Arlington: Two Towns, One Railroad
Washington
The small city you are passing through almost did not exist. In eighteen ninety, two rival towns sat a half-mile apart at the forks of the Stillaguamish River: Haller City and Arlington. Both wanted to be the logging hub of Snohomish County's north end.
The railroad settled it. When the depot landed on Arlington's higher, drier ground around eighteen ninety, Haller City began to die almost immediately. The two towns merged and incorporated as a single Arlington in May nineteen oh three, with Division Street left as a quiet reminder that there were once two communities competing for the same future.
Loggers, then dairy farmers, then commuters to Everett and beyond shaped what came next.
