Part 6

PASCO is the county seat, in the extreme southern portion of the county, near the Columbia river, and is more noted as a railroad center than as a shipping point, on account of the fact that the surrounding lands are as yet unirrigated. It has a population of about 1,800, and is just now enjoying new vigor and much building in anticipation of its future usefulness as a commercial center for distribution of both merchandise and agricultural products.

CONNELL, in the northern part of the county, is a shipping point of importance, and has two railroad lines and a third one coming. In addition to the cereals, many sheep and horses are being raised and shipped out of the county from this vicinity.

GARFIELD COUNTY

Garfield county is the second from the southeast corner of the state, and extends from the Snake river on the north to the state boundary on the south. It has 627 square miles of territory and a population of about 7,000.

The southern portion is included in the Wenaha forest reserve, and is quite heavily timbered. The northern portion is an extremely prolific farming region, made up of undulating lands with deep rich soil, composed of clays and volcanic ash. No irrigation is necessary, and very heavy crops of grain are annually matured.

RESOURCES.

As already intimated, the chief source of income for the county comes from the tillage of the soil. Of the crops raised, barley is in the lead, having furnished 1,800,000 bushels in 1907, which places this county second of all counties in the state in the production of this cereal. Wheat and oats are also largely produced. Stock-raising in the southern ranges of the county is very profitable, and much fruit is of late years being produced. Indeed, Garfield county is well up to the front in the per capita wealth of its citizens.

PRINCIPAL TOWNS.

POMEROY is the county seat and chief distributing center of the county. It is situated in the north central part of the county, on the Pataha river and the Oregon Railroad & Navigation railway. It has a population of nearly 2,000.

It is lighted with electricity, has a gravity water system, and all the machinery for doing all the business naturally coming to a town [Page 59] of its size. It has a fine high school and graded schools, churches, newspapers, banks, warehouses, big stocks of goods, fire department, cet.

GRANT COUNTY

Grant county occupies about 2,700 square miles of what was formerly Douglas county, comprising the lands southeast of the Grand and Moses coulees, bordering on the southwest on the Columbia river, with Adams and Lincoln counties on its eastern border.

Ephrata is the county seat, on the Great Northern railway. The northern part of the county is traversed by the Great Northern railroad, and has developed into a vast region of grain production without irrigation, although originally supposed to be valueless for cereal-raising.

The southern part is new and comparatively undeveloped, but is crossed by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railway, just now giving this new county great impetus. The southern portion of the county has long been a grazing ground for herds of cattle and horses, but it is thought now it will be turned into a prosperous region of small farms.

While the county is cut by several coulees, it is chiefly composed of large areas of bench lands, comparatively level, barring a range of hills in its southwestern corner called Saddle mountains. There is considerable water in the county, Moses lake being quite a large body of water with bordering swampy lands, about in the center, and Wilson creek, in the northern and Crab creek, in the southern part, furnishing considerable stock water.

LANDS.

The lands tributary to the Great Northern railway already produce great quantities of grain and livestock, and these will continue to be its staple crops until irrigation may come in and stimulate fruit production, for which it is thought much of the lands will be suitable.

TRANSPORTATION.

Both the Great Northern and Northern Pacific railway systems are in the grain fields of the northern part of the county. The Milwaukee road crosses the southern part, the N. & S. is projected along its western border, paralleling the Columbia river, which is navigable, thus affording all the county, excepting the central portion, good facilities for marketing its products. As the county develops, beyond question branch lines will penetrate this portion, and Grant county will become as well supplied as any other portion of the state with facilities for commerce.

CITIES AND TOWNS.

EPHRATA, the county seat, is a small village on the Great Northern railway about midway of the county and the center of a large wheat-growing section. Its transformation into an important town is rapidly [Page 60] going on, the new county government calling for a variety of new occupations to center here.

WILSON CREEK, near the eastern border of the county, is a larger town whose chief industry is marketing grain. It is an important distributing point, with prospects of larger growth.

QUINCY is a station on the Great Northern and is also an important wheat-shipping point.

SOAP LAKE, on a lake of the same name, is noted as a resort for the rheumatic.

BACON, COULEE CITY, and HARTLINE are stations on the Northern Pacific railway in the northeastern part of the county.

Grant county is new, but has large undeveloped resources, and is awaiting the newcomer with abundant offerings for his energy and labor.

ISLAND COUNTY

Island county is entirely composed of a group of islands in Puget sound, the largest two being Whidby and Camano. It has a land area of 227 square miles and a population of about 5,000.

RESOURCES.

Lumber, agricultural products and fish make up the county's resources. Considerable of the timber, particularly from Whidby island, has been removed, and wheat, oats, hay, potatoes, fruits, poultry, butter, eggs, etc., are now shipped out to the splendid nearby markets at the chief seaport towns on Puget Sound.

The soils in the northern part of Whidby island are of remarkable fertility, some of them producing as much as 100 bushels of wheat per acre and immense crops of potatoes.

In season the waters of the county abound in salmon and other salt water fish, and many of the citizens of the county find profitable employment in connection with the fishing industry.

PRINCIPAL TOWNS.

COUPEVILLE is a town of some 400 people and the county seat, situated on a beautiful bay in the northern part of Whidby island. It is chief distributing point for the county, has a sawmill, shingle mill, fruit-drying establishment, stores, churches, schools, a newspaper, etc.

OAK HARBOR, further north, is the center of a large farming and logging district. Two canneries are in successful operation.

UTSALADY, SAN DE FUCA, CAMANO, CLINTON, and LANGLEY are smaller villages gradually becoming summer resorts for people from the large cities of the sound. Steamboats furnish good transportation from all parts of the county.

[Page 61] JEFFERSON COUNTY

Jefferson county is the second county south of the entrance of Puget sound, stretching from the Pacific ocean eastward over the peaks of the Olympic mountains to Hood's canal, and turning north gets a long waterfront also on Puget sound, and taps the Straits of Fuca. It has a population of 11,000 people and 2,000 square miles of territory.

RESOURCES.

The resources of this county are largely undeveloped, and yet it is one of the oldest settled counties in the state. Originally its entire area, barring a few small patches, was heavily timbered, and it is estimated that the county still has twenty billion feet of standing timber. Its soil is remarkably fertile, and the products of its farms have long been famous.

The Olympic mountains contain veins of precious metals, iron and manganese, none of which have as yet been thoroughly developed.

Fishing for salmon, sardines, shrimps, clams and crabs is a very important industry.

SOILS, CLIMATE AND PRODUCTS.

The soils of the county are largely sedimentary, having been washed down from the mountains for ages, assisted by the decomposition of vegetable matter accumulated through centuries. In the valleys, where most of the farming is being done, these soils produce remarkable crops under the influence of the charming climate the county affords.

The rainfall in the eastern part of the county is moderate, but ample for all purposes; the average rainfall is about 20 inches. The temperature rarely exceeds 80 degrees in summer, while the winter months average about 45 degrees.

Such soils and such climatic conditions combine to force wealth upon every industrious tiller of the soil. Clover yields from four to six tons per acre.

Oats and vetches for ensilage purposes yield five to seven tons per acre. Fifty to seventy-five tons of cabbage or mangles per acre are not uncommon, and onions and potatoes produce from six to ten tons. The fruit trees, particularly cherries, apples, and pears, produce wonderful crops. Cattle can graze ten months in the year or more, and the products of the dairies of Jefferson county cannot be excelled.

Because of the light rainfall and moderate weather, this county is admirably suited to poultry-raising. Green food can be had twelve months in the year. Runs can always be open, and with proper care hens can be made to pay $3.00 per year each.

PRINCIPAL CITIES AND TOWNS.

PORT TOWNSEND, at the entrance of Puget sound, is the county seat and chief commercial center of the county. It has a population of [Page 62] about 6,000. It is the headquarters for many government institutions, including the U. S. customs service, U. S. revenue cutter service, marine hospital service, hydrographic service, quarantine service, and U. S. artillery for the Puget sound district.

Three great forts; Worden, Flagler, and Casey, are located here, forming the chief defense to Puget sound. Fort Worden joins the city limits. The present garrison force is 2,000. The scenery from the city is grand and beyond compare.

Its business interests are varied and extensive. Two canneries for salmon and sardines are here located, boiler works, a machine shop for building electric and gasoline engines, a shipyard, sash and door factory, lumber mills, and shingle mills, a by-product plant producing wood alcohol, turpentine, etc.

The city is substantially built and its homes are artistically created.

The harbor has twenty-five miles of waterfront and fine anchorage of from nine to eighteen fathoms, and is an ideal refuge for all seagoing craft.

The city has gas and electric lights, paid fire department, fine churches, splendid schools, and a magnificent gravity water system furnishes the town of Irondale, Hadlock and Forts Worden and Flagler, having plenty of water to spare for thousands mote.

IRONDALE is practically a suburb of Port Townsend, having the only pig iron plant in the state. It is an extensive and growing concern, using bog iron from the vicinity and other ores from different sources.

PORT LUDLOW, DUCKABUSH, BOGACHIEL, PORT DISCOVERY, QUILCENE, and CHIMACUM are small villages scattered about the county and are centers of agricultural activity.

KING COUNTY

King county is distinguished by having Seattle for its county seat. The county is an empire in itself, stretching from the shores of Puget sound to the peaks of the Cascade mountains, and containing more than 2,000 square miles of territory. It also includes Vashon, one of the large islands of the sound.

RESOURCES.

King county's sources of revenue are varied and extensive. Its lumber industry, growing out of the vast forests within its borders not only, but from the cutting of logs brought in from other sections of the state, is immense.

Its agricultural lands are not surpassed in fertility by any, and include not only the alluvial deposits in its river bottoms, but great areas of shot clay and other soils splendidly adapted to fruit culture.

Its mining industries include not only very great acreage of coal measures, which have been producing coal for commercial purposes for local and foreign trade for thirty years and are scarcely scratched as yet, but also fissure veins of the precious metals--gold, silver, lead, [Page 63] copper, antimony, arsenic, and also iron, asbestos, fire clays, kaolin, granite, sandstones, lime ledges, and others.

Its fishing industries in its own waters and from the ocean give employment to a large number of men and its fish are shipped even as far east as Boston, Massachusetts.

Its power capacity, in addition to its wood and coal, includes great falls and rapids and many large streams which are already harnessed, but only in part, and driving vast quantities of machinery in this and adjoining counties.

In commercial possibilities King county is unrivaled. Its combination of lakes, rivers and salt water harbors have no superior on the globe, and the fact of its supremacy is demonstrated by the tabulated statistics of state officers, which show that King county possesses one-fifth of the population of the state and has more than one-quarter in value of taxable property of the state, and pays one-fourth of taxes collected within the state borders.

In scenery, which is no mean asset of the county, it is also unsurpassed. Vast ranges of mountains, sheets of fresh and salt water, rivers, hills and plains, forests, and grassy fields combine and interlace in a thousand directions to entrance and delight the artistic eye.

In game, including bear, deer, mountain goats, cougar, grouse, pheasants, quail, mountain trout, salmon and other fishes, make many a paradise for the sportsman.

TRANSPORTATION.

In addition to its salt waterways, with 75 miles of shore lands, and its navigable fresh water lakes, there are centering in the county coming in from all directions seven transcontinental lines of railroads, making King county and its metropolis a great distributing center for the commerce between the American continent and the continents of Asia and the islands of the Pacific. Besides these steam roads, electric trolley lines are making a network of inter-communication between all parts of King county not only, but reaching out into the adjoining counties.

CITIES AND TOWNS.

SEATTLE is the county seat and great metropolis of King county and the state, with a population crowding, if not exceeding, 275,000 people. It covers the hills and lowlands surrounding Elliot bay, an indentation of Puget sound, and a part of the land between the sound and Lake Washington, a freshwater lake of great beauty paralleling the sound for 23 miles and from one to three miles wide. It also includes two smaller lakes, whose sloping shores are covered with the homes of its citizens. From its hills the snow-capped mountains of the Cascade and Olympic ranges and Mount Rainier's towering peak are visions of surpassing beauty. A constant stream of coming and going water craft from all quarters of the globe frequent its harbor. Its business buildings of brick, stone, iron and concrete tower heavenward over four avenues, and many cross streets and miles of its low lands are [Page 64] covered with railroad tracks, warehouses and manufacturing plants.

Its grammar schools, high schools, and State University are equipped with magnificent buildings and grounds. Its streets and homes are brilliantly lighted with electricity from its own power plants, while the purest water, sufficient for a million people, flows through its water mains, all owned and controlled by the city.

A multitude of factories are providing a small part of the merchandise and composes the groundwork of her commerce.

The shores of Elliot bay are lined with wharves accommodating the largest sea-going ships. Its last assessed valuation of property was $203,168,680, and its tax to be raised $975,210.

More than 150 miles of street-car tracks are within her borders and a nickel pays for a 15-mile ride.

GEORGETOWN, in the southern part of Seattle, but not a part of it as yet, has a population of about 5,000, and is an important manufacturing center. Here are the car shops of Seattle Electric Company, gas works, foundries, breweries, machine shops, brick and tile works and many other industries.

RENTON, ISSAQUAH, RAVENSDALE, BLACK DIAMOND, and NEW CASTLE are coal mining towns.

KENT, AUBURN, KIRKLAND, VASHON, NORTH BEND, TOLT, FALL CITY, and MAPLE VALLEY are agricultural towns of importance.

KITSAP COUNTY

Kitsap county is nearly surrounded by the waters of Puget sound and Hood's canal, forming the larger part of the great peninsula which these waters would make an island were a six-mile ridge in Mason county opened up to them. It has extensive and numerous bays and inlets, with magnificent anchorage, and contains in its center the great Port Orchard navy yard, destined to become one of the largest seats in the United States for Uncle Sam's naval activities.

RESOURCES AND INDUSTRIES.

The chief resource of the county is in the lumber. Some of the largest mills of the state are located within its borders.

It is estimated that there are yet 200,000 acres of uncut timber in its borders, and its mills are turning out 600,000 feet of lumber daily, besides vast quantities of shingles.

The fishing industry now includes oyster culture, which is rapidly becoming very important. About the county are located many villages supported by the tillage of the soil from its reclaimed forest lands.

TRANSPORTATION.

Kitsap county has no railroads, but its waterways are so vast and intricate that all its corners are reached by steamers, and travel is cheap and freight conveniently handled in all parts of the county.

[Page 65] PRINCIPAL TOWNS.

PORT ORCHARD, the county seat, is on the bay of the same name and opposite the navy yard. It is the chief distributing point for a larger part of the cultivated lands of the county, and exports not only agricultural products, but also shingles. The surrounding lands are well suited for dairying, fruit-growing and poultry-raising, which is also true of the entire county.

BREMERTON, adjoining the navy yard, is the largest town in the county, having about 4,000 people and rapidly growing. It has a fire department, electric light and water systems, newspapers, banks, about 1,000 or more wage-earners and is a hustling town.

CHARLESTON is another smaller town adjoining the navy yard on the west and rapidly growing.

PORT BLAKELEY is an important milling and shipbuilding town of nearly 2,000 people, opposite Seattle. Its lumber goes to all parts of the world.

PORT GAMBLE is a sawmill town of importance contributing to swell the large output of lumber shipped out of the county.

CHICO, TRACYTON, KEYPORT, PAULSBO, SEABECK, CRYSTAL SPRINGS, COLBY, BANGOR, BURLEY, PORT MADISON, and OLALLA are all small villages, making progress as agricultural centers and as furnishing summer homes for business men.

KITTITAS COUNTY

Kittitas county is located about in the center of the state, and takes in the upper reaches and most of the watershed of the Yakima river. It has a population of about 20,000 in an area of 2,400 square miles. On its northwestern side it is bordered by two ranges of the Cascade mountains, while its southwestern side lies on the Columbia river.

Among the sources of the Yakima river are three large lakes, Keechelus, Kachess and Cle-Elum, most beautiful bodies of mountain water and the sources of the great irrigation systems now fathered by the national government and making the Yakima valley a veritable garden pot of orchards and vegetables, grasses and flowers.

RESOURCES.

The central portion of the county is a valley comprising 250,000 acres, about one-fourth of which is under irrigation, and has long been noted for its prolific crops of hay and many herds of dairy cows.

The foothills of the mountains have precious metals, coal and iron. The streams abound in trout and much game is in the mountains.

TRANSPORTATION.

The Northern Pacific and Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railroads, coming into the county from the south and west, cross at Ellensburg [Page 66] and then follow the valley of the Yakima to the crest of the Cascades giving abundant facilities for making markets east and west to all parts of the country.

PRINCIPAL TOWNS.

ELLENSBURG, the county seat, is situated on a level bench in the Yakima valley and on the railroads. It is a town of upwards of 5,500 people, and is substantially built, chiefly of brick. There are creameries, flourmills, sawmills, and warehouses, banks, breweries newspapers, electric lights, and gravity water system, churches, schools, among which is one of the state normal schools. It is also a division point on the Northern Pacific railway, and is the chief distributing point in the county for farm products and merchandise.

ROSLYN is the chief coal-mining town, situated on the railroad well up in the foothills of the mountains. It has about 4,500 people. It has gravity water and electric lights, and is a substantial, thriving and growing town. From the coal mines in the vicinity the best coals of the state are mined in large quantities and shipped all over the state.

CLE_ELUM is another coal mining town, on the Northern Pacific railway, with a population of about 2,500. Tributary to Cle-Elum is a wide mining territory, for which it is the chief distributing point.

THORPE is a smaller village likely to develop into an important trading point.

KLICKTAT COUNTY

Klickitat county is central among the southern tier of counties of the state, bordering 80 miles on the Columbia river, with an average width of 20 miles. It has a population of about 14,000 and an area of 1,800 square miles.

There is a great variety in its climate, the elevation varying from 100 to 3,500 feet above the sea level.

The soil is chiefly volcanic ash, disintegrated basalt and alluvium. It is deep and much of it sub-irrigated. The principal crops are wheat, barley, rye, oats, and corn.

The wheat lands yield from 15 to 40 bushels per acre.

Among the fruits raised are apples, peaches, pears, cherries, English walnuts, almonds, plums, prunes, grapes, apricots, and all the small fruits.

Wheat lands vary in price from $10 to $50 per acre. It is estimated that 7,000 acres will be planted to fruit and nut trees this current year, while last year 75,385 apple trees, 14,675 peach trees, and 17,345 grape vines were planted.

RESOURCES.

As already indicated, the strength of the county is in its soil and agriculture is its great source of wealth. Stock-raising is a chief industry, the slopes of the mountains on its northern boundary furnishing [Page 67] abundant pasturage. The southeastern part is fast developing into a fruit-growing region, while agriculture and grain-growing is more general in the central and southern portion.

TRANSPORTATION.

The Columbia river, with a railroad on each side of it and numerous ferries, makes ample provision for transportation, while the Goldendale branch reaches well up into the center of the county.

CITIES AND TOWNS.