Home > Back to Search Results >
From the Territory of Washington...
From the Territory of Washington...
Item # 707898
Currently Unavailable. Contact us if you would like to be placed on a want list or to be notified if a similar item is available.
February 25, 1871
WALLA WALLA STATESMAN, Washington Territory, Feb. 25, 1871
* Rare Old West publication
Walla Walla's history starts in 1806 when the Lewis and Clark expedition encountered the Walawalałáma (Walla Walla people).
This town was just incorporated 9 years prior & grew to become the largest city in the Washington Territory, not becoming a state until 1889. At one point it was slated to become the new state's capital. Various news of the day, both local & national.
Four pages, never bound nor trimmed, a few very discrete archival mends at margins, good condition.
background: In the early 1870s, Walla Walla stood as the undisputed "Capital of the Inland Empire," a bustling, dusty metropolis of nearly 1,400 residents that served as the wealthiest and most populous city in the Washington Territory. While the rest of the Pacific Northwest was still sparsely settled, Walla Walla’s Main Street was a high-energy corridor where the clatter of Concord stagecoaches met the refined commerce of the newly established Baker Boyer Bank. This was a pivotal decade of transition: the frenetic "Gold Rush" energy of the 1860s was cooling, giving way to an agricultural boom as the city’s vast rolling hills were transformed into some of the world’s most productive wheat fields. To move this "liquid gold" to the Columbia River, Dr. Dorsey Baker began constructing his legendary Walla Walla & Columbia River Railroad in 1871—a scrappy, narrow-gauge line that symbolized the city's innovative spirit. Despite its isolation from the coast, the town possessed a surprisingly cosmopolitan flair, blending a rugged frontier grit with the growing influence of its Chinese community and the political weight of hosting the territory’s first constitutional discussions, all while the nearby Fort Walla Walla maintained a watchful, often tense, military presence over the rapidly changing landscape.
Category: Post-Civil War
No Longer Available
