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

They are engaged in the manufacture of lumber, shingles, sash and doors; in railroad shops, pulp and paper mills, and smelters; in running tug boats, driving piles, making iron castings, and tanning hides; packing meats and fish; making turpentine, charcoal, flour, butter, and many other commodities. Its banks have $4,000,000 on deposit. Its paper mills produce 26 tons of paper daily. Its smelter is a constant producer of the precious metals and their by-products.

The city is substantially built, having all the conveniences of a modern city, with wide streets and wide sidewalks; has both gas and electricity for lights, and a good water system. Some of its streets are paved with preserved wooden blocks and some with asphalt.

Everett is a sub-port of entry of the Puget sound country. The United States has spent half a million dollars improving the mouth of the Snohomish river for a fresh-water harbor.

Snohomish is a city of 4,000 people, on the Snohomish river, which is navigable, and is connected with Everett by a street car line. It is also on the Northern Pacific and Great Northern railways, and is the distributing center for a large agricultural district. It has a number of shingle and sawmills, and is headquarters for a good deal of the mining industry of the county.

Stanwood is a town of about 800 people, on the Sound and railway, in the northwestern part of the county. It is a center of farming interests and lumber industries.

Arlington is a mining and lumbering town on the Northern Pacific railway, well up toward the mountains. It has a population of 2,000 and is growing.

Monroe is a town of 2,400 people, on the line of the Great Northern railway, in the center of a large farming and milling industry.

Edmonds, a town of 2,000 people, is on the Sound and Great Northern railway, near the King county line; chiefly engaged in sawing lumber and making shingles.

Sultan, Granite Falls, Gold Bar, Darrington, and Monte Cristo are all centers of mining and other industries.

Marysville, Mukilteo, Silvana, Getchell, and Pilchuck are centers of lumbering and farming.

SPOKANE COUNTY

Spokane county lies in the extreme eastern section of the state. The area of the county is 1,680 square miles.

TRANSPORTATION.

The transportation facilities are the best of the Inland Pacific Northwest. Three transcontinental railroads—the Northern Pacific, Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, and Great Northern—traverse the County from east to west; a fourth transcontinental line, the Oregon Railway & Navigation company, enters from the southwest, and a fifth transcontinental road, the Spokane International (C. P. R.), enters the county from the northeast and terminates at Spokane. The Spokane Falls & Northern extends north into British Columbia and to Republic and Oroville, Wash. Electric trolley lines connect Spokane with the outlying towns in every direction. The total railway mileage in the county is approximately 429 miles.

TOPOGRAPHY AND INDUSTRIES.

The northern portion of the county is somewhat mountainous, and is covered with a fine growth of pine and tamarack timber; much of this section is suitable for agriculture, while all is adapted to grazing. The central part of the county is rolling and is traversed by the Spokane river; the central section to the west of the city of Spokane is fine agricultural land, while to the east of Spokane is the Spokane valley, which is rapidly being brought into a high state of cultivation by means of irrigation. There are about 40,000 acres in this valley capable of irrigation; 3,000 acres are now irrigated and under cultivation. The southern portion of the county is rolling, and comprises some of the finest agricultural land in the state. Large areas of this section are utilized for wheat-raising, while here are grown the finest sugar beets in the world.

Lumbering is a considerable industry, while stock-raising and dairying are also extensively engaged in. Over 1,000,000 bushels of wheat are grown annually. The flour mills of the county have a combined capacity of 3,600 barrels daily.

In fruit-growing Spokane is one of the leading counties of the state. The value of the fruit produced in the county amounts to nearly $3,000,000 annually. The following table shows the distribution of the five important fruits.

[Footnote *: Is 25 percent. of the total number of apple trees planted in the state in 1908.]

SCHOOLS.

There are 165 school districts in the county and eighteen towns where graded schools are maintained. The total valuation of assessed property with improvements (1908) is $77,120,360; personal property, $10,527,030.

PRINCIPAL CITIES AND TOWNS.

Spokane, situated on the Spokane river, is the county seat of Spokane county, and is the metropolis of eastern Washington, having a population estimated at 120,000. Spokane is the center of a great wheat-raising section and is the principal mining and commercial center between the Cascades and the Rocky mountains. A conservative estimate of the total value of manufactured products for 1908 is $17,000,000. There are over 12,000 wage-earners, receiving over $10,000,000 annually. The principal industrial establishments are lumber mills, flour mills, machine shops, agricultural machinery, brick plants, iron works, foundries, pottery, cereal food, furniture, etc.

The industrial prosperity of the city is due largely to the mines in the vicinity, the great agricultural resources of the surrounding country, and to the extensive water power which offers special inducements to manufacturers. The Spokane river here has a total fall of 132 feet, which furnishes a minimum of 33,000 horse-power, of which 15,000 horse-power is developed.

There are four national banks, with a combined capital of $3,425,000. The city owns its own water works, from which an annual revenue of more than $325,000 is derived.

The educational facilities are excellent. There are twenty-three public school buildings, constructed of brick and stone, and costing $1,450,000. There are three daily newspapers, having a combined circulation of 45,000. Here is located the U. S. circuit court; the headquarters of the U. S. district court, eastern division; U. S. military post (Fort Wright); the government headquarters of the postal inspector service, known as the Spokane division, which includes the states of Washington, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, and the territory of Alaska, and a U. S. land office. Postoffice receipts for 1908 amounted to $360,504.

Cheney, 10 miles southwest of Spokane, is a town of 1,500 people. Here is located one of the state normal schools, having about 400 students.

Medical Lake is an important town, having the Eastern Washington Hospital for the Insane near-by, It is a noted health resort.

Rockford is an important agricultural town of 1,200 people.

Hillyard is an important place of 1,500 people, having the car shops of the Great Northern railway as its chief business.

STEVENS COUNTY

Stevens county, in the extreme northeastern corner of the state, has an area of 4,500 square miles and a population of about 24,000. It is a county of great and diverse resources, is splendidly watered with large rivers, the Columbia bounding it on the west, and the Spokane on part of its southern line. Three ranges of low mountains extend across the county nearly north and south. Between these the Colville river and the Pend d'Oreille flow generally northerly through grand and beautiful valleys.

RESOURCES AND PRODUCTIONS.

Agriculture in all its branches, lumbering and kindred pursuits, and the mining of precious metals and building stones make up its chief sources of wealth.

AGRICULTURE.

The farms in the Colville valley are noted for their heavy hay crops, producing abundantly all the cereals, including corn, the clovers, timothy and alfalfa.

Dairying and stock-raising are important industries. To these the climate and soils are well adapted. Some lands have been irrigated with great benefit, but the bulk of the farming is successful without irrigation.

Fruit-raising is receiving deep interest of late, and the county bids fair to compete for honors with the very best localities in the state for the hardier fruits.

Lumbering and saw-milling engage the attention of a large number of the people, the product of the mills finding a ready market in the farming region, large cities and mining camps.

Mining of the precious metals is a growing and an attractive industry. The ores include gold, silver, lead, copper, tungsten and iron, while quarries of limestone, marble, onyx, fire-clay, etc., abound.

TRANSPORTATION.

In addition to the navigable waters of the Columbia and Pend d'Oreille rivers, which traverse the outskirts of the county, the Great Northern railway through the Colville valley from the southern to the northern boundary, reaches most of the agricultural and mining centers and renders good service. The western part of the county, comparatively undeveloped, deserves much more attention.

PRINCIPAL CITIES AND TOWNS.

Colville is both the county seat and principal town in the county, having a population of 1,600 people, and is a growing town, a distributing center on the railroad, surrounded by prosperous farming communities.

Northport is the center of much mining activity and has a large smelter for the reduction of ores of the precious metals. It has a population of 1,200.

Chewelah is a center of agriculture, mining and lumbering industries in the center of the county, having about 1,000 people.

Newport, in the southeastern part of the county, is an important agricultural distributing center. A dozen other smaller towns offer great opportunities to the homeseeker.

THURSTON COUNTY

Thurston county is known as having the state capital, Olympia, within its borders, and as including the extreme southern reaches of Puget sound. It is a county of wooded hills and valleys with a few open prairies well watered by mountain streams, chief of which is the Nisqually, which forms its dividing line from Pierce county, and the Des Chutes river, which makes a splendid waterfall of some 85 feet, a few miles south of Olympia. It has an area of about 700 square miles, 100 miles of salt-water shore, a population of about 20,000, and a delightful climate and magnificent scenery of lofty mountains; great expanse of inland salt water, and green-clad islands and fields in every direction.

RESOURCES.

The county is one of the oldest settled portions of the state, and has a great variety of natural resources, among which are its timber areas, its agricultural fields, its coal mines, its fisheries, including clam and oyster beds, gray sandstone quarries, and a great variety of clays.

INDUSTRIES.

The sawmills of the county are still a very important industry and shiploads of lumber are sent out from its wharves. All the cereals and grasses yield abundant crops; root crops are extensive; fruit of great variety and fine flavor is very prominent. Dairying is flourishing, the county having more dairies than any other in the state. Coal mining is in its infancy, but has progressed far enough to demonstrate the existence of vast areas of lignite coal, having some six veins and having a combined thickness of 61 feet of coal. About 50,000 sacks of oysters are annually marketed.

TRANSPORTATION.

The Northern Pacific railway connects Olympia with all the important Sound ports and the east, and all the transcontinental roads coming to the Sound from the south will pass through the county. Together with its salt-water deep harbors, these give the county splendid competition and variety of commercial facilities.

PRINCIPAL CITIES.

Olympia, the chief town of the county, at once the county seat, state capital and county metropolis, is situated on one of the deep-water inlets of Puget sound. Its population is about 12,000. While it has a beautiful sandstone structure, now used for capitol purposes, the state is about to erect a new capitol building, to cost $1,000,000. The foundation is already built. Olympia has one of the U. S. land offices and the U. S. surveyor-general's office. It is lighted and furnished with power for street-car and other purposes from the power of Tumwater falls. The city is a beautiful one of fine homes, shaded streets and parks, surrounded by a very prosperous agricultural community, producing great quantities of fruit, dairy and poultry products.

Several other smaller towns on the railroads are local centers of commercial activity.

WAHKIAKUM COUNTY

Wahkiakum is a small county, having only 275 square miles of territory, located on the Columbia river in the southwestern corner of the state, near the ocean. Its population is about 4,000. The county is heavily timbered and well watered. In many parts of the county the soil is exceptionally fertile. The climate is mild, but somewhat humid. In the northern part are some low mountains, from which the drainage is south through the county to the Columbia river.

RESOURCES.

The resources of the county consist in its timber, its fertile soil, and the fish in the river and ocean.

INDUSTRIES.

Logging, saw-milling, and industries growing out of these; agriculture, dairying, and fishing are the chief occupation of its people. There are several logging concerns in the county and large saw-mills. Fish canneries dot its river shores; several creameries and dairies are manufacturing butter, while its farms produce hay, potatoes, fruits, cattle, hogs, poultry, eggs, and other products, chiefly for the Portland market. Many of its citizens are fishermen and some make considerable sums trapping fur animals in the winters.

TRANSPORTATION.

The Columbia river is the great highway of the county; no railroads are within its borders or near. Owing to the small area of the county, this condition is no great drawback, as all the people have ready access to the river wharves.

PRINCIPAL TOWNS.

Cathlamet, on the Columbia, is the county seat, with about 500 people, and is the chief distributing center of the county.

Rosburg, Deep River, Brookfield, Altoona, and Skamokawa are centers of industry. This county offers exceptional opportunities for the frontiersman.

WALLA WALLA COUNTY

Walla Walla is the county of many waters. It is the most western of the southeastern counties of the state, and is bounded north and west by the Snake and Columbia rivers. It has 1,296 square miles and a population of about 30,000. The elevation varies from 350 feet at the Columbia river to 2,500 feet along its eastern border. It is a succession of plains and rolling hills, covered with bunch-grass, with some trees along the streams. Its soil varies from quite sandy volcanic ash in the low lands near the Columbia to a heavier clay loam in the eastern parts. In common with much of eastern Washington, these lands increase in fertility with successive cultivations. The climate is mild, healthful and vigorous.

RESOURCES.

Walla Walla county is essentially agricultural. Its chief resource is its soil fertility. This is such that few farmers can be found who have not bank accounts.

PRODUCTS.

The annual production of wheat in Walla Walla county is about 5,000,000 bushels. Barley is also a profitable crop. Oats and some corn are also raised. Large crops of alfalfa hay are annually marketed, chiefly from irrigated lands. Fruit of all kinds is abundant. There are 2,500 acres devoted to orchards. Market gardening is an important and growing industry.

TRANSPORTATION.

There are 310 miles of railroads in this county, both the Northern Pacific and Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company railroads competing for the traffic. In addition to the railroads, steamboats are plying the rivers around the edge of the county, giving additional facilities for transportation.

PRINCIPAL CITIES AND TOWNS.

Walla Walla, the county seat, has a population of about 22,000 and is the commercial center for the southeastern part of the state. Its streets are paved. The city owns its own system of water, at a cost of $600,000. It is lighted with electricity and gas, has large banks and business houses, U. S. land office, U. S. courts, U. S. cavalry post, an Odd Fellows' home, and a Home for Widows and Orphans. There are manufacturing industries employing 400 men, turning out $2,000,000 of productions annually. An electric system of street cars traverses the streets and is projected into several other near-by towns.

Waitsburg is an important agricultural town of about 1,600 people, in the western part of the county, having both railroad systems, and ships great quantities of grain. It has large flouring mills, warehouses, fine schools and churches, and is a prosperous, thriving town.

A large number of shipping points on both systems of railroads are growing commercial centers.

WHATCOM COUNTY

Whatcom county lies on the boundary of British Columbia, stretching from the Straits of Georgia to the peaks of the Cascade mountains—24 miles wide and 100 miles long, The eastern half or more of the county is included in the national forest reserve, with Mount Baker, 10,827 feet high, in the center of the county. It is one of the important counties on tide water, and has an area of 2,226 square miles and a population of about 70,000.

The climate is not different from the general Puget sound climate being mild and healthful. There are no severe storms, no sultry heat and no severe cold.

RESOURCES.

It is estimated that Whatcom county has three billion feet of standing timber. This is its greatest source of wealth. The western half of the county, outside of the lumbering, etc., is blessed with a wealth of soil responding to the farmer's labor generously.

The eastern half of the county is essentially a mountainous, forest-covered mining region, and has in store many veins of nearly all the metals.

Game of great variety of animals and fowls and fish are abundant.

INDUSTRIES.

The people of Whatcom county are engaged in lumbering and running saw-mills, one of the largest of the state being in this county; manufacturing of various kinds from the raw products in the county, including shingle mills and shingle machinery factory, salmon canneries, planing mills, barrel factories, Portland cement factory, and many others. Of no small importance is farming, fruit-growing and dairying. Prospecting and mining engage the attention and labor of a large number of citizens.

TRANSPORTATION.

Aside from having a long salt-water coast, open to traffic from the ocean, with splendid harbors, the county is traversed in all its agricultural half by a network of railroads, by the Northern Pacific, Great Northern, B. B. and B. C. railroads. These furnish exceptional means of traffic to all industries excepting the mining. The county has also an admirable system of wagon roads, some planked, some graveled and some graded and drained, covering about 700 miles.

PRINCIPAL CITIES AND TOWNS.

Bellingham, on a salt-water bay of the same name, is the county seat, and commercial metropolis not only for this county but much other territory. It has a population of about 40,000 people. Into it all the railroads center, while the harbor is one of the best in Washington. It is largely a manufacturing town, having plants for the production of sash, doors, columns, tin cans, boilers, engines, flour and feed, canned fish, condensed milk, and many others. It is a substantial, live business community of wide-awake people, and growing rapidly. It has a gravity water system, electric lights, and gas plant.

Blaine is a city of about 3,000 inhabitants, situated close to the Canadian line and on the Great Northern railway. Timber and lumber manufactures are the chief sources of its prosperity. Fishing and the canning of salmon are also important industries. The railroad company has recently expended considerable sums in improving its facilities. Blaine is a growing community.

Sumas, on the Canadian border, is a lumbering town of 1,100 people.

Lynden is an agricultural center of 1,200 citizens.

Ferndale is a lumber center of 1,000 people. Besides, there are a dozen smaller business centers in the county, growing and prosperous.

WHITMAN COUNTY

Whitman county is one of the chief agricultural counties of the state, lying immediately south of Spokane county and on the Idaho state line, having the Snake river for its southern boundary. The county is a plateau of rolling prairie lands, a large portion of which is farmed, watered by a number of streams, which are utilized for irrigation purposes in some of the bottom lands—although the rainfall is sufficient to mature crops, and no irrigation is had on the great bulk of the farms. The area is about 2,000 square miles. The population is about 40,000. The soil is a strong mixture of volcanic ash and clay of great fertility and permanence. Twenty years of wheat-growing still leaves the soil able to produce from 25 to 50 bushels per acre.

RESOURCES.

All the resources of the county originate in this splendid soil. For growing all the cereals and fruits and vegetables it has no superior. The county is well settled, and probably no county can excel Whitman county in the per capita wealth of its farmers. The products of the county are varied, and include wheat, oats, barley and hay, all giving splendid yields—wheat from 30 to 50 bushels, oats 60 to 100 bushels, barley from 50 to 80 bushels, and hay from 4 to 6 tons per acre. Potatoes, sugar beets and other vegetables produce fine crops.

The hardier fruits, such as apples, pears, plums and cherries, are successfully raised in all parts of the county, while on the bottom lands, along the Snake river, peaches, melons, etc., are produced in abundance. Seventy-five carloads of fruit go out annually from one orchard.

Wheat gives up five and one-half million bushels to the farmers each year. Oats one and three-fourths million and barley about one-half million bushels. Whitman county has more banks than any county in eastern Washington besides Spokane.

TRANSPORTATION.

Whitman county is as well, or better, provided with railroads than any agricultural county in the state. The Northern Pacific, O. R. & N., Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul and the S. & I. railroads are all interlaced about its grain-fields. These all connect with Spokane, and give access to all eastern and western markets.

PRINCIPAL TOWNS.

Colfax, the county seat, situated near the center of the county, on the railroads and Palouse river, is the largest town in the county, with about 3,600 population. The town owns its own water system, has electric lights, fine court-house, banks, mills, warehouses, etc.

Pullman is a town of 3,000 people, near which is located the Washington State College, a large educational institution supported by the state, having about 1,000 students. It is an important grain-shipping point. It has a public water system, electric lights, and is a thriving and growing commercial center.

Palouse is a railroad center of 2,500 people, a large shipping point for grain, live stock, fruits and pottery.

Oakesdale is a town of 1,500 people, having three railroads, and is an important shipping point.

Tekoa has a population of about 1,400, is a railroad center, and is a large shipper of fruits and grain.

Garfield has a population of 1,000, and ships much grain and other produce.

Rosalia has 1,000 population, and is an important grain center.

This county has a dozen other shipping points where from 300 to 700 people are supported by the business originating on the tributary farms.

YAKIMA COUNTY

Yakima county is one of the large and important counties in the state, having the Yakima Indian reservation included within its boundaries. Its area is 3,222 square miles and it has a population of about 38,000. It is watered by the Yakima river and its tributaries, and through its valleys the railroads from the east find their easiest grade toward the Cascade passes. It is a county of level valleys and plateaus, having a soil made up chiefly of volcanic ash and disintegrated basaltic rocks, of great depth, which yields fabulously in cereal and grass crops, fruits and vegetables with the magic touch of irrigation. Artificial watering is 30 years old in this valley, and yet only a very small area was thus treated until the matter was taken up by the national government. But now vast areas are being provided with water, and the consequent growth and development of the county is wonderful.

A series of lakes in the mountains are being utilized as reservoirs, and from these lakes the waters are being distributed in many directions in the large irrigating canals. When the projects now under way are completed, more than 200,000 acres will be under ditches.

RESOURCES.

Yakima's wealth consists in the combination of its soil and water and climate. The county, lying east of the Cascade mountains, in large part at a low elevation, receives somewhat severe heat in the summer, which gives the opportunity successfully to ripen the less hardy fruits—peaches, apricots, grapes, etc. The county has half a million bearing trees and two and one-half million young trees growing in its orchards.

INDUSTRIES.

Naturally the industries of the county consist in exploiting its natural resources, and so we find Yakima citizens busy in raising fruits, hay, grain, and garden vegetables, to supply the big cities of the Sound. Its last year's contribution will probably exceed ten million dollars in value.

Of the items which compose this large sum, fruit is probably chief in importance. Alfalfa and grain-hay is an important item, as is also the crop of melons and potatoes. The combined fields of alfalfa and orchards make ideal bee pasturage, and Yakima honey is a constant factor of barter in the Sound cities. The upland farms produce quantities of all grains—wheat, oats, and barley—and some field corn is successfully raised in the warmer parts. Sheep, cattle and horses are also exported. Hops are a large crop.

PRINCIPAL CITIES AND TOWNS.

North Yakima is at once the county seat and chief metropolis of the entire Yakima valley, having a population of about 12,000. It is situated on the Northern Pacific railway and Yakima river, and is the distributing center for both merchandise and farm products for a large surrounding territory.

The State Fair, supported by the state, holds annual exhibits here. It has extensive fruit canneries, flour mills, lumber mills, other woodworking factories, large warehouses, paved streets, big business blocks, fine churches, schools, banks, newspapers, etc.

Sunnyside, a town built up among the irrigated farms, has a population of 1,500. Here are a cannery, pulp mill, creameries, etc.

Toppenish and Mabton are commercial centers of importance of about 700 inhabitants each, and growing.

STATISTICAL APPENDIX.

STATISTICS OF THE INCORPORATED CITIES AND TOWNS OF WASHINGTON.

NOTE 1.—County seats in black face type.

NOTE 2.—Population estimates for 1909 were supplied by local authorities, the school census, upon which the estimates of this Bureau are usually based, not being available at the time this publication was compiled.