Gilman Village


[Follow Ups] [Post Followup] [Dodge Power Wagon Forum]


Posted by David Sherman on Friday, April 06, 2007 at 13:01:15 :

In Reply to: Re: C'mon Kurt , Take a drive............ posted by Gary Troxel on Thursday, April 05, 2007 at 19:50:17 :

The shopping center is named after one Mr Gilman, who along with a guy named Burke, had the idea that if the Northern Pacific railroad wouldn't build its tracks over the mountains and into Seattle (they'd picked Tacoma instead), the citizens of Seattle would, by volunteer labor, build a railroad from Seattle over the Cascade mountains to Walla Walla. They called it the Seattle, Lakeshore and Eastern. The "Eastern" part was optimistic. They started out with a brass band and speeches and a picnic prepared by the ladies. Everybody was ready to show the NP a thing or two, but they didn't get far until the enthusiasm for volunteer railroad construction wore off in the rain and the mud. I think they got the tracks as far as Issaquah (where the Gilman Village shopping mall is) so as to access the coal mines in that area, though they had to pay for labor. The railroad grade is now a bike trail.



Follow Ups:



Post a Followup

Name:
E-Mail:
Subject:
Message:
Optional Link
URL:
Title:
Optional Image Link
URL:


This board is powered by the Mr. Fong Device from Cyberarmy.com