Part 2

The inadequacy of the Snoqualmie Falls power plant to meet the demand for power for municipal and industrial purposes at TACOMA, prompted its owners to undertake a much larger enterprise, which will result in the construction of still another mammoth power plant within ten miles of the city of TACOMA.

The plan which is being carried out by what is known as the White River Power Company, is to divert the White River about half a mile above the town of Buckley into a canal, beginning at this point and extending a distance of about five miles across the tableland to Lake Tapps. The canal is being excavated like an ordinary railway cut out of the solid gravel, hardpan or earth or whatever the geological formation happens to be. It will be thirty feet in width on the bottom and fifty-five feet wide at the top and eight feet deep. Dams are to be constructed at the low points on the northerly side of Lake Tapps so that the lake can be raised to a level thirty-five feet higher than the present, which will cause the lake to overflow and merge with Kirtley Lake, Crawford Lake and Kelly Lake, covering all the intervening bottom lands and valleys so that the total area thus submerged and overflowed will exceed 4,000 acres of land. This lake may be drawn down thirty feet. This reservoir will be supplied by the flood waters of White River and will be drawn out through the water wheels during the season of low water, and by thus equalizing the flow of the river will make the power plant capable of a continuous development of 100,000-horse power. The reservoir will permit the plant to run at full load for several months, even if White River were to run dry or the use of the supply canal were to be discontinued for that length of time.

The water from this enlarged lake reservoir will be led through a channel into a masonry penstock whence pressure pipes will conduct it down a declivity to the site of the power house, within ten miles of TACOMA, giving a fall of 485 feet. At the foot of these pipes the power house, 105×250 feet, will be constructed, as shown on the opposite page, and the water will thence be released into the Stuck River. A short transmission line will conduct the power to the Tacoma Cataract Company building in this city, whence a large share of the present output of the Snoqualmie Falls power plant is now distributed to consumers, public and private, in TACOMA.

UNDEVELOPED POWER RESOURCES.

There are many other rivers or streams fed by the glaciers and snows of Mount Tacoma which may and will be utilized for generating electrical power as rapidly as required. The Tacoma Industrial Company has recently bought a continuous strip four miles in length, including the White River, and is making preparations to install a 15,000-horse power plant twelve miles from TACOMA. The Nisqually River, which flows into the Sound south of TACOMA, has enormous undeveloped power resources. Within thirty miles of TACOMA, at Le Grand, a station on the Tacoma Eastern, on the brink of the Nisqually Canyon, is an available and accessible water power capable of generating 30,000-horse power. TACOMA commands the use of from 150,000 to 200,000-horse power as soon as required.

_NO OTHER SEAPORT IN THE WORLD HAS SUCH ABUNDANT RESOURCES OF CHEAP POWER FOR MANUFACTURING PURPOSES._

_POWER IS BEING DELIVERED TO THE CITY OF TACOMA FOR PUMPING AND LIGHTING PURPOSES AT THE LOWEST CONTRACT PRICES AT WHICH POWER IS OBTAINED AT ANY CITY IN THE WORLD._

_MANUFACTURERS AT TACOMA ARE OBTAINING ELECTRIC POWER AT A LOWER PRICE THAN THAT AT WHICH POWER IS OBTAINABLE AT ANY OTHER TIDEWATER PORT IN THE UNITED STATES._

_TACOMA IS THE ELECTRIC CITY OF THE PACIFIC COAST._

ACCESS TO RAW MATERIALS.

Another important factor in TACOMA’S industrial development, past, present and future, is its proximity and convenient access to the natural products or raw materials employed in manufacturing. TACOMA is the point at which the leading staple products of Washington are chiefly assembled for manufacture and distribution. The resources of “Wonderful Washington” are manifold. The products of the mines, the forests, the farms and ranches, and of the waters are of untold value to the world. TACOMA’S geographical position is such that she commands these products as does no other point in the pacific Northwest. The great Olympic Peninsula between Puget Sound and the Pacific Ocean is surrounded by water on three sides. Railroads are required to bring its products to tidewater, and TACOMA, at the head of ocean navigation on the Sound, is in closest proximity of all the Sound ports to this section rich in timber and mineral resources. South, southeast, east and northeast of TACOMA are equally rich sections of territory extending from the Sound on the north and west to the Columbia River on the south and to the ridge line of the Cascade Mountains on the east, whose treasures of agricultural, mineral and forest wealth must seek the markets of the world through this port. TACOMA is the natural and exclusive outlet for the products of this region. Six steam and four electric railway lines radiating from TACOMA, and numerous steamers plying between TACOMA and the island and mainland ports of the Sound afford transportation facilities for the traffic of the immediate and more remote regions tributary to the city. Across and beyond the mountain passes lie the Yakima Valley, the “Inland Empire,” and the greater domain of the United States whose products seeking trans-pacific markets pass through this natural gateway to the Orient.

Puget Sound is 300 miles nearer Japan, Manila and the Orient than San Francisco. It is 800 miles nearer Alaska than the Golden Gate. Ores for the Tacoma Smelter are brought by rail from Eastern Washington and by water from Alaska; from the islands along the coast of British North America; from British Columbia, Korea, Straits Settlements, Mexico and Central America. Foreign products brought across the pacific for manufacture in the United States, such as raw silk from China and Japan and hemp from Manila, are landed at TACOMA. The rail and water transportation facilities which unite at TACOMA, coupled with its command of raw materials and its wonderful resources of power and coal, make this city a most exceptionally favored point for manufacturing.

AVAILABLE MANUFACTURING SITES.

A resume of TACOMA’S superior advantages for manufacturing would be incomplete without reference to its abundant supply of manufacturing sites. There are twelve square miles of tide and river flats immediately east of the city which, owing to a combination of circumstances, were until recently incapable of private ownership and occupation. At the south end or head of Commencement Bay there is a level plain traversed near its westerly side by the Puyallup River. The lands on the easterly side of the river were for many years set apart by the government as a part of the Puyallup Indian reservation, but recently these have been sold by order of the government. The King County line extended also to the Puyallup River and the tide and river flats at the head of the bay—most advantageously located for commercial and industrial purposes—being without their jurisdiction, were incapable of improvement by the city or Pierce County. But in 1901 the reservation lands were legally annexed to Pierce County, of which TACOMA is the county seat, and the occupation of this enormous area of flat lands adjacent to tidewater has just begun.

A substantial bridge has this year been erected by the city of TACOMA across the Puyallup River at a convenient point for access to the annexed lands from the manufacturing district which occupies the flats west of the Puyallup River. The federal government has made a complete survey of the harbor of TACOMA, the plans for the improvement of which contemplate the construction of a series of waterways extending from deep water in the bay a considerable distance to the south. The City Waterway, which is being dredged to a width of 550 feet and depths increasing as it approaches the bay from fifteen to thirty feet, under a contract awarded by the federal government in January, 1903, extends as far south as Twenty-third Street, or nearly twenty city blocks from the original harbor line. Miles of additional waterfront and wharves will thus be obtained at the head of the bay, exclusive of the natural shore line some ten miles in extent from Brown’s Point to Point Defiance. Railroads and steamships will have direct and immediate access to the very heart of this district. The acquisition and improvement by the construction of roads, bridges and waterways of 6,000 acres of land immediately adjacent to the city, make it possible for many more manufacturers to secure sites and utilize the limitless power resources of TACOMA, the great INDUSTRIAL CITY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST.

TACOMA is now the leading manufacturing city of Washington and the Pacific Northwest. The industrial development of the city since 1900 has been phenomenal. According to the federal census there were in 1900 381 manufacturing establishments at TACOMA, whose aggregate invested capital was $8,146,691, of which there were 385 proprietors and in whose employ there were 293 salaried officials and clerks and 4,347 wage-earners. Of this total number of wage-earners in manufacturing and mechanical industries at TACOMA, 4,104 were men, while only 243 were women or children under the age of 16 years. The total value of the products, including custom work and repairing, of the 381 establishments at TACOMA for the year preceding the taking of the census was $12,029,497.

_MORE THAN ONE HUNDRED NEW MILLS AND FACTORIES HAVE BEEN ADDED TO THE LIST OF TACOMA’S MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES DURING THE FOUR YEARS THAT HAVE ELAPSED SINCE THE FEDERAL CENSUS WAS TAKEN. THAT IS AN AVERAGE OF MORE THAN TWO NEW FACTORIES EVERY MONTH. MANY OF THE OLDER ESTABLISHMENTS HAVE DOUBLED OR TREBLED THEIR CAPACITY DURING THE SAME PERIOD._

No complete summary of the operations of TACOMA’S manufacturing establishments can be presented for comparison with the census report of 1900. But from written reports submitted to the Tacoma Daily News by some of the leading manufacturing concerns in TACOMA, it appears that during the calendar year 1903, one hundred and thirty-five representative manufacturers in the city employed an average of 6,796 wage-earners during the year, while the value of the finished product of these establishments alone for the same year was $28,932,295, and the cost of permanent improvements or additions to the plants during the year was $1,129,550. In other words, 135 out of 500 to 600 establishments that would now be classified by the census as manufacturing concerns in this city employed 2,349 more wage-earners in 1903 than were employed by a total of 389 establishments during the census year, while the value of the output of these 135 establishments in 1903 was nearly two and one-half times as great as the total value of the product of 389 establishments in 1900.

LUMBER INDUSTRY AT TACOMA.

TACOMA is the largest lumber manufacturing point on the Pacific Coast. The manufacture of lumber is the most important industry in the Pacific Northwest. In 1900 there were twelve lumber and shingle mills in operation in TACOMA. In 1903 there were twenty-two in operation, employing an average of 2,682 wage-earners. The increase in the lumber and shingle output since 1900 may be shown by the following figures, based upon reports from the local mills.

CUT OF TACOMA LUMBER MILLS.

Year. Lumber, feet. Shingles. Total value. 1900 185,414,130 178,386,000 $2,517,967 1901 219,150,000 251,000,000 2,695,700 1902 303,654,557 347,565,000 4,069,000 1903 361,522,766 376,935,500 5,110,398

The increase in three years in the number of mills engaged in the lumber and shingle industry at TACOMA is at the rate of 83.3 per cent.; in the lumber cut at the rate of 96.6 per cent.; in the output of shingles at the rate of 94.0 per cent.; and in the value of the product at the rate of 103.0 per cent.

LARGEST LUMBER PLANT IN THE WORLD.

The St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Company’s plant on the flats between the City Waterway and the Puyallup River, is the largest saw mill plant in the United States and probably in the world. It was established in 1888. Its original capacity of 300,000 feet per diem has been increased to 500,000 feet by the erection of a second mill since 1900, and during the year 1903 the company cut 122,348,562 feet of fir, spruce, hemlock and cedar and sawed, dried and packed 63,822,000 shingles, its output for the year being valued at $1,761,698. The company operates five logging camps along the Northern Pacific and Tacoma Eastern railways and employs 1,500 men.

The Tacoma Mill Company’s plant on the waterfront at “Old Town” is the second largest lumber plant at TACOMA in capacity, number of men employed and the value of its output. This company is the successor of the firm of Hanson & Ackerson who established a mill in 1868 on the shore of Commencement Bay where the present plant of the Tacoma Mill Company now stands. The first settlement at TACOMA was due to this mill. Its original capacity was 40,000 feet per diem, which has been increased to 300,000 feet, the output for 1903 including 85,824,204 feet of lumber and 42,738,500 shingles, valued at $1,000,000.

_RAIL SHIPMENTS OF LUMBER AND SHINGLES FROM THE TACOMA MILLS INCREASED FROM 3,141 CARS IN 1900 TO 6,012 CARS IN 1903, WHILE CARGO SHIPMENTS OF LUMBER INCREASED FROM 77,818,557 FEET IN 1900 TO 129,036,317 FEET IN 1903._

The United States transport _Dix_ sailed on May 9, 1903, from this port for Manila with 3,900,156 feet of lumber loaded at two TACOMA mill wharves. _THIS WAS THE LARGEST LUMBER CARGO EVER LOADED IN THE WORLD._

OTHER MANUFACTURES OF WOOD.

A large share of the product of the TACOMA lumber mills is supplied to manufacturers in this city. A long list of industries has developed at TACOMA in consequence of its pre-eminence as the lumber mart of the State. There are many planing mills and sash, door and blind factories. The largest plant of this description in the State is that of the Wheeler-Osgood Company, on the flats, enlarged and rebuilt since its destruction by fire in September, 1902. Tacoma has large ship yards and builds the largest wooden vessels for sail and steam navigation engaged in the Sound or Coastwise trade to Alaska. There are three car construction and repair plants at TACOMA; several furniture factories, including the largest plant in this industry on the Coast, that of the Carman Manufacturing Company, covering six acres; the largest plant in the West for the manufacture of coffins and caskets; also the largest plant in this section of the world for the manufacture of wooden-stave water-pipe, that of the Washington Pipe and Foundry Company. There are several large plants for the manufacture of boxes and box shooks, and a great variety of industrial enterprises for the manufacture of articles chiefly of wood, such as ladders, wheelbarrows, incubators, churns, carriages and wagons, kegs, mantles, pails, tubs, trucks, wooden spoons, and many other articles.

In this connection the fact should be mentioned that TACOMA is not only the great mart for Washington fir, spruce, hemlock, pine and cedar—soft woods, but has command also of abundant supplies of hard woods, such as maple, oak and ash, which are also found in Western Washington. Among the new TACOMA industries of 1904 is a large plant for the manufacture of parlor furniture from hard woods such as are obtainable in this vicinity or will be brought from the tropical forests of the Philippine Islands by steamships plying between this port and Manila.

RAILWAY CONSTRUCTION AND REPAIR PLANTS.

The second largest manufacturing plant in TACOMA which is also the largest plant of its description in the Pacific Northwest, is the railway construction and repair plant of the Northern Pacific Railway at South TACOMA. This enormous plant furnishes employment for 800 men and manufactures and repairs everything in the line of motive power or rolling stock for railroad use. A $60,000 building for an additional boiler shop is now being erected to enlarge the facilities for locomotive work. The shops of the Tacoma Eastern railroad and the Tacoma Railway & Power Company are also located at TACOMA. Adjoining the Northern Pacific plant is a large plant of the Griffin Car Wheel Works, and not far distant from South TACOMA is the largest rolling mill in the State, the plant of the Western Iron & Steel Works at Lakeview. Allied to this class of industrial enterprises are numerous foundries and machine shops for the manufacture of stationary and marine engines and boilers, machinery, saws, architectural iron, bridges, and other products of brass, tin, copper, iron and steel. The Puget Sound Dry Dock & Machine Company, of TACOMA, operates the largest private drydock north of San Francisco.

LARGEST SMELTER ON THE COAST.

Still another line of industry in which TACOMA takes the lead, is in the reduction of ores of gold, silver, lead, copper and other metals. The Tacoma Smelting Company’s plant on the waterfront at the north end of the city is the largest smelter on the Pacific Coast. In 1902 the plant was enlarged by the addition of huge copper reduction works which began operations in September, 1902, and a copper refinery, the only plant of its kind west of Great Falls, Montana, is now in course of construction. The Tacoma Smelter began operations in September, 1890. In 1891 an average of fifty-eight men were employed, and the value of the output was $781,133.38. Five hundred men are now employed at the smelter and the output of the plant for the year 1903 was as follows:

Gold, 176,312.41 ounces $3,644,377.51 Silver, 1,899,831.64 ounces 1,016,409.93 Lead, 22,488,377 lbs 955,756.02 Copper, 10,889,463 lbs 1,422,853.84 ------------- Total value of output $7,039,397.30

The amount paid in wages in 1903 was $264,767.60, freight paid to Northern Pacific railway, $336,751.85, and freight paid to vessels, $164,392.55.

FLOUR MILLS AND CEREAL PLANTS.

TACOMA is the chief flour milling city of the Pacific Northwest. The product of its flour mills in 1903 was valued at $4,075,000. The Puget Sound Flouring Mills Company operate the largest flour mill in the State at TACOMA. The Tacoma Grain Company’s mill adjoining Elevator A was erected in 1902. The Sperry Milling Company, the largest millers in California, in connection with the Tacoma Warehouse & Elevator Company, are erecting a large mill on the waterfront adjoining Elevator B. The Albers Brothers Milling Company are about to erect another large flour and cereal mill on the City Waterway. The plant of the Pacific Starch Company, erected at a cost of $108,000 and opened in August, 1903, for the manufacture of non-chemical wheat starch, is the largest wheat starch factory in the United States. The Coast Cereal Company have erected this year and are now operating a large cereal plant at South TACOMA.

BREWING AND MALTING ESTABLISHMENTS.

TACOMA has two large breweries. The plant of the Pacific Brewing & Malting Company has been enlarged by the erection of three large cellars, increasing the capacity of the plant to 150,000 barrels a year. Malt is manufactured at TACOMA, not only by local brewers for their own use, but also for the trade. The Puget Sound Malting Company is the only plant on the Coast north of San Francisco engaged exclusively in the manufacture of malt, and supplies the trade in Eastern Washington, Oregon and Alaska, besides the Sound cities. The plant has been doubled in capacity to 240,000 bushels per year since January 1, 1904.

TACOMA has the largest stockyards and slaughtering and meat packing establishment west of the Missouri River Valley. The new plant of the Carstens Packing Company on the tideflats is pronounced to be the best equipped and most complete and up-to-date packing house in the United States. Its capacity is 250 cattle, 500 sheep and 500 hogs per day. It will shortly be in full operation employing 300 men. The plant of the Pacific Cold Storage Company prepares meats for a large trade in Alaska. TACOMA has also large fish canneries, pickling and preserving works, bottling establishments, mineral and soda-water works, coffee and spice mills, flavoring extract and chemical works and candy factories. A large plant is now being erected for the manufacture of crackers and biscuits.

Among the other lines of industry in TACOMA not already enumerated are mills or factories for the manufacture of brick and tile; brushes and brooms; artificial ice; soap; tannery products; shoe uppers; boots and shoes; buggy-tops; furs and for goods; clothing; shirts; overalls; stockings; underwear; knit-goods; tents, awnings and sails; paper boxes; fish baskets; oilskin garments and other goods; cigars; cigar boxes; metal bedsteads and woven-wire bed springs; cotton felt; carpets and rugs; excelsior; egg cases; enamels; furnaces and stoves; blank books, ledgers; stencils; rubber stamps; trunks and traveling bags; paints and varnish, and many other articles. _TACOMA IS THE LEADING MANUFACTURING CITY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST._

RAILWAY FACILITIES AND TRAFFIC.

_TACOMA HAS THE MOST EXTENSIVE RAILWAY TERMINAL FACILITIES AND HANDLES MORE FREIGHT THAN ANY OTHER CITY IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST._ The Northern Pacific railway has expended many millions in improvements on the TACOMA waterfront. The official figures furnished by the railroads showing the number of cars of pay freight consigned to each of the three leading cities of the Pacific Northwest during the year 1903 are as follows:

Cars of freight received at— Railway System. Tacoma. Seattle. Portland. Northern Pacific 58,779 47,219 8,463 Tacoma Eastern 10,074 Commercial Dock 155 Great Northern 9,837 Pacific Coast Co. 11,020 O. R. & N 35,815 Southern Pacific 17,281 Astoria & Columbia River 896 O. W. P. & R. Co. 193 ------ ------ ------ Totals 69,008 68,070 62,648