Yakima Signal

February 17, 1883

(Transcriber only copied articles that may refer to the Kittitas Valley or names associated
with it. A poor microfilm was very hard to read, and so articles may have been missed.
?? indicates words that could not be read.)

LOCAL BREVITIES

Mr. J. P. SHARP returned from Oregon to his home in Kittitas during the week. George W. ELLIOT of Ellensburg was in town during the week and made a pleasant call at the Signal office. James BYRNES, of Ainsworth, a member of the well-known firm of SLINGSBY, SUVER & BYRNES, was in town this week en route to Ellensburg, where he attended the Odd Fellows hall on the evening of the 14th.

THROUGH THE SNOQUALMIE

Walter A. BULL, of Kittitas Valley, was in town Saturday night and Sunday on his return home from Portland and Seattle. He and
Mr. S. H. GEDDIS went over to the Sound a few weeks since on horseback through the Snoqualmie pass. Mr. George SMITH had passed over only a few days previously with a band of cattle. He speaks highly of the road as a possible thoroughfare between this county and Seattle and thinks some immediate steps should be taken to make the road available for teaming. He says that Mr. SMITH has bridged the streams and cut the timber on this side of the mountain at an expense of several thousand dollars and will perhaps take steps to obtain assistance from others in making a good road the entire distance through. Between Ellensburg and Seattle by this route, the distance is about 120 miles. From Ellensburg to The Dalles the distance is about 140 miles by the present route and Mr. BULL is of the opinion that freight can be delivered into the hands of teamsters at much lower rates in Seattle than at The Dalles. He thinks also that even though the railroad was finished to the Sound we should by all means have a good wagon road between these points. A great many immigrant wagons in former times passed over this route and a great many more would pass over it every year if it was in the first rate condition. In the early days of Kittitas the settlers had all of their mail brought over from Seattle by a private carrier who made the trip once a week. Mr. BULL returns home more deeply impressed than ever with the fact that the future metropolis of this country will be located on Puget Sound. He found Seattle moving forward with rapid strides and the entire Sound country undergoing a rapid and healthy development. As an initiatory step toward the establishment of business relations between Eastern and Western Washington, he thinks it would be a good idea to secure the immediate establishment of a mail route through the Snoqualmie pass in this direction. Mr. George SMITH, as heretofore stated in the Signal, had remarkably good success in taking cattle through and received for them in the Seattle market 4-1/2 cents a pound gross weight.