A Review of the Resources and Industries of the State of Washington, 1909 Part 15

BREWSTER, at the junction of the Columbia and Okanogan rivers, has a population of about 200, and is an important grain and fruit-s.h.i.+pping point.

OKANOGAN is on the river of the same name, about midway between Brewster and Conconully, and to this point the steamers ply in the higher waters of the river.

TWISP is a growing village in the Methow valley, devoted chiefly to fruit-growing and mining. It is an important distributing center.

PATEROS has steamer connection with Wenatchee, and is an importing, growing center.

BECK, BONAPARTE, ANGLIN and BODIE are other new and growing commercial centers.

CHESAW, in the northern part, and NESPELIM, in the southeastern part, are important locations.

PACIFIC COUNTY.

Pacific county is the extreme southern county, which borders on the ocean at the mouth of the Columbia river. Although a small county with only 900 square miles, it has about 100 miles of salt-water frontage. Willapa harbor, at the northwest, is capable of being made accessible to all ocean s.h.i.+ps, while Shoalwater bay, a body of water 20 miles long and separated from the ocean by a long slim peninsula, furnishes probably the best breeding ground In the state for oyster culture. The county at large is an immense forest, in the center of which is a range of hills dividing the watershed so that some of the streams flow into the Columbia river at the south, some west into Willapa harbor, and others, through the Chehalis river, reach Grays harbor.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate No. 63.--Modern Sanitary Dairy Barn, on Farm of Hon. W. H. Paulhamus, Sumner, Pierce County.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate No. 64.--Views in Rainier National Park, Reached by Railroad and Driveway from Tacoma.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate No. 65.--San Juan County Views.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate No. 66.--Purse Seiners' Camp at Eagle Gorge, San Juan County.]

RESOURCES.

As already indicated, its timber and its fisheries are the great sources of wealth for the county, although stock-raising, dairying, fruit-growing and general farming are constantly growing in importance.

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The county probably has eleven billion feet of standing timber, and daily cuts with its 64 sawmills about 775,000 feet of lumber and one million s.h.i.+ngles.

Both native and cultivated oysters are largely marketed, as are also clams, crabs, shrimp and fish. A splendid market for all farm products is afforded by the mills and lumber camps and summer campers on the beach.

TRANSPORTATION.

The Northern Pacific railway reaches Willapa harbor, cutting the county centrally east and west. On the long ocean beach from the mouth of the Columbia river northward is a railroad about 20 miles long, made profitable by the extensive patronage of the summer campers. Added to these are the water crafts which frequent the harbor and the Columbia river, and altogether make access to all parts of the county easy.

CITIES AND TOWNS.

SOUTH BEND, the county seat, situated near the mouth of the Willapa river, is a rapidly growing town of 3,000 people and destined to become an important ocean port. The harbor is capacious, well protected, has fine anchorage, and is handicapped only by a few feet of mud at the bottom, which Uncle Sam will soon remove. At low tide there is now from 20 to 30 feet of water in the channel of the river and at South Bend it is 1,000 feet wide. South Bend is the terminus of the Northern Pacific railway. It has electric lights, water works, good schools, fine churches, bank, sawmills, planing-mills, sash and door factories, fish canneries, newspapers, etc., and is about to build a $50,000 courthouse.

RAYMOND, a new manufacturing town on the harbor and railroad, a few miles from South Bend, has 2,500 people and is rapidly growing in importance. Raymond is not yet five years old; has a monthly payroll of $100,000; sawmills and factories representing an invested capital of $4,900,000, employing 1,200 men; an electric light plant; a city telephone system, owned by local capital; a salt-water fire protection system; is about to build two bridges, costing $30,000 each, and is adding new manufacturing plants at the rate of one a month. The city gives free factory sites, and has both rail and ocean transportation from factory locations to the markets of the world.

ILWACO is a fis.h.i.+ng post of importance near the southwest sh.o.r.e of the county, with 900 population.

CHINOOK, FRANKFORT and KNABTON are other fis.h.i.+ng points on the Columbia river of importance. NAHCOTTA is an ocean summer resort.

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PIERCE COUNTY.

Pierce county, though not the largest, is one of the most important counties in the state. Its area of 1,800 square miles occupies much of the upper reaches of Puget sound on both sides and extends southeasterly, taking in the Rainier National Park of 2,225,000 acres, and Mount Rainier (Tacoma) 14,526 feet above sea level and less than 60 miles from salt water, covered with eternal snow, an endless scene of majestic grandeur, giving the county a greater variety of elevations and more beautiful and startling scenery than any other county in the United States. Its northeastern boundary is the White river, its southwestern boundary the Nisqually river.

It has about 125 miles of salt-water sh.o.r.e lands, with innumerable bays and inlets and several important islands. Originally one vast forest, much of it now is covered with fruitful fields of grain, gra.s.s and orchards.

Its climate is mild and salubrious, its soils of great variety and fertility, and its mountains and foothills full of coal and precious metals.

RESOURCES.

The resources of Pierce county are varied and of great value. Its central part is one great coal field, covered with forests, producing annually about 1,000,000 tons of coal. Gold, silver and copper are among its precious metals, but not extensively mined as yet.

Its rivers possess almost immeasurable water power. One plant on the Puyallup river at Electron has an ultimate capacity of 40,000 horse-power, 20,000 horse-power of which is now in use. The city of Tacoma is engaged in the construction of a plant on the Nisqually for munic.i.p.al use, the capacity of which will be 20,000 horse-power.

The 12,000 horse-power plant at Snoqualmie Falls also furnishes current for city lighting, street railway and manufacturing purposes in Tacoma.

All the cereals are successfully raised; dairying is one of the most important industries; fruit-growing, particularly in small fruits, such as strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, cherries, etc., is very profitable and is engaging a great deal of attention.

Fish are caught in quant.i.ties and s.h.i.+pped to eastern markets, but Pierce county's greatest natural wealth is in its vast forests.

An idea of the value can be had when it is said that $6,000,000 worth of lumber was cut in 1908 in Tacoma alone. In addition to these great natural resources, Pierce county's commercial industries are so great as to place it in the front rank of counties of the Northwest. The great sawmills, woodworking plants and factories of various kinds in the city of Tacoma alone employ 11,800 people, and the value of their output last year amounted to over $43,000,000.00.

TRANSPORTATION.

Pierce county is fast becoming a network of transcontinental railroads centering in Tacoma, which, coupled with the steamboat traffic on the Sound, gives the county splendid traffic facilities. Pierce county [Page 75]

for years was a non-compet.i.tive railroad point, the Northern Pacific being the only road to enter its vast fields of wealth. Within the last two years, however, the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, the Union Pacific system, and the Great Northern, realizing the wealth of the county and the importance of Tacoma as a manufacturing center, the value of her perfect harbor for s.h.i.+pping, the vastness of her great stretch of level tidelands for factory sites and terminal yards, and the low cost at which freight can be transferred from the rails to the sails or _vice versa_, have entered the field and are now spending $11,000,000 on construction and terminal work in the city of Tacoma. The addition of these new roads means a wonderful impetus to the trade of Tacoma. The Tacoma Eastern railroad, a beautiful scenic route, beginning at Tacoma, runs in a southeasterly direction through a wonderfully fertile country and vast forests of splendid timber, to Rainier National Park and Mount Rainier (Mt. Tacoma). Several trolley lines are in operation, reaching all the near-by towns and connecting Tacoma and Seattle.

In addition to these lines, many steamboats and crafts of all kinds, plying the waters of Puget Sound and the Pacific ocean, find abundant wharf.a.ge and anchorage in the harbor of Tacoma. The products of the world in large quant.i.ties pa.s.s through Tacoma in process of distribution. A constant stream of small crafts, running about the waters of the county, accommodate the local traffic.

CITIES AND TOWNS.

TACOMA, with a population of about 125,000, is the county seat of Pierce county, and situated on Commencement bay. Its harbor, one of the finest in the world, and its railroad terminals, unexcelled on the Pacific Coast, as already indicated, are the center of a vast commerce by rail and water. At its door is an immense amount of water power, already developed, driving her street cars and the machinery in many of her factories. Coal and c.o.ke are in abundance within a few miles of the city, the coal being used extensively for steam and conveyed from the trains to the boats by immense electric bunkers. The c.o.ke is largely utilized in the largest lead and copper reduction plant on the coast. The great Guggenheim smelter at Tacoma reduces and turns out annually lead, copper, gold and silver worth about $10,000,000. Along her wharves are immense elevators, grain warehouses and flouring mills. Tacoma yearly s.h.i.+ps out more grain than any other city on Puget sound. In and around the city are large saw and s.h.i.+ngle mills, which last year cut 527,604,000 feet of lumber and 434,000,000 s.h.i.+ngles. Her factories and shops have $24,000,000 invested and employ 11,800 wage-earners, and her large flour mills s.h.i.+p their products to all parts of the world.

Her packing-house products amounted to $5,000,000 in 1908. The largest car shops west of the Mississippi are located here. Her downtown streets are lined by large business blocks; she has 185 miles of street and suburban railway, and over 75 miles of paved streets.

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There are four daily newspapers, 8 banks, 1,120 acres in parks, and many beautiful and expensive public buildings. The city hall cost $200,000; the court house, $500,000; her high school building, the most beautiful on the coast, cost a half million dollars, and the United States government is completing a $500,000 federal building.

PUYALLUP is one of Pierce county's prosperous towns, having about 7,000 population, in the wealthy Puyallup valley. This is the center or a great fruit-growing district, in which the farmers have combined and market their crops through an a.s.sociation, sending their berries in patent refrigerator cars into far-away markets. It is also quite a large manufacturing center, with a payroll of $45,000 per month.

BUCKLEY, with a population of 1,500, is the center of large sawmilling, farming and mining industries.

ORTING is a town with 800 people, chiefly engaged in gardening and farming. The State Soldiers' Home is located near, and adds considerable trade to the town.

SUMNER has a population of 1,000, is located in the Puyallup valley, and its people form a part of the farmers' a.s.sociation, engaged in fruit-growing, dairying and gardening.

STEILACOOM is one of the most beautiful little summer resort towns on Puget sound and is connected with Tacoma by two electric lines.

SYLVAN, GIG HARBOR, ROSEDALE, ELGIN, LONG BRANCH, BLANCHARD, and BEE are very prosperous villages of Pierce county, and are located on the sh.o.r.es of Puget sound.

SPANAWAY, EATONVILLE, ALDERTON, ELBE, MERIDIAN, KAPOWSIN, and MCMILLAN are villages in the interior, on the railroads.

WILKESON, SOUTH PRARIE, CARBONADO, FAIRFAX, PITTSBURG, and MELMONT are coal-mining towns of importance.

SAN JUAN COUNTY.