From a letter by Judge Thomas Burke, a principle in the SLSE to Captain A.B. Wycoff.
December 20, 1888
..."North Yakima is and will be, a good interior town. It will never be a very large place, but it has a good country to support it, and is likely to remain an important place. I should hesitate, however, to put much money there. The reason why I should, will be obvious to you, if you will take note of the towns in the interior of Illinois for instance. I was in Springfield last summer, and I took pains to inquire the price of city residence property, and I was surprised to find that there was hardly any market for it at all. Three or four cities with Chicago, of course, in the lead, seem to absorb everything. Is not the same thing likely to happen in Wash. Ty.(territory) ? There will probably be one or tow large towns in Eastern Washington. One of these, I think, will be Spokane Falls; and North Yakima, Ellensburg, and a town at the mouth of the Wenatchee where the S.L.S.&E. Ry. will cross the Columbia, will contend for second place;--and which, will capture the prize it is hard to tell..."
