Almira

From the "History of The Big Bend Country."

1904

The Central Washington railroad reached Almira in the fall of 1889 and the place opened up with bright prospects. But cold weather came, accompanied by snow as building operations were commenced, and nipped its ambition in the bud. Had the road reached this point a few months earlier, Almira would, doubtless, have been a good-sized town by the time winter set in. As it was it did not assume metropolitan appearances that fall. It became a typical railroad town. It was known that the road was to be extended westward the the following summer, and the buildings erected in the main were of a temporary character, the absence of paint being a striking feature, yet adding somewhat to the picturesqueness of the village. Until the road was completed to the Grand Coulee Almira remained the terminus. All trains ran to this point, connections by stage being made to points westward. These facts made the town furiously active, but it was freely predicted that the construction of the road to the Coulee would prove a death-knell to the hopes of Almira.