shipping directly to Spokane. The discriminatory pricing became so bad
that the city sued the companies twice. The first time they last, however in 1911 they sued
again and won. This ended the age of discrimination and ushered in a massive growth spurt
lead by railroads running through the city. By 1900 Spokane was host to the Northern Pacific,
Union Pacific, Great Northern, and Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul, and Pacific railroads. These
railroads made Spokane a remarkably important city and arguably the most important city in
the inland North West.
By 1910 the population of Spokane had reached 104,000. Large amounts of extractable
resources as well as the railroads grew Spokane to a startling 150,000 residents by 1917. This
growth was shattered after just a few years as the national economy slumped, many mines
closed, and massive amounts of capital was purchased by non-residents and moved out of the
city. By 1920 the population had returned to just 104,000 residents. For the next 50+ years
Spokane relied on extractive resources such as lumber and farm crops which would rise and fall
with national prices and economic health. During World War Two the aluminum industry
received a boost for use by the military however the demand did not last after the war.
Spokane’s leadership understood the city was in trouble and at risk of being simply a
transportation hub. This thinking lead to Spokane’s bid and successful hosting of the World Fair
in 1974. Spokane was the then-smallest city to host the fair and it allowed Spokane to heavily
invest in transforming Spokane’s downtown as an urban setting, removing much of the old
railroad infrastructure and industrial buildings in exchange more public parks and large pieces
of art.
This gave a small initial boost however Spokane still struggles to find identity outside of the
extractive and transportation industries which is grew on in decades past. Projects such as the
1999 River Front Square Park and Spokane convention center grew more residents however
even with multiple universities, a military base, and a built in urban infrastructure, Spokane has
not regained the allure that made it the most important city in the inland mid-west.
http://www.spokane.com/history.aspx

18. Tacoma – Paving the way for Seattle
The history of Tacoma Washington is one of phenomenal potential, only to be eclipsed by its
nearest rival. Tacoma’s history begins in 1841 when a member of the Charles Wilkes Expedition
charted and named Commencement Bay.
The first permanent resident was a Swedish immigrant, Nicholas De Lin, who came in the early
1950’s and built a sawmill at the junction of two creeks. The area did not catch on as a final
destination at the time due to hostile native American tribes. However during this time they
were displaced to a reservation and General Morton matthew McCarver bought land in the
region which brought in more settlers.
In the 1860’s two San Francisco investors came to the region and founded Hanson and
Ackerman Lumbermill. The abundance of lumber in the region drew the lumber mill to become
wildly successful, drawing in laborers, artisans, and their families to Tacoma. This growth, as
well as Tacoma’s phenomenal position on both the Puget Sound and its access to the deep
water Commencement Bay drew the attention of the Northern Pacific Railway. The Northern
Pacific Railway chose Tacoma as its terminus in the early 1870’s however construction was
stopped just 20 miles short of Tacoma due to a nationwide recession. It was officially
completed in 1887. The 1880’s saw the addition of the Transcontinental Railroad, which
brought in more business for the coal mines, and flour mills in Tacoma. The Stamford Pass
Tunnel and establishment of the Northern Pacific Railroads general offices Tacoma also allowed
for significant growth. Unfortunately, Tacoma hit a rough patch as Reading Railroad went
bankrupt during this same decade forcing half of all banks in Tacoma to leave.
Fortunately, this did not devastate Tacoma and in the 1900’s one of the most important
corporations the Tacoma’s economic fortunes: Weyerhaeuser opened its doors which provided
a much needed economic boost. World War One brought it even greater demand for Tacoma’s
extractive industries however the industry which got its largest boost was the shipping industry.
The shipping industry became so massive during this time that in 1918 the Port of Tacoma was
named an official US Port of Entry. Camp Lewis also became established during this time. The
shipping and manufacturing industry blossomed throughout the next several decade until
World War Two which through the economy back into overdrive with a massive demand for
Tacoma’s industry as well as the growth of what was now both Fort Lewis and Fort McCord.
Unfortunately, this was the end of great Tacoma expansions. Like most of the region, extractive
industries ran dry and manufacturing slipped as well. IN the 1950’s the city voted for a city-
manager style government and underwent massive city planning. Unfortunately, most good
fortunes to the area went the Seattle just a few miles north. The Port of Tacoma continues to
do massive business and the University of Washington opened branch campus. Unfortunately,
Tacoma still suffers from a lack of purpose,
http://www.city-data.com/us-cities/The-West/Tacoma-History.html

20. Tri-Cities – Where your Federal Dollars go
The Tri-Cities, or rather, the cities of Pasco, Kennewick, and Richland very nearly never grew to
the size worthy of any praise or even a second thought. For the vast majority of its history the
Tri-Cities region was known only as a small farming community with a railroad.
This history began with the incorporation of a small farming community called Pasco in 1891 as
the result of the Northern Pacific Railway setting up a station in the area. In 1904, the town of
Kennewick was incorporated, and in 1910 Richland joined the small community of towns. These
towns spread out quickly as agriculture took hold thanks primarily due to mild winters and long
tracts of land suitable for agriculture. These three towns continued this way until the 1940’s. In
fact, the Tri-Cities did not even have a daily newspaper, or radio station until midway through
the 1940’s.
The pivotal event which happened in the 1940’s which brought on this change was the building
of the Hanford Nuclear site in 1942. During World War Two the US government chose the Tri-
Cities, Richland specifically, to headquarter their Manhattan project due to a perfect storm of
its environment. Its access to water, mild and consistent weather, and pure remoteness of the
location were all factors which lead to the Tri-Cities being chosen. This saw the largest decade-
over-decade explosion of population growth in the cities covered in this research. This nuclear
reactor continued through World War Two and continued after the war in producing Nuclear
Power and weapons due to the Cold War.
A small change to the city complication came in 1955 when a group of Richland Residents who
moved to work at Hanford became disgruntled by the inability to own personal real estate in
Richland as opposed to Government run public housing. This culminated in the incorporation of
the city of West Richland. Richland has made many attempts to reincorporate West Richland
into Richland however each attempt has failed the two cities remain separate to this day.
As Hanford kept the Tri-Cities economy churning, the 1970’s brought blessings of increased
nuclear plan construction and the 1980’s brought the Interstate 182 Bridge in Pasco in 1984
which made it more accessible.
The 1990’s saw the largest shit in employment for the Tri-Cities as in 1995 the Pacific Northwest
Laboratories (PNL) became the Pacific Northwest National Laboratories (PNNL) and received
considerable federal funding from the US Department of Energy. Worries within the Tri-Cities
were also quelled as the Federal Government shifted the purpose of Hanford to clean up rather
than producing nuclear material. The concern arose as the demand for nuclear weapons
collapsed after the Cold War formally ended. Thanks to the reassurance of a continued
Federally supported Hanford, and the success of the DoE funded PNNL, the Tri-Cities continued
to grow. During this decade more companies felt comfortable enough to open their doors in
the Tri-Cities assuming the funding will be there for the long hall.

21. Throughout the rest of the 1990’s and 2000’s PNNL gained considerable increases in budget
size almost doubling their budget from $488M in 1999 to $881M in 2008. This was thanks to
the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Food processing became more
prevalent, taking advantage of the still powerful agriculture industry in the region. In the 2000’s
a group of retirees also immigrated into the Tri-Cities and health care gained footing in the city.
Currently the Tri-Cities is continuing to diversify its economy as its stability attracts businesses,
and families looking for a quite location with low housing prices and high wages. Unfortunately
its remoteness remains something holds it back from growing with the same fervor as many
coastal cities or even older Midwestern cities.
http://www.pasco-wa.gov/428/History-and-Highlights-of-Pasco
http://www.pnl.gov/main/publications/external/technical_reports/PNNL-18896.pdf

23. Vancouver – The Almost Capital
This is the story of the city named after the man who discovered much of the State we know as
Washington. The small irony here is that the shore which became Vancouver was officially
discovered and named not by George Vancouver, but Lt. WilliamBroughton, who worked for
Vancouver.
Just a number of years later, Lewis and Clark camped in what would later be called Clark Park,
just east of the Vancouver expeditions return trip. They are on record saying that the area was
“the only desired situation for settlement west of the Rocky Mountains”. Others clearly agreed
and the 1820’s John McLoughlin of the Hudson Bay company finally decided on Pont Vancouver
(what would later be called Vancouver) as the location of the Hudson Bay Companies
NorthWest Headquarters. He had been looking for some time and chose Point Vancouver due
to It’s rivers, location, and the fact that it was general center of British Control over the Oregon
Territory. Within the decade Vancouver became a large hub for fur traders in the pacific
northwest as well, primarily due to its amazing location right on the Columbia River.
Being the seat of British Rule in the Territory, as well as the Hudson Bay NW headquarters, and
trading on the river, Vancouver flourished, becoming one of the largest cities in the territory. In
1846, the United States gained control over the Oregon Territory during the 49th parallel treaty.
George Vancouver left his post and traveled to Canada where he was to found Vancouver
British Columbia. By 1849, United States soldiers arrived and established the Columbia
Barracks, later renamed the Vancouver barracks, which served as the military headquarters for
the United States in the Pacific Northwest. The neighboring settlement was named “City of
Columbia”. In 1857 it was officially incorporated as the “City of Vancouver”.
Vancouver continued to thrive as its location on the Columbia river and previous infrastructure
gave it a leg up on other settlements in the area. Quite possibly the largest change to come
from this growth came in the 1870’s when the Northern Pacific Railway connected Vancouver
to the Puget Sound. In 1886 the ferry between Portland and Vancouver opened as well and the
county built a 33-mile-long train route under the name “Chelantchie Prairie Road” connected
Vancouver to Yakima. This increase in openings to the city persisted and by 1910 the first rail
line through the Washing Side of the Columbia Gorge reached Vancouver.
The first half of the twentieth century saw a huge amount of trade and business come to
Vancouver. The first was the Pacific Highway US-99 coming through in the 1920’s. However,
this was minuscule in what could be considered the single largest impact on the Vancouver
economy: World War Two. Like much of Washington State, Vancouver received an abundance
of funds and opportunity from the New Deal leading up to the war. In 1940 the Aloca Aluminum
plant opened in Vancouver thanks to an abundance of cheap hydro power from the Bonneville
Dam, a New Deal Project. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor however, Vancouver’s
manufacturing industry became supercharged. Henry Kaiser chose to open one of his Kaiser
shipyards next to the Army base in Vancouver. By 1944 this plant employed 36,000 people 24
hours a day, seven days a week, building Liberty Ships, LST’s and “Baby flat tops” for the United

24. States Military. This brought in massive amounts of money into Vancouver. Other factories
opened, and businesses came to support this new economy. Unfortunately, after this
Vancouver’s growth slowed. It continued to be a strong manufacturer, however with the
general US trends away from manufacturing, Vancouver failed to create new business or a new
soul. Being so close to Portland WA, Vancouver received many residents looking to live in
Washington for the lack of income tax, and in 1990 it annexed the city of Cascade Park which
added nearly 58,000 new residents. Currently the city of Vancouver has a growth plan of simply
annexing nearby cities which use its services. Like many other Washington Cities it now rests
upon its public sector and current private jobs without significant plans for natural growth.
http://www.cityofvancouver.us/ourcity/page/remarkable-history-vancouver-washington-
original-vancouver
http://www.komonews.com/news/archive/4172701.html
http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?displaypage=output.cfm&file_id=5644
http://www.biggestuscities.com/city/vancouver-washington
http://www.vancouverclarkcountyhomes.com/population_statistics_Vancouver_Clark_County_
Wa.htm

26. Wenatchee – As far as farming will take you in Washington
The story of Wenatchee is one of a lucky plot of land being made workable by modern
transportation. The first trading post to open in the area now known as Wenatchee came in the
early 1860’s where a group of European settlers set up fur trading post to trade with the Native
Americans in the region. Unfortunately, the large mountains surrounding the valley kept the
valley’s best kept secret: the amazingly fertile soil ripe for growing produce.
This changed in 1892 when the Great Northern Railway made its way one-mile south of the
current Wenatchee settlement. The population jumped three fold from 108 to 300 between
1890 and that year. That same year the Wenatchee Improvement Company, a firm founded by
a group of Seattleites looking to take advantage of the great potential of resources in the area,
began investing in the city. The Great Northern Railway officially allowed the valley to
participate in the national and then global agriculture market. Due to the massive amounts of
growth the Washington State Legislature created Chelan county.
By the 1930’s libraries, newspapers, schools, and commercial districts began to spring up in the
city. The vast majority of the economy still hinged upon agriculture as it does to this day. In the
194-‘s the city began a foray into hydroelectric power using power from the Grand Coulee and
Rock Island Damn using money from the New Deal, and as well as Aluminum refineries which
opened in 1952. Copper plants also helped the war effort however they only lasted from
193801958. The Rocky Reach dam was also constructed in 1952 and became the largest
employer during its construction.
To this day however Wenatchee is built and run as one of the largest and most productive
farming communities in the nation, becoming the number one grower of apples in the entire
United States.
http://www.wenatcheewa.gov/Index.aspx?page=21
https://www.wenatcheewa.gov/index.aspx?page=21

28. Yakima – Agriculture with the help of Firepower
The city of Yakima began with the Joseph Catholic Mission, established in the late 1840’s at
Ahtanum Creek. The the 1850’s minors and prospectors began to arrive and in 1855 the local
Native American tribes ceded most of their land in the treaty of Yakima. This treaty, not fully
understood by the Native Americans sparked the Yakima War of 1855-1856. After the war
settled, more settlers felt safe to come and settle. The first group of white settlers came as
cattle ranchers who found the valley to be a great place to winter their cattle. A member of this
migration was F Mortiner Thorp, who arrived in 1861. His son recounts the magnificence of the
fields and the fact that the natives were remarkably helpful. He claimed that they were willing
to trade 32 pounds of salmon for 10 cents worth of beads. Later these settlers brought water in
from the rivers, allowing greater growing potential and by 1870 settlers began referring to the
village as Yakima City. That same year it became the county seat.
Yakima, like many other Washington Cities became so populated on the wager that railroads
would come through. Finally, the Northern Pacific Railroad did in fact decided to run through
the region, however the villagers would need to travel four miles north to reach it. The railroad
finally came in 1855 the city, the same year the city of North Yakima (the region around the
railroad post) became incorporated. The Railroad offered to pay for businesses to relocate and
citizens to emigrate from Yakima to North Yakima. In 1886 the county was moved to North
Yakima as business and new settlers forsook the old Yakima for North Yakima around the
railroad. The climate around North Yakima also proved to be ideal for amazing growing.
The collective welfare of Yakima and North Yakima dampened during the early 1890’s when
financial worry struck the nation. 1894 saw violent labor disputes and in an attempt to
reinvigorate the region, the state of Washington named North Yakima as the official site of the
Washington State Fair. The fair attracted thousands of visitors every year but did not do much
to reinvigorate the economy. Luckily as the national economy recovered, so did demand for
crops and livestock, the two industries which defined Yakima. In 1906 North Yakima their local
trolly systembegins and by 1910 North Yakima held the largest Produce Row outside of New
York or Chicago.
In 1918, North Yakima dropped the North from its name and the old Yakima became Union
Gap. The newly minted ‘Yakima’ not acted as the commercial center for the entire valley.
Throughout the 1930’s and into the 40’s, Yakima county was fifth out of all counties in the
United States for agricultural production. During the dust bowl of the thirties a huge migration
of Texas Mexicans came looking for work in the agricultural industry.
World War Two brought in both an invigoration and diversification of Yakima’s economy. The
United States established the Yakima Anti-Aircraft Artillery Range which brought hundreds of
soldiers. Unfortunately, in 1942 over 1,000 people of Japanese decent were removed from
Yakima to be sent in internment camps. This did little to slow down growth as irrigation became
more well implemented in the valley and the White Pass Highway opened through the
cascades, giving easier access to trade. Since then Yakima has continued to be a massive

29. agricultural industry, opening up hospitals, and the local community college. In the 1980’s
cleanup for Mt. St. Helens was a multimillion dollar project however the majority of Yakima
continues to be its agriculture. It is credited further with being the regional commercial,
medical, and educational center of the valley and has grown to the point where Yakima and
Union Gap (old Yakima) are barely distinguishable from each other.
http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=9187

31. Findings:
My findings are that for a city to grow it needs to 1) have a local abundance of capital, and 2)
have cheap means to transport that capital away. As shown during the histories of all ten cities,
they begin with the finding of amazing extractive resource potential and are sent skyrocketing
by the attachment of railroads to the rest of the nation. For the “agricultural” cities, this initial
capital is all the city needs as the capital (fertile soil) continues to be utilized in more efficient
ways over time and transportation allows the fruits of that capital to be exported easily. For the
rest they move on. What is important to note first is that in this stage of these cities life-cycles,
called the extractive stage, the capital is immobile and companies must travel to the site to
extract it. This made the location and populations of cities at this time entirely dependent on
the location of resources in the state. During the manufacturing era, the railways and river
access which were built and located around already strong population centers helped justify
the positioning of manufacturing plants. However adjacent resources nearby continued to be a
strong indicator of city growth as cities with nearby metal deposits were able to extract it and
build on site before shipping the final product away over the railway or rivers.
Now, as cities transition into the information economy, the local capital is seeming to become
the most important factor once again. However, this is a very different form of capital than the
pasts form of extractive resources combined with access to transportation. In this dynamic the
progression for a cities growth followed a similar path among cities: capital found  company
moves in to extract capital  labor moves in to find employment. This held a double edged
sword as while cities locations were entirely dependent on where capital was found, it allowed
for any city to be competitive so long as it took advantage of its natural resources. In the
information age this dynamic is shifted as the capital companies come to take advantage of is
human capital. Human Capital, being one of the only truly mobile form of capital creates
difficulties for cities to cultivate capital since the human capital tends to migrate to cities with
jobs available for it. Thus the dynamic looks more like this human capital lives in city 
company moves in to take advantage of human capital  more human capital moves in
searching for work. This is a highly cyclical loop is the reason why I believe cities such as San
Francisco and Seattle have remained so large and in demand despite the fact that their cost of
living has skyrocketed to levels not seen elsewhere in the country.
As seen in the Seattle history page, the relocation of Microsoft to Seattle acted as the catalyst
of the tech revolution in the city and increased its natural human capital to spark this positive
feedback loop. Several cities have failed to create this spark, such as Spokane which has gone
through significant downtown renovations and marketed itself as family friendly in hopes of
creating an atmosphere for this spark to occur. While their attempts at this are admirable, and
I think they are on to the greater quest of bringing in human capital, I believe that a city must
do much more than to simply create an interesting downtown. In order to create a sustainable
pool of human capital in a city, it must create an atmosphere which human capital flourishes in.
Low property taxes, may be an option, additionally investing heavily in Schools as to create a
proper the incentive of a bright future for one’s children. Regardless of the incentive, the
purpose is to essentially grow human capital in the city. Once that is accomplished, and the city

32. does have excess human capital, I believe companies will move in to take advantage of it.
Additionally, in the information age, the factor of transportation is less of an issue as internet
companies and general service companies need to export less physical objects.
Perhaps I am wrong and one day the housing markets in Seattle and other such cities will burst
and the spillage will bring more human capital and work to smaller cities with cheaper living
expenses. I find it far more likely that a city will take it upon themselves to create a city meant
to retain highly skilled human capital and the corporations will follow.
Follow-Up
If I were to be able to continue researching this topic I would want to create much more
quantitative metrics to track to accompany the qualitative aspects of the research. Currently I
simply have population, however if I were to dedicate a thesis to this I would need to have
access to much more information such as employers over time (unfortunately the Seattle
Chamber of Commerce does not keep track of largest employers), and difference between local
owned vs. foreign capital and even distribution of wealth in a city.
Additionally, I found difficulty finding differences in the in employers and fully drawing out
differences in events within the Seattle Metropolitan Area. A more in-depth history of one or
two cities could also prove to be useful. Something such as going 100% into the history of
Tacoma per-se and following it throughout its lifecycle to find where it separated from Seattle
and stayed the less significant city.
Overall I am very pleased with what I was able to find. It gave me a base understanding of what
I was looking to find, and opened up a world of questions I look forward to researching in
regards to my findings.