"It was during this trip [(to the West)] that some important information was passed on to [Dr. Henry A] Smith [Magnolia's first white pioneer]. "The Northern Pacific Railway announced plans to extend to the Puget Sound country"-a highly undeveloped part of the west of which Henry had heard glowing reports.
Smith did not miss the implication of the potential cash reality of railroads and cities, given his intelligence and better-than-average social background.
He seemed to realize this railroad could bring with it great commerce and economic growth. Soon, this most compelling idea was the one that called Smith away from California and spurred him onward to Magnolia.
"Leaving his mother and sister in Portland, Henry traveled to Puget Sound in a small canoe. Some accounts say a gruff but friendly pioneer named L. M. Collins told Smith to pack his duds promising "in three day's time I will land you in the Garden of Eden or give you my head as a football." Along the harbor, Smith saw a bay flanked on both sides with good possibilities to make a railroad track and shipping piers, using fill, over vast tidelands.
Scouting the area, he found a valley between Elliott Bay and the inner harbor of Salmon Bay. There he staked a donation claim of 160 acres.
The boundaries of this claim were West Barrett to West Armour Street, and 16th Avenue West to 20th Avenue West. The beauty of the country struck him profoundly. He wrote about it often in his later life in poetic form in journals, some of which were published.
Young Smith, working on logic, rumors and discussions with fellow settlers such as David Denny, seemed more and more vindicated in his choice of property for the potential railroad land.
Smith determined that this cove was the perfect spot for shipping docks and a natural tidewater terminus for a transcontinental railroad that would some day reach Puget Sound by way of the old Indian trail across the mountains.
More than 40 years later the Seattle, Eastern, Lakeshore Railway Company did reach Seattle [at Smith Cove]. The great shipping piers [piers 88, 89, 90 and 91] Denny and Smith envisioned at Smith's Cove subsequently became a reality...
Excerpt, "Magnolia, Memories & Milestones, Making History? Magnolia's First Pioneer," Monica Wooton, author; Magnolia Community Club, publisher;2000; p.31; citations p. 301-302. For information on ordering the book go to www.magnoliahistoricalsociety.org or, call 206-284-5480.
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