Dissertation
Deconstructing the countryside: Agriculture and railroad abandonment in the Pacific Northwest wheat belt, 1900-1990
Washington State University
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
08/2010
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7273/000006003
Abstract
During the twentieth century, the relationship between rural communities and railroads changed drastically. In the 1880s, 723 route miles of railroad branch lines were constructed in the Pacific Northwest wheat belt, but in the 1980s, 737 miles were abandoned. Initially, communities were entirely dependent upon railroads for all of their transportation requirements. Railroads enabled agricultural production, and the demand for wheat during World War I further encouraged monoculture production. By midcentury, technological advances, especially automobiles and trucks, increasingly displaced rail transportation for all but the heaviest items. With decreased shipments, several branch lines were studied for abandonment in the 1930s and 1940s; however, little abandonment occurred until the 1970s. The abandonment of much of the rail network in the 1980s, reflected a century of societal change in the wheat belt. Because the Pacific Northwest was a surplus producing region, both railroads and communities were affected by the reliance upon foreign markets. Throughout the twentieth century the cultivation of wheat intensified, and farming became increasingly industrial. The cost of machinery, fertilizer application, on-farm storage, transportation, and other factors increased the capital cost to produce wheat and drove out many small farmers. As a result, farm size increased, and average yields increased, but these factors influenced demographic changes; in the most wheat dependent counties a steady population decline ensued throughout the twentieth century. As the population declined, and wheat growing became more specialized, fewer people required the services of the railroad. Most passenger trains were discontinued by the 1950s, as roads and automobiles offered more flexibility and convenience. By the 1970s, the railroad's presence had declined from daily service to rural communities, to seasonal, commodity specific carriers of grain. Without the miscellaneous shipments, with growing competition for grain shipments, branch lines in the Pacific Northwest began to decline in profitability. The passage of the Staggers Rail in 1980, encouraged abandonment of light density rail lines to strengthen the railroads' financial standing. The deconstruction of the network of branch lines across the Pacific Northwest wheat belt in the 1980s fundamentally altered both the physical environment and the economic relationship between towns and railroads.
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Details
- Title
- Deconstructing the countryside
- Creators
- Marc A. Entze
- Contributors
- Orlan J. Svingen (Chair)Kenneth Casavant (Committee Member) - Washington State University, School of Economic SciencesJeffrey C Sanders (Committee Member) - Washington State University, Department of HistoryCharles V. Mutschler (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Department of History
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 288
- Identifiers
- 99901055126201842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation