This riverside city was established when a rumor surfaced that a military road would be crossing over the Snohomish River. The road never materialized. By 1866, the "mother city" of the new county was little more than a clearing in the woods, offering a store and a saloon, and was known up and down the river as Cadyville. Ten years later, the name Snohomish City was established, along with the first newspaper, the first school, and the first literary society in the county. Farms, logging camps, and trading posts throughout the area pivoted around this growing city and manufacturing center. Even Seattle was not much larger and offered no more amenities. Today 9,000 residents call Snohomish home, and as the area develops farther away from the riverside and its historic roots, this book invites the reader to pause and remember.

This thought provoking novel brings a compelling new account to the mystery behind The Everett Massacre. "Set in 1916, Sawdust Empire opens with the Shingle Weavers' Union striking and observes the agitation that slowly builds, heightened by the arrival of the IWW-Wobblies. J.D. Howard captures this unrest from a variety of perspectives and creates an engaging, fictional narrative that boasts a broad list of characters who bring the story to life. Thoroughly researched with a deep understanding of the Pacific Northwest and its people, this is a must read for anyone interested in great American boomtowns. A tale about the timber industry that is as impressively rich and textured as the landscape it surveys." - Kirkus Reviews

Situated on a deep-water bay, Everett's timber-covered peninsula was irresistible to early investors. Natural resources were abundant, and it was whispered that the Great Northern Railroad would soon make this hidden treasure its final destination. Hopes were high and money began to exchange hands. But the Panic of 1893 was right around the corner. Everett never would achieve the “big city” grandeur that Eastern speculators had originally predicted. Nevertheless, the sturdy city by Port Gardner Bay withstood financial panic, depressions, and riots to become the proud seat of Snohomish County. Once heralded as the “Pittsburgh of the West” and the “City of Smokestacks,” Everett remains a dynamic city of industry.

Publisher description: The Monte Cristo area, pocketed in spectacularly beautiful mountains in the Pacific Northwest, has long intrigued visitors with its colorful history, rooted in the search for deposits of gold and silver as rich as the Count of Monte Cristo. Here is the story of the region, from discovery to disillusionment and, ultimately, to the dust of a ghost town. The several decades of Monte Cristo's glory led to the construction of the Everett & Monte Cristo Railway (a marvelous engineering mistake) and the founding of the city of Everett as a processing and shipping point for the projected mining riches all events manipulated by Eastern corporate titans including John D. Rockefeller and the Guggenheims. Through boom and bust the struggling railroaders, miners, merchants, and their families dreamed, worked, failed, and sometimes died in Monte Cristo's unforgiving winters.

Original State Highway Board in 1905."--BOOK JACKET.