♦ ♦ INFORMATION ♦ ♦ CONCERNING THE A 1 City of Tacoma ! it rr • • • i AND WASHINGTON TERRITORY. i i • FROM THE OFFICE OF ALLEN C. MASON l^oai) Broker. MA30K BLOCK, TACOMA, W. T. PORTLAND, OR. : A. ANDERSON & CO., PRINTERS. 1888. -t- 5 PRESENTED WITH THE COMPLIMENTS OF THE PUBLISHER . £ V A. — S, vS DINE TO ALASKA, B. — CAN. PAC. STR. DINE. C. — ROUTE PROM CHINA AND JAPAN. D. —ROUTE TO MEXICO AND SOUTH AjS E. — STR. DINE TO VICTORIA. E. — S. S. DINE TO SAN FRANCISCO. Tacoma, Washington Territory. The Transportation and Manufacturing Centre and Leading WHEAT, COAL, COKE AND LUMBER Shipping Port of the Northwest. c0 UPEND/ ai J^O OF ♦ ♦ INFORMATION ♦ ♦ CONCFRNING THF City of Tacoma AND WASHINGTON TERRITORY. FROM THE OFFICE OF ALLEN C. MASON, loai? Broker. MASON BLOCK, TACOMA, W. T. PORTLAND, OR.: A. ANDERSON & CO., PRINTERS. 1888. The City of Tacoma is the Western Terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad, located at the Head of Navi- gation on Puget Sound, and offers opportunities for Profitable Investments in Real Estate equal to those of- fered by Minneapolis, St. Paul, Denver and Duluth, half a score of years ago. Fortunes have been made by judicious investments placed near those and other cities, and the same experi- . ence can be repeated in Tacoma. Washington Territory IN GENERAL. II WASHINGTON TERRITORY is bounded on the north by British Columbia, on the east by Idaho, on the south by Oregon, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean. It comprises an area of 69,994 square miles, of which 3,114 are water, leaving 66,880 square miles of land surface; of which it is estimated that about 20,000,000 acres are in timber lands, 5,000,000 acres rich alluvial bottom lands, and 10,000,000 are prairies and plains. The Cascade Range of mountains extend across the entire Terri- tory, north to south, dividing the Territory into two sections (of which the eastermost is much the larger), and renders direct communication between the two sections in the middle and northern portions of the Territory im- practicable for teams, except during the summer seasons, when the Sno- qualmie and other mountain passes are frequently traveled by herdsmen driving their cattle to the Sound. Communication is carried on by means of the Cascade branch of the Northern Pacific railroad. The assessed valuation of the property in Washington Territory for the year 1880 was $23,708,587. For 1886 the assessed valuation of the property in the Territory was $50,683,896, showing again of about 125 per cent., and for 1887 it was $56,177,453, showing a gain of over ten per cent in one year. The above figures do not include railroad property. The population of the Territory as estimated by the Governor is 162,076 for the year 1887. The fertile cereal-producing prairie lands and plains are situated in the eastern part, and nearly all the rich, alluvial bottom lands are in the west- ern part of the Territory. The scenery of the Cascade Range is indescribably grand, affording views of such colossal peaks as Mount Baker, Mount Tacoma, Mount Saint Helens and Mount Adams. Another beautiful range of mountains of lesser height, called the Olympic, lies along the coast between Puget Sound and the Pacific, affording a delightful prospect from the Sound and its vicinity. The picturesque attractions of this country, with its glacier-covered mountains, its waterfalls, its majestic winding rivers, with their precipit- 6 WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. ous bluffs, its mighty expanse of inland island-dotted sea, its deep, broad, forest-bordered lakes, certainly furnish a new and interesting field for the tourists and the artist. The great Columbia river, rising in the vast water-shed just north of the eastern part of the Territory, receives the copious waters of Clarke’s Fork, flowing fresh from the Rockies through Take Pend d’ Oreille, then the Okinagon and other considerable streams, making its great bend to the westward, and thence flowing southeasterly , is joined by its great affluents, the Yakima and Snake rivers, thus traversing the entire eastern section referred to; then flows along the southern border of the Territory, receiv- ing the Lewis and Cowlitz rivers west of the Cascade Range, and empties into the Pacific Ocean. It affords great facilities for commercial traffic, and abounds in delicious fish. Just north of the mouth of the Columbia river is Shoalwater Bay, which has a good entrance from the ocean and is full of shoals and flats. The latter are covered with oysters, thousands of baskets of which are annually shipped to various cities of the Pacific Coast. Herring, codfish, halibut and sturgeon also there abound. Twenty-five miles farther north is Gray’s Harbor, having an excellent entrance from the ocean, bordered with extensive and valuable forests of fir and cedar, receiving the Chehalis river from the east, and the Huntu- lup, Wishkah and Hoquium rivers from the north, which drain great fer- tile valleys. CLIMATE. It is not so very long ago that it was almost unanimously believed that the whole of this northwest region was a barbarous, uncivilized country, the home of savage Indians and ferocious wild beasts, where no unsuspecting intruder would be safe from the disfiguring scalping- knife or the hug of the grizzly. It was asserted on every hand as an uncontrover- tible fact that the climate was so cold as to be almost arctic, and the peo- ple in the latitude of New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, where the rivers are hermetically sealed by ice for months in the year, positively stood aghast at the idea of going so far north as what we now know as Wash- ington Territory. Their idea of climate was of the simplest nature; with them south meant heat — north, the reverse. As an absolute truth, how- ever, the climate of Washington Territory is mild and equable — as mild as that of Virginia and at the same time exempt from its extremes of heat and cold. This difference is caused by the Japan current which flows from the South Pacific ocean to the North and Easterly, set in upon the northern coast of California and rushing northward as far as British Columbia, modifies the climate of the North Pacific coast in the same manner that the Atlantic Gulf stream tempers the climate of Great Britain and Ireland. WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 7 Changes are not violent, for summer comes and goes almost imper- ceptibly. Hot nights are unknown, while during the day the temperature rarely ranges above 90 degrees, this mitigation being the effect of the cool, fresh breath of the sea that laves the Western shore of the territory. The chief feature of winter is rain, but there is always an intermission of pleas- ant weather, lasting for a month sometimes. These wet seasons are not drenching, downpours of heavy rain, but are as a rule gentle showers, working much good to the soil and fitting it for the reception of seed. In the coldest weather the mercury seldom touches zero, while snow rarely remains on the ground, and then only in the unexposed quarters, for more than a few weeks at a time; indeed a heavy fall of snow is rather the ex- ception than the rule. In the summer months the land is fanned by gen- tle breezes wafted from the ocean, while heavy gales and violent storms, save on the coast, are unremembered by the oldest inhabitant. The temp- erate and genial climate, especially in its freedom from the sudden varia- tions which prevail elsewhere has much to do with the general healthful- ness of the Pacific Northwest. A comparison of the rates of mortality in Washington Territory with those in the older states shows greatly in favor of the former, while there is absolutely no prevailing type of disease in the region, which is undoubtedly due to the excellence of the water as much as to the climate. The liquid is to be found in its pristine purity in every river, creek, brook and spring in the territory, and it never requires prep- aration to make it fit for household uses. Western Washington IN GENERAL. Ily ESTERN WASHINGTON embraces all of the Territory lying between the Cascade mountains and the Pacific Coast. Its climate differs widely from that of Eastern Washington, the winters being milder and the summers cooler. There is very little snow in winter and a good deal of rain. Spring opens in February. The summers are never excess- ively hot, although there is almost unbroken sunshine. The autumns are pleasant, and the fine weather lasts until December. With the exception of a few small prairies and river bottoms, the whole surface of the country was originally heavily timbered, and most of it is still in that condition. Settlement was first made in the valleys of the streams where clearing was comparatively easy, or on the shores of Puget Sound where lumber- ing operations were profitable. 8 WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. The climate and soil of Western Washington are favorable to the suc- cessful raising of wheat, oats, rye and all the fruits of the temperate zone. Wheat is raised to some extent, but oats is the chief grain crop. White clover is a native grass, and red clover and timothy prodce luxuriant crops. The general character of the soil may be described as follows: In the valleys it is a dark loam, containing a large proportion of vegetable mould, and having a clay subsoil. In the bottom lands near the water courses, it usually consists of rich deposits of alluvium. Of such lands there are often large tracts of great fertility, termed beaver-dam lands which, as the name indicates, have been formed by the labor of this busy amphibious rodent during countless centuries. The constituents of this soil are earthly deposits or humus of greath depth, producing from decayed vege- table growths. All these various soils are of wonderful productive ca- pacity. Under cultivation they are quick, light and friable, yielding aston- ishing crops of hay, hops, grain, fruits and vegetables for a series of years without manure and with only indifferent plowing. The ability of the clay subsoil to retain moisture explains, to some extent, the enduring quality of the land. The bottoms are mainly covered with a deciduous growth of hazel, cherry, thorn, vine-maple, alder and crab-apple with only occasional firs and pineS, and, as a rule, are confined to nar- row valleys. Unlike prairie lands they must be cleared, at a cost varying from $15 to $50 per acre, before they can be plowed. Usually, however, the wood and lumber thus secured will pay for the work, and the farmer will afterwards find his reward in the abundance of his crops. The soil of the uplands is fertile, but somewhat inferior to that of the river bottoms. That of the undulating foot-hills and more tillable moun- tain-faces are red, brown or black loam. The more elevated lands afford excellent natural pasturage, and also produce good crops of grain and the hardier fruits and vegetables. Puget Sound IK GENERAL. P UGET SOUND is a great, deep inland sea, extending nearly 200 square miles from the ocean, having a surface of about 2,000 square miles, and a shore line of about 1,594 miles, indented with numerous bays, harbors and inlets, each with its peculiar name, and contains numer- ous islands inhabited by farmers, lumbermen, herdsmen and those en- gaged in quarrying lime and building stone. Admiral Charles Wilkes has described this pride of Washington Territory as follows: WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 9 Nothing can surpass the beauty of these waters and their safety. Not a shoal exists within the Straits of Juan de Fuca, Admiralty Bay, or Hood’s jCanal that can in any way interrupt their navigation by a seventy-four gun ship. I venture nothing in saying that there is no country in the world that possesses waters equal to these; they cover an area of about 2000 square miles; the shores of all its inlets and bays are remarkably bold, so much so that a ship’s side would strike the shore before her keel would touch the ground. The country by which these waters are surrounded is remarkably salubrious, and affords every advantage for the accommodation of a vast commercial and mili- tary marine, with convenience for docks, and a great many sites for towns and cities, at all times well supplied with water, and capable of being well provided with every- thing by the surrounding country, which is well adapted for agriculture. The Straits of Juan de Fuca are 95 miles in length and have an average width of 11 miles. At the entrance (8 miles in width) no danger exists, and it may be safely navigated throughout. No part of the world affords finer inlands, sounds, or a greater number of har- bors than are found within the Straits of Juan de Fuca, capable of receiving the largest class of vessels and without a danger in them that is not visible. From the rise and fall of the tide (18 feet), every facility is offered for the erection of works of a great maritime nation. The country also affords as many facilities for water power as any other. On this Sound are already situated thriving towns and cities, bidding for the commerce of the world. On the eastern part of the Sound are situated two important fresh water lakes of great depth and beauty, and bordered by great forests and rich deposits of coal. Lake Union, the smaller of these, having an area of six square miles, six miles shore line, and an average depth of 75 feet, is one and a quarter miles distant from the Sound, and is connected with it by a small stream entering Salmon bay. The eastern shore of Lake Union is separated from Lake Washington by a low isthmus 1,600 feet wide. Lake Washington has an area of 60 square miles, 75 miles of shore line, and an average depth of 200 feet, with numerous landlocked harbors. This lake is connected by a slough, navigable for small steamers, with Sammamish Lake (nine miles long), and drains a country rich in natural resources. The most important rivers emptying into Puget Sound are as follows: The Des Chutes, emptying into Budd’s Inlet, at Olympia, notable for its fall and its water power; the Puyallup, flowing through a rich valley, mainly devoted to hop culture, into Commencement Bay, near Tacoma; the navigable Duwamish, with its tributaries, the White, Black and Cedar rivers, fertilizing rich bottom lands, which enters Elliott Bay near Seattle; the navigable Snohomish, with its tributary, the Snoqualmie, which makes a sublime, perpendicular leap of 270 feet, celebrated as the Snoqualmie Falls; the Skagit, also navagable and fertile in its surroundings; the Swin- omish, entering into Belingham Bay; the Lummi, which has the Nooksachk for its tributary, and also enters into Bellingham Bay. Near the outlet of the latter stream are the reclaimed tide lands, remarkable for their im- mense crops of wheat, oats, and barley; the Skokomish is the largest stream emptying into that arm of Puget Sound called Hood’s Canal. All these streams are serviceable for the shipment of logs to tide-water, ex- IO WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. cept in instances where the debris from the forest has lodged and formed snags interrupting navigation. The Government should make ample pro- vision by appropriation for clearing out these streams. The immense wealth ot this country in its timber calls for the utmost! consideration on the part of the Government in favoring shipments thereof to tide-water. The deep, alluvial soil of the valleys is excellent for general farming and for hay crops, and is probably the best hop land in the world. Hops grow in great perfection and yield more heavily than in any of the hop regions in the east or of Europe. The crop runs from 1 500 to 2000 pounds to the acre. Oats are an important crop, being extensively grown on tidal flats, reclaimed by sea walls. Apples, pears, plums, quinces, cherries, small fruits and vegetables grow excellent crops. Proximity to the mar- kets of large towns and ready access to deep water navigation makes the Puget Sound lands very valuable, and the agricultural area is being con- stantly increased by clearing off the forests. TIMBER. Figures fail to give an idea of the lumber product available in this section. One of the finest bodies of timber in the world is embraced be- tween the Columbia river and British Columbia, and the Pacific Coast and the Cascades. At a low estimate one-half the growth of this Puget Sound district consists of trees which will yield 25,000 feet of lumber to the acre. The approximate quantity in this great tract, which is nearly as large as the state of Indiana, is not les than 160,000,000,000 feet. The principal growths are fir, pine, spruce, cedar, larch and hemlock, although white oak, maple, cottonwood, ash, alder, and other varieties are found in con- siderable quantities. Trees attain an unusual growth in height, girth and symmetry of form. The red fir is not unfrequently 250 feet high, the pine 160 feet, the silver fir 150 feet, the black spruce 150 feet, white cedar 100 feet, and white oak 70 feet. Cedars have been found 21 feet in diame- ter and 120 feet high. Trees from 6 to 8 feet in diameter are frequently seen in the forests of this region. Some of the logs sawed are of great girth and sometimes 1 1 5 feet long. Immense saw mills are in operation in Tacoma, Port Blakely, Seattle, Port Madison, Port Gamble, Port Lud- low, Utsalady and other points, and lumber is furnished to points on the Pacific coast and to foreign countries. COAL. There are extensive coal fields at the foot of the Cascade mountains, which are worked on a large scale at New Castle, 20 miles from Seattle, and at South Prairie and Carbonado, about 30 miles from Tacoma. The coal is brought by rail to the Sound and shipped to San Francisco and other places for locomotive, steamship and domestic use. IRON. Near Port Townsend is a deposit of iron ore which is smelted near the | mines. Rich iron veins also exist near Tacoma, Seattle and Whatcom WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. II not yet developed. An important iron industry is destined to grow up on the Sound at no distant day. FISH. Oysters, clams, halibut, salmon, salmon trout, herring, tom cod and other food fishes abound in the waters of the Sounds. Clams grow to such size that one will sometimes make a meal for a large family. The product of the fisheries of Puget Sound is an important item of wealth to this region. COMMERCE. Puget sound has an extensive commerce. Dumber is exported to China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and South America. Wheat is shipped to Europe. Teas are imported direct from China and Japan. Coal is shipped to San Francisco. Daily steamers ply between Tacoma and Seattle, and Victoria, British Columbia. The Sound ports are connected with San Francisco by regular steamship service. A large fleet of steamboats is employed in the local trade of the Sound. Eastern Washington IN GENERAL. PAST OF THE CASCADE MOUNTAINS, it must be remembered, v, the climate and natural features of the country are very different from those of the great basin lying west of them, so that the popular divisions, Eastern and Western Washington Territory, are warranted. In the eastern section the thermometer is much higher in summer and lower in winter than in the western section. The rainfall is only half as heavy. From June to September there is no rain, the weather being perfect for harvesting. The heat at times is great, but not nearly so op- pressive as a much lower grade would be in the Eastern States; and the nights are invariably cool. The winters are short, but occasionally severe, snow ^seldom falls be- fore Christmas, and sometimes lies one or two months, but usually disap- pears in a few days or weeks. The speedy melting of the snow is due to a somewhat remarkable phenomenon, the so-called “Chinook Wind,” which blows periodically up the channel of the Columbia river from the southwest. Created by the warm Japan current of the Pacific Ocean, this wind operates powerfully to moderate the climate of the Pacific J north- west. In Eastern Oregon and Washington spring begins in February, with warm, pleasant weather, and lasts until the middle of May. At this sea- son rain falls in sufficient quantity to give life to vegetation and ensure good crops. The average temperature is 52 0 . 12 WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. Autumn weather in October and November is generally delightful. There is often frost by night, but the days are usually warm and bright. The season is marked by showers, and also by thunderstorms in some localities. The mercury ranges between 55 and 70°. The rainfall is considerably less than that of the region west of the Cascades, being lighter near the Columbia and Snake rivers, and increas- ing gradually to the northward and toward the mountains. The foregoing description of the climate of Washington Territory must be understood, however, as applicable only to the general meteoro- logical characteristics of the two grand divisions of the country. These characteristics are naturally modified to a greater or less extent by locality. The region is vast enough to embrace much variety of climate within the broad limits of the facts here presented. The soil east of the Cascade mountains is a dark loam of great depth, composed of alluvial deposits and decomposed lava overlying a clay subsoil. This, in turn, rests upon a basaltic formation, which is so far below the surface of the ground as to be visible only on the banks of the deep water- courses. The constituents of this soil adapt the land peculiarly to the production of wheat. All the mineral salts which are necessary to the perfect growth of this cereal are abundant, reproducing themselves con- stantly as the processes of gradual decomposition in this soil of volcanic origin proceeds. The clods are easily broken by the plow, and the ground quickly crumbles on exposure to the atmosphere. Although the dry sea- son continues for months, this light porous land retains and absorbs enough moisture from the atmosphere, after its particles have been partial- ly disintergrated, to ensure perfect growths and full harvests. This assertion is so at variance with common experience that it might well be questioned. Happily, it is susceptible of explanation. In spite of the fact that there is scarcely a shower between May and the following October, and that the average rainfall for the year does not exceed twenty inches, there is always the requisite moisture for maturing the crops. Paradoxi- cal as it may seem, if the rain were greatly in excess of this low average, damage would certainly ensue; and it is equally sure, if successful farming depended upon the limited rain-fall, there would be poor harvests. The clouds supply only in part the moisture which is needed. The warm air currents, surcharged with vapor, which sweep inland from the ocean up the channel of the Columbia river, prevent drought. The effect of these atmospheric currents in tempering the climate has already been described. Their influence upon the vegetation is no less vital. The moisture with which they are laden is held in suspension during the day, diffused over the face of the country. At night it is condensed by the cooler tempera- ture, and precipitated in the form of a fine mist on every exposed particle of surface which earth and plant present. The effect is that of a copious shower. This is apparent on taking a morning walk through the grass, WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 13 which can only be done at the cost of wet feet. In this region it is no un- usual phenomenon for a smart shower to fall when clouds are invisible and the sun is shining. This occurance is explained also upon the theory that the vapor in the atmosphere comes in contact with an upper current of cold air, which causes rapid condensation and consequent rain. A summer drought, therefore, which in most climates is a calamity, is here a benefit. The soil needs no more rains after those of the spring are over, and the farmer may depend upon cloudless skies at harvest time. For example, the wheat crop of Eastern Washington in 1883 was 6,500,000 bushels, and no rain fell between May and September. In the whole vast basin of the Columbia river, an extent of 150 miles in width by 500 in length, there is great uniformity in the general character of the arable soil. There are, of course, modifications of its component elements as between the valleys and the higher plateau and lower mountain slopes. In the latter an ad- mixture of clay to some extent is often found. In general, the soil of the foot-hills is more productive than that of broader valleys. The exceeding fertility of this great area has only of late years been known. Some of the large wheat farms, which now are most productive, were marked not long ago upon the maps, by the United States surveyors, as “lands unfit for cultivation.’’ The prolific nature of the soil was dis- covered, finally by a thoughtful investigator, who plowed and sowed a small strip as an experiment. The result was a surprise and a success. It at once opened the way to the profitable cultivation of the hitherto de- spised land. Now, wherever bunch grass grows, the fact is accepted that wheat will flourish. Of such lands, there are almost boundless tracts' awaiting settlement. A mere fraction of the vast fields has yet been taken. In course of time, however, these unoccupied lands will be settled. For the most part, these vast expanses of good, arable soil are the grazing grounds of countless herds and flocks, which thrive, unsheltered, the year throughout, on the natural grasses, and supply with their increase the markets of Utah, Nevada and other States. Most of the fruits grown within the temperate zone are raised at var- ious points in the low-lying lands in great perfection. Peaches, pears, ap- ples, plums, grapes and berries of fine flavor are produced. Orchards come forward rapidly, peach trees bearing often three years after planting the seed. COMMERCE AND RAILWAYS. (The following information relative to the Territory in general is taken from the Governor’s Report for the year 1887:) The past two years have been the most important in the history of railway enterprise in Washington Territory. Within that period the Northern Pacific Railroad has completed its line across the Cascade Moun- tains, the Canadian Pacific has been finished, and the Oregon and Cali- 14 WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. forma has been pushed with so much energy as to have now only 20 miles unfinished. To Washington Territory the completion of these great trunk lines is of the utmost importance. The loss of either one of them would now be seriously felt. In the completion of the Northern Pacific across the Cas- cade Mountains the Territory has been freed from a disadvantage which was very great, and which seems not to have been appreciated elsewhere. It was generally known, indeed, that a direct communication by rail could be had from the East with Eastern Washington Territory, or with Puget Sound; but it was much less commonly known that neither Puget Sound nor Eastern Washington Territory had a direct communication with each other. This, however, was the case. From Ellensburg to Tacoma is a distance that requires now a few hours’ ride, but it is no more than a few months since a person, journeying from one of these places to the other, was compelled to expend nearly a day and a half in doing so. The same, in greater or of less degree, was true of all the eastern half of the Territory. The consequences was that, much the greater part of the people of the two districts remained strangers to each other, and were far better acquainted with the society and the trade of Oregon than with that of their own Commonwealth. Their only communication with Puget Sound or with the world beyond was by way of Portland. This gross inconvenience was an inconvenience to the people, not merely as travelers, but as producers and as shippers. It long remained an almost intolerable burden to the farmers of Eastern Washington that they had only one line by which they could ship their crops to the sea- board. The Oregon Railway and Navigation Company possessed a mo- nopoly of the finest wheat-producing region in the Territory, and, during many years, charged rates that were altogether exorbitant. It is safe to say that the growth of the Walla Walla district has been seriously retard- ed through these exactions. That portion of the Territory which lies at the foot of the eastern side of the mountains, though it did not suffer in the same degree with other portions from the exorbitant rates of freight charges, had equal cause to rejoice in the completion of the road across the cascades. The completion of the “Cascade Division” meant to these people new markets, which before, though near enough at hand, they had not been able to reach. If all accounts are to be believed, I am safe in saying that the prosperity of the Yakima and the Kittitas Valleys has been in- creased 50 per cent, by this easy connection with the Sound. The dis- tricts first named are almost exclusively agricultural, and they are par- ticularly adapted to the production of many vegetables that are difficult to grow on the western side; so that they had the utmost need of quick com- munication with the growing cities of tide- water. The completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway has been very use- WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 15 ful to us. Besides tending to reduce fares by competition, it has, upon the whole, aided the settlement of this region by a considerable immigra- tion over its line. The class of settlers that have come by it is reported to be very worthy, and it is certain that many of them leave British Col- umbia for the American side. The company has several ocean steamers, and some of them have direct communication with our ports. The Oregon and California is a line the completion of which is far more important to us than the people of the Bast seem to imagine. By this line the time between Puget Sound and San Francisco is reduced to two days. A still further reduction is reasonably certain. But the chief advantage to us is not so much in the saving of time between California and this region as in the fact that those who wish to come here from that State are no longer compelled to do so by sea. The sea voyage requiring not only three or four days, but it involved inconveniencies and dangers that caused a very great number of persons to give up all thought of visit- ing or settling in this Territory when they were disposed to leave Cali- fornia. agricultural development. The acreage of the Territory is rapidly increasing. No statistics, in- deed, can be given that can be relied upon, but it is clear, from reports from all the counties and from many grades of public officers, that much more land is tilled than formerly. The assessor of Walla Walla county reports an increase of 56,000 acres of cultivated land since last year. A much greater increase of acreage must be expected in the eastern than in the western counties. The former are nearly all left clear by na- ture and ready for the plow. In the latter there is very little that must not be cleared by the hand of man — a task, in many districts, of arduous difficulty. Wide as has been the extension of agriculture there in the past year, it is a most reasonable expectation that the coming twelve months will witness much more. The agricultural development of eastern Washington is justly a mat- ter of pride to the Territory. An impression had long been too common in other parts of the United States that that portion of Washington Ter- ritory lying east of the Cascade Mountains was a desert that could never be reclaimed. Its wide plains, its infinitely fine dust, were everywhere described in the most discouraging terms. It was only, it was said, in the roving herds of stock that we had anything to hope for in that extensive country between the Cascade Mountains and our eastern boundary. After a time, however, the increase in the crops of grain attracted attention. These so multiplied every year, that it was at length conceded that as a grain-producing region Eastern Washington was of great importance. This fact is now known throughout the world, but it is the most that is, generally speaking, allowed to be the merit of a remarkable region. It is i6 WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. yet little known in other parts of the United States, and, indeed, it is only lately known in the western half of the Territory itself that Eastern Wash- ington is to be great, not merely in the production of grain, but in a va- riety of crops far more varied than was imagined or than can be seen else- where in the world farther north than the thirty-eight parallel. Erroneous notions of the climate had much to do with the mistake. As has been remarked in another place, the mistaken opinion is common in the United States that Eastern Washington, as it is not warmed as thoroughly as Western Washington by the Japan current, must have the climate of Dakota and Montana, in the latitude of which it lies. To give, in any detail, the productions of Eastern Washington would not be easy; nor could it, in all cases, be safe to class among its produc- tions as yet what many persons regard as such, but which are at present only experimental growths. It is certain, however, that besides many staple crops it will produce hops, tobacco, sweet potatoes, melons, peaches, apricots and grapes. These products are not, indeed, universal in that region, but they are to be found in many districts, and undoubtedly will afford a livelihood to a considerable population. Besides these, cotton, peanuts, and sugar cane have been grown, with what success, as regards general culture, remains to be seen. It may be asked why these products were not grown before, and why it has been reserved to such recent years of settlement to prove the capacity of this soil and climate. The answer is that the first generation of settlers was too poor to make experiments in agriculture. It was as much as these could do, beginning with little money and in the midst of a hos- tile race, to get the easiest products of the earth and to retain a few cattle. Markets, too, were, in that period, so remote as to be practically inacces- sible. In consequence, it was left to the present generation and to the comparatively wealthy class of settlers, who come in these years of security and of railways, to invest time and money in obtaining the more delicate harvests of this region. The crops of Western are less various than those of Eastern Wash- ington. Corn, or maize, nowhere a staple crop of the Territory, is, on this side of the mountains, cultivated only in the gardens; nor does barley or rye yield to great satisfaction; butt much wheat, of a fine quality, is harvested, and oats in great abundance. Hay yields in wonderful luxuri- ance. The fame of our hops is, of course, world wide. For vegetables of several kinds, Western Washington can hardly be surpassed, as in the case of Irish potatoes, beets, and turnips. Whatever requires much heat does not flourish. Tomatoes do not ripen well. For the reasons given in the case of Eastern Washington experiments in agriculture have not, until the present time, been numerous on the west side of the mountains; but it is probable that its capacity in field crops has been fairly tried. Some products, such as tobacco, yet demand more WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 17 careful tests, and from both Pacific and Whatcom counties come state- ments that cranberries will flourish in their marsh lands. But it is chiefly in respect of fruit that the western division of the Territory is just begin- ning to prove a wonderful capability. The size of the plums, pears, strawberries and cherries is already the astonishment of travelers. As our railway and steamship facilities are now of the first order, it is no longer matter of doubt that our fruit crop will, before long, be a prodigious export. HOPS. This is a crop in which the people of the Territory, particularly on the western side of the mountains, take great pride. Hop cultivation has been progressive, and is to-day a source of great income to several districts. Its area is widening every year. I accordingly regret that a gentleman, eminently qualified to give the statistics of it, was compelled to disappoint me at a day too late to admit o*f my obtaining the information in full from other sources. It is a well-known peculiarity of hops that their value fluctuates from season to season, more perhaps than that of any other crop. One year they may be worth only a few cents a pound, another year worth a dollar. The average, accordingly, varies a great deal. After an autumn of high prices there is a very marked increase in the area planted, and after a dull year the reverse is true. But the aggregate average has stead- ily increased in this region. The crop of 1881 was 6,098 bales; of 1883, 9,301; of 1885, 20,000; of 1887, according to the present estimates, 25,000. The last crop is estimated to bring $1,125,000 to the people of this Terri- tory. And all this industry has sprung from beginningsas recent as 1865, or rather of 1875, when it seemed first to be apparent to the people that hops were a staple crop, and when, for the first time, the cultivation of them appears to have been made a principal object. It maybe interesting to note the beginnings of an industry which has already enabled us to in- fluence the markets of the world. The son of the first hop grower thus describes it: My father’s attention had been drawn to these facts accidentally, and he had no conception of the future of the business, of which he laid the foundation and died without seeing the fruits of his venture, except in a third crop of a few bales. The first crop consisted of one bale in weight and was cured in the loft overhead of the kitchen fire, was marketed in Olympia, and was sold for 85 cents per poundj and brought $159.25; the second crop consisted of four bales, which sold for 75 cents per pound, and gave as much money in return as one-third of all other crops then grown in Puyallup Valley. It was seven years before much progress was made in planting, the aggregate acreage then consisting of 18 acres, and the aggregate production of 160 bales; and up to that time not a hop was planted elsewhere except in Puyallup Valley, and those within a few miles of the original garden. The vines of this Territory are universally, I believe, free from pests, and as the yield is large, our growers find the business profitable on an average price of 12 cents, and even lower. In 1885 the yield here for the twelve preceding years was stated to have averaged 1,600 pounds an acre, i8 WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. and the price for the same period 18 cents a pound. In the former of these estimates a year of unusual harvest was omitted, and in the latter a year of exceptionally high price. The area, as has been said before, increases every year. During the past season the thrifty farmers of the Chehalis Valley, in Eewis county y have begun the cultivation of hops, with, it is reported, encouraging suc- cess. On the eastern side of the mountains, at Yakima, the average is reported at three hundred. A journal of that valley states: Yakima hops and all the crop here have found ready sale, and been received with high favor at Milwaukee, where the great brewers prefer them to any others grown in America, and pay for them 2)4 cents per pound more than those grown in any other locality. The peculiar ingredients of our volcanic ash soil, the dryness of our air, and our irrigation system (enabling moisture to be applied at the right time and in the proper quantity) contribute to the attainment of the high degree of excellence for which Yakima hops are now famed. The picking in Washington Territory is chiefly done by the Indians. STOCK RAISING. Under this head I regret to say that I am not able to send you as full a report as I could desire, partly because of the limited time allowed for this document to be prepared in, and partly because of a certain defect in our Territorial laws. There is not, in this Territory, an enactment re- quiring that statistics of stock be returned by any officer. It is hoped, in- deed, that our legislative body will remedy this soon, but at present there is no method by which any data can be obtained by law T in respect to stock. In some cases the county assessors have voluntarily made returns of the number and the kinds of stock, but these have been infrequent instances. It may be said that the breeding of horses and cattle is yet in its in- fancy here. It is true that in Eastern Washington the number of stock produced is very great, but it is only of late that the breeding of fine qualities of them has become common. Where a falling off in numbers is reported it is generally found that there has been an improvement in the breeds. That the Eastern Washington districts will soon cease to be a wide, unsettled cattle range is manifest from all reports. Thus, to quote from the assessor of Walla Walla county: Of course the range is not as good as formerly, as the plow is turning down the bunch grass and the fence is driving out the stockmen. * * * Almost every farmer now raises a few cattle, hogs, sheep, or horses for market, and each year this is being done more. The auditor of Yakima county sends the same report: Since the county has begun to be occupied by settlers who are engaged in grow- ing wheat and other cereals, many of the large stock growers in the county have[re- moved their large herds to localities not yet reached by settlers. Still this district affords many wide ranges, and in some counties, as in Whitman, Spokane, and Eincoln, the sheep herds are reported to be exceedingly large. The raising of this stock is , from all accounts a rap- idly growing industry. In some cases the culture of stock has been of an involuntary kind. I am informed that in Asotin County the exorbitant rates of freight WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 19 • charges have had the effect of turning the farmers from the production of grain to the culture of stock. But in most instances the interest in cattle and particularly in fine breeds, has naturally come of advancement in wealth, for where the neighborhoods are poor it will seldom be found that much interest is taken in the breeding of stock. The same reasons that I have given for the poverty of agricultural experiment in the past genera- tion of our settlers may be given for the neglect of stock breeding. The first generation of settlers was too poor to invest much in a few expensive animals, when it was so difficult to have them transported here and when the markets were so distant. Now our communities are growing richer, and besides, there is a de- cided increase in the demand of the growing home markets. In conse- quence there are men of means to import fine breeds, and at the same time the poorer farmers are encouraged to invest something in this way, by seeing markets immediately before them. From nearly all counties come reports that some breed has lately been introduced. Some have gone regularly into the breeding of fine stock as an exclu- sive occupation. At Spokane Falls the breeding of the Short Horn and Polled Angus is carried on. The breeding of horses is also growingto bean important part of our rural industries. It is, like cattle breeding however, as yet in its infancy. Of the most costly ventures in this line is the importation direct from England of the Suffolk Punch horse. This large breed has proved very well adapted to the climate of Western Washington, in Eewis county, where it has been introduced. The Cleveland Bay and the English shire horse has been brought into Skagit county from Illinois. A gentleman of unusual experience in the cultivation of stock in various parts of the world expresses the opinion that the day is not far distant when we ‘ ‘shall be as world-renowned for our equine productions as Kentucky. At the present we are free frbm contagious diseases, but it would be sound policy to keep a strict quarantine upon our borders, as these evils will not originate here, but are brought here from the East. ’ ’ The shipment of stock from Eastern Washington is very considerable to the Eastern States and Territories, even at times taxing the facilities of the railways. The grazing in that district is on the so-called “bunch grass,” which even in winter, though apparently dead and without nutri- ment, sustains cattle. They often crop it through the snows and fare well upon it. Mentioning the snow of Eastern Washington, it is proper to add here that very little disaster to stock on account of it is reported from that part of the Territory. The notions commonly entertained that East- ern Washington is a region of Dakota cold are, as I have said elsewhere, quite erroneous. The winters, though sometimes exceedingly frosty, are always much shorter than those of Dakota and Montana, nor do the snows lie nearly so long. These are removed, after a brief stay, by the 20 WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. Chinook wind. In western Washington the grazing is on a turf which, in the opinion of travelers, is equaled only by that of Ireland. The grass on the Pacific side of the Territory is a beautiful green during the entire year, rarely suffering either from frost or from drought. Two acres, in some places one acre, of bottom land will sustain a horse. Instances of even more luxuriant herbage are credibly reported. Much grazing is had for their stock by new settlers upon unoccupied claims, a claim being particu- larly desired for this purpose that has no settlers near at hand. FORESTS AND THE PRODUCTION OF DUMBER. The timber trees of Washington Territory are as listed below, and rank in the order as numbered: (i) Yellow and red fir; (2) white and red cedar; (3) spruce; (4) larch; (5) white pine; (6) white fir; (7) hemlock; (8) bull pine; (9) tamarack; (10) alder and maple; 11 ash and oak; 12 cherry and laurel; (13) cottonwoods. By far the largest article of export is the yellow and red fir, which are generally classed as “Oregon Pine” in price-lists of California and for- eign dealers. The trees from which this product is obtained reach 12 feet in diameter and 300 feet in height, in exceptional cases, but the ordinary saw-logs of commerce range from 24 to 60 inches in diameter. A large proportion of these logs is clear-stuff, and is made into deck planks, floor- ing, siding, and other articles, with the grain of the wood vertical, so that they wear without splintering, and do not crack readily when exposed to the sun or weather. This wood is also used for bridges, ship’s timbers, and railway construction, and for spars and piles. It is most excellent for all these purposes and as a general building lumber on account of its nail-holding qualities. This lumber is known and has a favorable repu- tation in nearly every port of the Pacific ocean and in many of those on the Atlantic, both in America and Europe. The yellow and red fir constitutes the bulk of the forests of Washing- ton Territory, and the supply is ample for a good many years. The white and red cedar is not so abundant, and yields only a small per cent, of clear-stuff, but the lumber is very durable and light, and is not very susceptible to atmospheric changes, which makes it desirable for the manufacture of sash, doors, and blinds, and for finishing lumber and moldings. It is also the most superior wood for shingles, and is holding first rank in all the markets where it can be carried by water or rail. These shingles possess the quality, common to all the saw-mill products of the Territory, of being grained edge or vertical grained. On account of the possession of this quality they will not materially warp in the sun and will not readily split under the hammer. On account of its durability it is much sought after for fence and telegraph posts. Spruce and larch are often superior in size to the firs, and make very beautiful lumber, but for reasons not readily explainable are of very limited WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 21 uses. The spruce is inodorous and is largely used for packing-cases and dunnage on that account. It is also made into ladders, furniture, churns, sign-boards, oars, and brackets. The larch is not so well known, being found in more inaccessible places, but from all appearances must eventually be a formidable rival of the cedars and pines for sash, doors, and blinds, and other finishing ma- terial. It takes a fine polish, is close grained, of good color, and the trees being very large they yield a large percentage of clear and grained- edge stuff. As railways for logging purposes extend back into the mount- ains more of this timber (which grows on high altitudes) will be available, and it will doubtless then be quoted in the markets and have well-defined uses. White fir is an inodorious wood, and is comparatively free from gums and pitch, and is used largely for shelving and also as a cheap finishing material. It is not durable when exposed to be alternately dry and wet, and it is therefore used principally for inside work. Hemlock has no defined use as yet, but if, as alleged, mice and other vermin will not gnaw a hemlock board, it must come into use for granar- ies, pantry drawers, apd for packages for breadstuffs and meats. Alder and maple exist in considerable quantities on the river bottoms of Western Washington, and are used principally for the manufacture of cheap furniture. Ash and oak are found in abundance on the bottom-lands, and are largely used for fire- wood. A Small percentage of the trees will make saw logs, but the lumber is not considered superior for the purposes for which oak and ash are commonly used. Whether this is owing to the prejudices of wood-workers or to actual inferiority in the material appears to be an open question. Cherry and laurel attain only a small size, and can only be utilized for ornamental purposes. White pines grow on high altitudes, and are found with the larch, over considerable areas on the upper benches of the Cascade Mountains. It takes higher rank than the white pine of the Hast, as it is obtainable in larger sizes and will yield wider and longer boards. „ The cottonwoods grow to the size of three feet across the stump, and are used principally for making barrel material, excelsior, and paper pulp. The bull pine, yellow pine, and tamarack grow on the eastern slopes of the Cascade Range and generally throughout Eastern Washington. They make a quality of lumber inferior to the products of the western slopes of the Cascades and the Coast Range, but that appears to answer the local demand for rough lumber and fencing materials. I give in a statement below, the total capacity of the saw-mills of the Territory, so far as statistics could be obtained. I believe the capacity of the mills is underestimated, but whether or not their output will reach the 22 WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. same figure I have no means of determining. It would seem, however, that the allowance of two full months of twenty-six days, that has been made for lost time, would be sufficient to equalize the totals. Capacity of Washington Territory saw-mills , in superficial feet, for a year of two hundred and sixty working days. Puget Sound mills 344,500,000 Gray’s Harbor mills 114,400,000 Columbia River mills 85,800,000 Shoal Water Bay mills 29,900,000 Interior mills as reported 62,840,000 Interior mills not reported (estimated) 8,000,000 Total 645,440,000 The operations of logging, towing, manufacturing, loading and dis- charging vessels, stacking in yards, and utilizing offals will employ at least two men for every thousand feet of lumber produced. This industry, therefore, gives wages to 4,964 men. I have not been able to obtain figures for this year in regard to the number and destination of coastwise and foreign cargoes, but in 1886, according to tables in the San Francisco Journal of Commerce, a good authority, 200,000,000 feet of lumber were sent to California, and the amounts set out in table below to other parts, from Puget Sound alone. From all this it will readily be seen that the lumber industry of Washington Territory is by no means in its infancy, but that the constant- ly increasing demand for her forest products will require larger milling capacity each year is not doubted. Destination , number , and amount of foreign lumber cargoes for the year 1886. Destination. Sydney . Melbourne Hawaiian Islands Valparaiso Mexico Buenos Ayres . . . Brisbane Shanghai Callao Feejee Townsville New Calendonia. No Feet Destination. No Feet. 32 25,082,332 Hong-Kong 2 1,210,000 27 I9, 0 53,426 Antofogasta 2 1,127,000 26 14,244,111 Iquique 2 1,206,716 24 14,990,372 Rio de Janeiro 1 868,369 9 4,720,232 Mollendo 1 473,105 6 4,818,111 London 1 55L493 5 2,404,562 Broken Bay . 1 814,000 5 2,794,460 Montevideo 1 837,817 4 2,402,666 Adelaide 1 607,305 4 1,204,494 Coquimbo 1 423,862 3 2,192,558 — 3 1,075,250 Total l ' 103,102,241 There was also shipped during the same year to American Atlantic ports as follows; Feet. Boston, three cargoes of lumber, aggregating 2,576,432 New York, 289 spars, equal to 300,000 Bath, 323 spars, equal to 200,000 Total. 3,076,432 WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 23 EDUCATION. Prof. Iy. E. Follansbee, of Olympia, furnishes me the following in- formation concerning academies and colleges. Only those are mentioned that have already their own buildings: Washington College is a school for boys, at^Tacoma, and is well patronized. It has a liberal endowment. j The Annie Wright Seminary is a school for young ladies, at the same place, and is in a flourishing condition. Both this and the last-named institution are under the supervision and control of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Puget Sound Academy, at Coupville, in Island County, is a Congregational school, and is growing into popularity in the lower part of the Sound district. The Northwest Normal School, at Lynden *is particularly designed for the edu- cation of teachers. ; v ^ t * Olympia Collegiate Institute is in a prosperous condition, at the capital. It is under the charge of the Methodist Episcopal Conference of Puget Sound. Chehalis Valley Academy is a Presbyterian school, at Montesano, in Chehalis county. Holy Angels College, at Vancouver, is a Catholic school for boys, and is one of the oldest institutions in the Northwest. Whitman College, the center of education in Eastern Washington, and a credit to the Territory, is at Walla Walla. It has an enrollment of 150 students and a fine library. Waitsburg Academy is a thriving school, at Waitsburg. Washington Academy, at Huntsville, is under the auspices of the United Brethren. Spokane College, at Spokane Falls, is a Methodist Episcopal school. There is at Walla Wplla a thriving business school. The Sisters of the Catholic orders, have prosperous schools at Olympia, Vancouver, Seattle, Walla Walla, Yakima, and Spokane Falls. The convent of the Sisters of Providence, at Vancouver, is probably the largest school building in the Territory. It is a boarding and day school for girls. Many of the schools are for the joint education of young women and young men. The leading schools for young women, however, seem to be exclusively for that sex. Though I am unable to give details in each instance, for want of returns, I may mention one or two institutions more particularly, to show how far advanced private education is in the Territory. The Annie Wright Seminary of Tacoma, reports, in the fourth year of its existence, an endowment of $50,000 and 100 pupils. The academy of the Holy Names, at Seattle, for young ladies, has a site and a building, the estimated cost of which is $75,000. The present attendance is reported at no. TABOR SUPPLY. No adequate reports upon upon the subject of labor have been sent in, and it is not possible to give any statistics upon it. Requests for informa- tion were mailed to the secretaries of several of the labor organizations, but only from two or three were any replies obtained. At the present writing it is clear that the labor supply is hardly, upon the whole, equal to the demand. During the past summer the degree of building has been much greater than for two years previous, while the laboring classes had, in the late dull times, wandered into other districts. As yet the return of the former surplus has not begun, so that very few 24 WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. who are here at present need long remain idle. Indeed, there can now be observed at times in applicants for employments a fastidiousness that was very rare last summer. The price of labor has correspondingly increased. A newspaper states that on the first two days of a certain week one hundred and seventeen men were sent to work upon the railways at $2. 75 a day. The average workman is reported to be in demand at from $2.25 to $3.50 a day, “and more in some classes of skilled work.” At the same place servant girls are wanted at $15 a month and more, and in hotel service at from $20 to $25 a month. In short, the laboring classes in the towns are in very fair demand. In addition to the erection of many private structures the railway im- provements in various parts of the Territory have called for many work- men. The lumber mills are active, and the logging camps. Advertise- ments for workmen are common on the streets of our principal cities. In the rural districts the need of workmen is, of course, much less at most times of the year; and from these quarters the reports are that the demand and supply are about equal. Yet even there the supply is, in places, inadequate. I quote from the auditor of Yakima county: The labor supply is limited. Great difficulty is experienced in procuring any and all kinds of labor, Indians do the hop picking chiefly. A few Chinamen are employed in the county for the want of white labor. Skilled mechanics are few in number, and farm laborers are in demand at all seasons of the year, particularly during the spring and summer months. The assessor of Chehalis county reports: At present the labor supply is scarcely equal to the demand; the mills increasing fast enough to need every one coming into the county, From these two reports, from counties on either side of the moun- tains, it is clear that, even in the rural districts, the supply is not above the demand. In Clallam, a somewhat remote county, the superintendent of schools states that work can be had there by all who come. How far the railway enterprise and the building of the present may affect this state of things, and how liable we are to relapse into a scarcity of labor, it is hard to predict. The secretary of the Knights of Tabor at Tacoma communicates as follows: At the present time there is a considerable amount of work going on, which may be considered exceptional. The extension of the railroad and wharves, new ware- houses for storing wheat, and street grading, etc. , have created quite a demand for carpenters and ordinary laborers; but the supply is fairly equal to the demand, and the wages are good. In a month or so, as this work is nearing completion, there will be a considerable surplus of laborers and mechanics. In winter there will be at least two-thirds of the laboring population out of employment. It has been so, to my knowledge, for the past two winters. How far this prediction will prove true remains to be seen. That there will be less work during the winter than at present is very probable, but whether the falling off will be as marked as heretofore is question- able. During the past two winters referred to, the dullness in our chief industry of lumber was very great, but the very opposite is now true in respect to it. WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 25 The Chinese continue to be the house servants in the larger and in many of the smaller towns. As washermen they are nearly universal in places of all sizes. There has been a general belief that white women could not be found who would do these tasks, after the employment had been degraded by its falling exclusively into the hands of the Chinese. But in Tacoma, where none of this race are permitted to stay, the young women have readily taken their places. COMMERCE. For the following custom-house statistics I am indebted to the Hon. Quincy A. Brooks, collector of the port at Port Townsend, and to Capt. E. N. Biondi, agent of the board of underwriters of San Francisco and marine surveyor at Port Townsend: Since the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway a large amount of busi- ness that formerly was transacted through this collection district has been deflected. The surplus products of the eastern part of the Territory are shipped by way of Portland, thus swelling the exports of Oregon at the expense of this Territory. The value of the large herds of horses, cattle, and sheep that are annually driven and shipped direct by rail also naturally lessens the value of our exports. The central office of the collection district of Puget Sound is at Port Townsend, Jefferson county, with sub-ports at Roche Harbor and O’Sooyoos. Vessels are constantly coming from and departing for all parts of the world from Puget Sound. The number of steam vessels registered at the custom-house is 104, with an aggre- gate tonnage of 11,582.32, an increase of 14 since last report. These vessels only ply upon the waters of Puget Sound to supply the local need. The steamers that ply between Sound ports and San Francisco, Portland, and Alaska are all registered either in San Francisco or Portland. There are 168 vessels of all kinds documented at the custom-house, with an aggregate tonnage of 40,306, During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1887, 994 ves- sels, with an aggregate tonnage of 539,597, of which 155 were coasters and 839 for- eign, were entered. Entrance and clearances, 1,982 vessels; aggregating 1,054,038 tons. Average monthly entrance and clearances, vessels, 165; tonnage, 87,836. There were 26 new vessels built, and 3 rebuilt, during the year, of which 12 were steam-vessels, with a tonnage of 1,002.43, aud x 7 sailing vessels, with a tonnage of 4,464.31. Total tonnage, 5,466.74. Revenues collected during the year $40,015.76 Miscellaneous receipts 22,249.04 Total receipts an increase since last report of $14,688.17. 62,264.80 A recapitulation of the tables shows the value of exports from this district for the year to have been: Coal ; $ 1 , 549,652 Lumber 3,090,696 Miscellaneous and produce 2,527,000 Total coastwise 7,167,348 Foreign exports 1, 769, 209 Total exports, foreign and coastwise 8^36,557 There are nine loading ports in the district — Ports Discovery, Hadlock, Ludlow, Gamble, Madison, Blakely, Tacoma, Seattle and Utsalady. During the year salmon and miscellaneous merchandise to the value of $59,415 passed through in transit. Since July 1 and prior to September 1, 1887, tea and silk valued at $53,065, salmon $59,071, have been imported in transit. Railroad iron, steel rails, two cargoes, value $87,000, duty $65,000, have been received. 26 WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. Value of exports and imports from July i, 1886, to June 30, 1887, district of Puget Sound % Months. Value of do In Ameri- can vessels mestic expc In foreign vessels. >rts shipped Total ex- ports. Imports. Total ex- ports and imports July $121,865 $45,oi4 $166,879 $107,151 $274,030 August 107,826 59,792 167,618 n,447 179,065 September 114,427 54,841 169,268 54,339 223,607 October 97,080 52,809 149,889 24,037 173,926 November 107,190 112,333 219,523 20,976 240,499 December 73,597 37,467 111,064 23,518 134,582 January 60,532 45,813 106,345 8,641 114,986 February 64,518 53,312 117,830 4,821 122,651 Match 77,297 35,982 113,279 10, 188 123,467 April 9^625 83,443 175,068 16,745 191,813 May 75,807 29,727 105,534 26,973 132,507 June 72,711 94, 201 166,912 39,44i 206,353 Total 1,064,475 704,734 1,769,209 348,277 2,117,486 Revenues collected $40,015.76 Miscellaneous receipts 22,249.04 Total receipts 62,264.80 Vessels documented „ ' 168 Tonnage . .. 40,306.68 Imports since. June 30, 1887, to August 31, 1887 $124,556 Entrances , clearances , and tonnage in the district of Puget Sound from Jnly 1, 1886, to June 30, 1887. PORT TOWNSEND. Months. Entrances. Clearances. Total entrances and clear ances. American coastwise. j Foreign from coastwise American from foreign. Foreign from foreign. Total entrance. American coastwise. | Foreign for coastwise. America for foreign. Foreign for foreign. Total clearances. July 7 1 60 7 75 9 61 8 78 | 153 August 6 5i 13 7o 7 54 9 7° [ 140 September 10 ! 51 16 77 5 1 50 13 68 j H 5 October. 10 1 53 I 15 79 10 1 54 •14 7 8 157 November 10 2 47 6 65 9 52 17 78 143 Decendoer. . . 6 2 55 7 7o 4 1 52 10 66 136 January 4 1 40 11 56 6 ! 45 10 61 117 February 8 1 36 8 53 7 ! 40 10 57 no March 12 45 9 69 10 | 40 7 57 123 April 28 3 44 14 89 6 58 r 3 77 166 May 17 4 43 6 70 18 1 45 6 j 69 | x 39 June 19 2 47 7 75 15 1 55 14 _85J 160 Totals 137 17 572 119 10 -t- ZC 106 ) ~T l< 606 131 J 844 | 1,689 WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 27 NATIONAL BANKS OF THE TERRITORY. Name. 1 Capital. Surplus. |5o,ooo 60,000 1 1 0,000 20,000 50,000 50.000 75. 000 50.000 150,000 50,000 50.000 70.000 75.000 50.000 50,000 100,000 100.000 200.000 10,000 First National Bank of North Yakima First National Bank of Olympia First National Bank of Port Townsend 6,000 12.000 25.000 15.000 National Uqnk nf^eattlp Merchants’ National Bank of Seattle ... Puget Sound National Bank of Seattle 30,000 First National Bank of Spokane Falls . Traders’ National Bank of Spokane Falls First National bank of Sprague. 1,000 Merchants’ National Bank of Tacoma. 2,000 Pacific National Bank of Tacoma Tacoma National Bank of Tacoma National Bank of Commerce, Tacoma 25,000 First National Bank, Vancouver 50,000 150,000 14.000 20.000 First National Bank, Walla Walla Total capital 1,430,000 TERRITORIAL BANKS. Capital. Bank of Pullman . 125.000 50.000 30.000 50.000 200.000 Palouse City Bank Tacoma Trust and Savings’ Bank Bank of Farmington . Dexter, Horton & Co. , Seattle Total capital Total capital of national banks 355 ,ooo 1,430,000 Total capital of incorporated banks 1,785,000 Besides these national and Territorial there are many private banks of which the following is thought to be a correct list: Coffman & Allen, Chehalis, Eewis county; Bank of Cheney, Cheney; Bank of Colfax, Col- fax; Ben. E. Snipes & Co., Ellensburgh; Skagit County Bank, Ea Conner; Harford & Sons, Pomeroy; Edward B. Downing & Co., Seattle; Bank of Spokane Falls, Spokane Falls; Baker & Boyer, Walla Walla; First Bank of Whatcom, Whatcom; J. Furth & Co., Snohomish; Stewart & Masterson, Puyallup. Of the preceding as well as of the Territorial bank no statistics are obtainable. The private banks are of course, like any other partnerships, free from public inquiry. The Territorial though incorporated, are organ- ized under general statutes and are not required to publish any state- ments. It may be added here that it is only within the past two years that the Territory has been permitted by Congress to incorporate any banking institutions. 28 WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. PRECIOUS METAUS. The mining of precious metals in the Territory, there is no longer hazard in predicting, will now begin upon an extensive scale. Recent ex- plorations and tests have conclusively shown that Eastern Washington has at least three fields of rich deposits. Already many claims have been entered, many routes of transportation arranged, and great reduction works are in course of erection. coevilee. The Colville district is reached by stage. The southern boundary of the district on the stage road is at Chawelah (60 miles from Spokane Falls), and the district may be said practically to extend from there north- ward to the Columbia, and up the Columbia to the forty-ninth parallel. The prevailing country rock is limestone, the prevailing mineral argenti- ferous galena. The first silver mines in the Colville district were discov- ered in 1858, at a point near the mouth of the Colville river known as Rickey Hill. Several thousand dollars’ worth of work was done at the time, but the region was too far from an ore market. Work has recently been recommenced at the same place, and the property is looking well. The next discoveries were made in 1882, and comprised the group of mines now owned by the Spokane Mining and Smelting Company at Argentum. About 600 feet of underground work has been done, the largest tunnel being 270 feet. The next discoveries were in the summer of 1883, in the Summit re- gion, which is on the divide between the Colville and Columbia Rivers, some 20 miles southwest from Colville. The ores here are gray copper, running from 40 to 60 ounces, with 40 per cent, of lead. Some 500 feet of underground work has been done on these claims, the deepest shaft being down 1 20 feet. The principal mines in the vicinity are the Summit, Iridescent, Sheba, Agnes, Ancon, Chloride, and Wellington. The Daisy mine, lying 7 miles northwest from the Summit, contains a fine body of carbonate ore, running 80 ounces. A ioo-foot tunnel has been driven in- to it, and work is still progressing. In the summer of 1884 a number of fine discoveries were made at Embrey, which is two miles east of the present town of Chawelah. But little work has been done upon these claims, yet all look promising. One claim, the Enterprise, shows croppings which run as high as 250 ounces per ton. The principal mines here are the Silver Gem, Ona, Bonanza Chief, Enterprise, and Fred B. The most important discovery yet made in the Colville district was that of the old Dominion, in April, 1885. It is situated 6 miles east of Colville. It is a contact vein, between limestone and granite, the ore being chloride and galena. The first-class ore sorted for shipment has averaged $240 per ton. Over 100,000 tons of ore have been shipped from this mine, which has been self-sustaining, not a dollar of capital having been WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 2 9 put in it. The mine is still producing steadily, and the large dump of second-class ore which has accumulated will be hauled to the smelter at Colville as soon as it is in operation. List of steam vessels documented in the collection district of Puget Sound. Name. % Where built. When /built. Tonnage. Gross. Net. Bessie 1886 14. so 7.2s Bob Irving a < < 1884 iq 6. so i^i. 56 Clara Brown ii a 1887 7 .j 2SI O ’ 167.28 Bstella U < < 1885 l6 11.03 Gypsy Queen n a 1885 8 Harry Lynn u u 1887 50 32.50 Joe Adams u a 1879 8 Mogul << a 1886 189.46 126.23 Saranac Whatcom AVash i878 9.70 Shoo Fly Coupville ‘Wfmb 1881 54.63 27.32 Susie Seattle ^Vash 1879 47.46 Seattle 1881 13.03 6.52 S. L. Mastick Port Discovery ^Vash 1869 213.00 106.50 Sophia Lake Bay Wash 1884 22.36 12.61 Swan Tacoma Wash 1883 4.00 Skagit Chief 1887 345- 00 241.17 Saint Patrick Waterford, Wash 1874 21.75 Squak Lake Washinpirin AVasb 1884 3 1 .64 18.51 Success Utsaladdy, Wash 1868 13.14 6.57 Tyee Port Ludlow, Wash 1884 316.33 158.17 Tacoma * . San Francisco, Cal 1876 239-57 128.42 Tillie .... Seattle, Wash 1883 16.76 Violet. . 1887 i7.ii 8.56 Virginia San Francisco Cal 1875 9.92 Washington. . Vancouver, Wash 1881 292.28 193.08 W. K. Merwin . . . Seattle, Wash . . . 1883 229.08 166.04 W. F. Munroe. . . . 1883 181.49 99.81 Wildwood. Portland, Oregon 1884 53-58 26.79 Willie Seattle, Wash 1883 82.60 55-94 Welcome . . . Portland, Oregon 1874 326.56 Yakima .... Port Gamble, Wash 1874 173-54 Yuma. . . Seattle, Wash 1885 4.00 Zephyr . i87i 161.54 | 109.75 Total tonnage. . . 12,315.84! THE OKANAGAN MINES. The Okanagan or Salmon River district is reached by the stage from Spokane Falls, via Davenport, Grant Center, and Condon’s Ferry over the Columbia. On the completion of the Spokane Falls and Columbia Rail- road, it will be reached by rail and steamer to Condon’s Ferry, and thence by stage. The distance from Spokane Falls to Condon’s Ferry, is 120 miles; from the Ferry to Ruby City or Salmon City is 40 miles. The stage trip from Spokane Falls to Salmon City occupies three days, the stages running in daylight only. It may also be reached by stage from Ellensburg, which town competes with Spokane Falls for the trade of these mines. The first mines discovered in this district were galena and carbonate deposits, which were found on the Similkimene River, and about Osoyoos 30 WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. Lake. Although assaying well, they were so far from an ore market that but little attention was paid to them. The prospecting gradually drifted southward, and in May, 1886, the first mines were discovered on the Sal- mon River, which is a tributary of the Okanagan, emptying into that river from the west, at a point 30 miles from the Columbia. In Septem- ber, 1886, additional discoveries were made at a point 4 miles south of the first ores, and these two groups called, respectively, Salmon City and Ruby City are the present centers of attraction. The limestone, which is the principal rock in the Pend d’ Oreille, Kootenai, Metaline, and Col- ville districts, disappears some 3 miles east of Salmon River, and the for- mation is granite, syenite and porphyry. At Ruby it consists almost en- tirely of the last two. The ore at Salmon is galena, gray copper, and a little chloride and sulphuret ores. It is all high grade, and, with the ex- ception of the chloride, is all concentrating ore. The deepest shafts are not down over 50 feet, but enough ore has already been developed to warrant the introduction of Machinery, and the owners of the Homestake and the Tough Nut have already made arrangements with Tacoma parties to put in a concentrator. The principal claims are the La Kuna, Colum- bia, Homestake, Tough Nut, Hidden Treasure, Pointer, Lone Star, Gold- en Crown, Lady of the Lake, Kureka, Washington, Ida May, and Well- ington. The ores run from 40 to 400 ounces, and the concentrators can readily be made to run 200 to 2,000 ounces per ton. At Ruby one of the largest veins of quartz known in the northern regions has been discovered and partially opened. It has been traced con- tinuously for miles, and, from the discoveries made each way from this line of claims, it is apparently 7 miles in length. It is a fissure vein in porphyry and syenite, running a little east of north, and pitching nearly vertical. It varies in width from 5 to 25 feet, the quartz carrying principally sulphuret and native silver, with a very little galena. It is essentially a concentrating ore, and assays from 100 to 500 ounces. The deepest shaft of the ledge is on the First Thought claim, 60 feet. Permanent water level has been reached without any change in the quality of the ore. Work is progressing steadily on several of the other claims, notably the Arlington, Ruby, Fourth of July, Cleopatra, and Famous, with uniformly good results. The mineral already laid bare in the Arlington stamps it as one of the leading silver mines of the Northwest. In addition to the main vein, there are several side veins all carrying the same class of min- eral, some of which have been traced for 2 miles in length. The princi- pal claims at Ruby are the Colville, Black Hills, Blue Bird, Peacock, Gray Wing, War Eagle, Idaho, Poorman, Fairview, Cleopatra, First Thought, Delta, Bay Horse, Monitor, Arlington, Pomeroy, Woohoomooloo, Hula, Arizona, Buckeye, Ruby, California, May, and Spokane. The fact of its being sulphuret ore, running so high in silver and so easy of concentration, effectually solves the transportation problem, and WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 31 capital has already been attracted to these mines. It will be one of the prominent camps of the Northwest before the close of the year. The Okanagan is a beautiful region, abounding in grazing lands, lakes and forests, and a more picturesque mining district or a more agreeable climate would be hard to find. IRON. That bog-iron ore exists in immense quantities is a matter beyond all doubt, and the efforts of our people have been, not so much to discover and prove the possession of this metal as to make it accessible. The present year of railroad development has brought these ample deposits within our reach. In the coming twelve months it is quite probable the beginning of extensive factories will have been made. The principal deposits of iron ore, as far as is yet known, are in the eastern county of Kittitass and the western counties of Jefferson, King, and Pierce. There are known to be others in the Puget Sound district, but their extent is not yet ascertained. The Kittitass County deposit is at Cle-elum and is easily tapped by the Northern Pacific Railroad. The deposits of King and Pierce Counties are now regularly aimed at by this railway, and by the Seattle, Take Shore and Eastern Railway, which is already under contract to be laid to the Snoqualmie Pass. Near the last-named point is what is known as the Iron Mountain, where veins of magnetic iron ore are found varying in thickness from 6 to 150 feet. Assays of this have shown only a small proportion of sulphur. Of the deposits at Cle-elum, I have been able to get no data that can be relied upon, and I can only state that they are reported to be the equal of the Snoqualmie iron riches. Nothing but want of transportation has re- tarded the development of a prodigious industry in this metal, and this transportation is now at hand. When we consider these treasures of iron, the fact that deposits of coal and limestone are at hand, and all within a short distance of many harbors, as fine as any others in the world, it is not to be wondered at that capital is rapidly seeking this region for man- ufactures. OTHER MINERALS. Limestone is found in large quantities in the counties of Pierce and San Juan. There is in the former county a coal that has been found of high quality for coke. Sandstone is in great quarries in Whatcom and Pierce Counties, as well as in King and some others. THE SALMON FISHERIES. One of the leading industries of Washington Territory is the salmon fisheries of the Columbia River, Shoalwater Bay, Gray’s Harbor, and Puget Sound. The business of taking salmon, with traps, on the Columbia and packing them in brine in kits and barrels, or smoking them, has been pur- 32 WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. sued from the earliest period of settlement; and those who engaged in the business derived considerable profit, for the fish were easily caught, and all materials used were cheap, while there was a ready demand for the product at fair prices. This wealth of fish in the rivers of the West was one of the strongest arguments advanced for holding it against the British during the “50° 40' or fight” agitation, from 1840 until it culminated in the settlement of our title to the line of 49 0 north latitude. Many men from the State of Maine came here to pursue this industry, and did so with profit, as stated above, in a comparatively small way until about 1865 or 1866, when the first ex- periment of preserving salmon fresh, in hermetically sealed cans, was tried on the Columbia River. The fish were of the very best variety, called Chinook. They were very fat; were taken shortly after leaving salt-water; were so abundant that only the finest specimens need be used, and great pains were taken in putting them up. On all of these accounts the Col- umbia river canned salmon, as an article of luxury, rose into immediate favor all over the world, and owing to the great demand commanded a very high price. The pioneers in the business, in consequence, made money very rapidly, and the large profits induced others to embark in similar enterprises. So that the business was rapidly developed, and has for the past sixteen years given employment to several thousand men and a very large amount of capital. At the present time it is claimed that six thousand persons and more than $2,000,000 are required to conduct the different operations on the Columbia river alone. As the business increased in importance canneries were started on all the rivers along the coast, from those putting into San Francisco Bay to those of Alaska in the far north. In this Territory the streams putting into Shoalwater Bay, Gray’s Harbor, and Puget Sound are utilized, and salmon are taken with gill and purse nets in the open bays and sounds. In order to show the magnitude of this business I quote the following table from the Daily Oregonian, of Portland Oregon, of August 11, 1887: Year. 1866.. 1867. . 1868 . 1869.. 1870. . 1871. . 1872. . 1873. • 1874. • 1875 .. 1876. . 1877 .. Pack. Value. Year. Pack. Value. 4,000 1 64,000 1878 460,000 $ 2,300.000 « 18,000 288,000 1879 480,000 2,640,000- 28,000 392,000 1880 530,000 2,650,000- 100,000 b 35 o,ooo 1881 550,000 2,475,000- 150,000 1,800,000 1882 54 i, 3 °° 2,600,000 200,000 2, 100,000 1883 629,400 3,147,000 250,000 2, 3 2 5, 0 00 1884 620,000 2,945,000 250,000 2,250,000 1885 553 , 8 oo 2,500,000 350,000 2,625,000 1886 448,500 2, 135,000 375 ,ooo 2,250,000 1887 356,000 2,124,000 450,000 2,475,000 45,862,000 460,000 2,490,000 Total in 22 years This, it should be remembered, represents the value of salmon packed in cans since the beginning of the canning industry, in 1866. It takes no' WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 33 account of the salt-packed in barrels nor of the large consumptive value of the salmon. I have not been able to obtain information from the fisheries of Puget Sound, as my requests to the fishermen for information have not been acted upon in time for this report. From an elaborate statement furnished by Mr. B. A. Seaborg, of Ilwaco, I obtain the following figures of an average season on Shoalwater Bay and Gray’s Harbor: capital invested. Shoalwater Bay $85,000 Gray’s Harbor. 82,500 Total 167,500 AMOUNT PAID FOR EABOR. Shoalwater Bay $99,070 Gray’s Harbor 80,700 Total Shoalwater Bay ... . Gray’s Harbor TOTAE PACKED. 179,770 cases 40,000 “ 32,000 By the enactment olf proper laws regulating the taking of fish and their strict inforcement it is reasonable to suppose that our rivers will con- tinue to yield at this rate for an indefinite length of time. Heretofore the laws have been defective, and, on that account, have been difficult of enforcement; and in consequence of wasteful and extravagant methods grave fears have arisen that the supply of salmon would become exhausted. It is hoped that the legislature of this Territory will this winter amend the statutes in the interest of the preservation of the industry, and that all those who depend upon it will assist in their rigid enforcement. SHIP-BUILDING. Ship-yards, with facilities for the construction of large vessels, exist at nearly all the large milling establishments and at Seattle and Tacoma, on Puget Sound, at Gray’s Harbor and Shoalwater Bay, and at Skomoka- wa, on the Columbia River. The industry has been very greatly stimulated during the last year to meet a demand for vessels in the lumber-carrying trade. Timber ships, for convenience of storage, are built generally with one deck,, and to meet this exigency must be unusually well timbered and supplied with knees. All raw materials for their construction are found here, and the number of skilled workmen is every year growing greater. The industry has become so permanent that most of the yards are putting in expensive special ma- chinery and all modern appliances for saving labor and securing accuracy of design. As most vessels built here are intended for coasters, the tendency of late has been to the schooner rig, three and four masts being put into some of them. 34 WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. A large proportion of the later additions to the lumber fleet have auxiliary steam power, and are enabled by means thereof to make many more voyages than heretofore. The yellow fir of the north Pacific coast ranks next to oak for strength and durability, and constitutes excellent material for ship-building. The young growth of this wood can be ob- tained in any length and of any size, for spars, keels, and kelsons. The keel of a steam schooner now on the stocks at Skomokawa is 16 by 19 inches square and 1 50 feet long. The stick from which it was hewn was 150 feet long, 4^ feet in diameter at the butt, and 2 feet at the top. Planks for the sides of vessels can be obtained of great length and very straight grain; and deck planks, made from the very large trees handled by our mills, are sawed so that the grain of the wood is verticle, this causing it to wear without splintering. There are about 800 men employed in ship- building in this Territory at present, and more could find employment readily. The number of vessels of various kinds built during the fiscal year, as shown by the report of the custom-house at Port Townsend, is 29, and their net tonnage 4,854.36 against 14 vessels and 1,642.29 tons in 1885, the date of last report. I have advices of ships that are to be put on the stocks during the next fiscal year that will raise the figures of this year very considerably, not only as to number of craft of different rigs and means of propulsion, but as to average net tonnage. There is great need of a dry-dock on Puget Sound, not only to ac- commodate our commercial marine, but for the use of Government ves- sels; and it is to be hoped that, as the questions of rehabilitating our Navy and increasing our means of coast defence are now being prominently con- sidered, the strategic importance of the coast of Washington Territory, it being on the borders of a possible belligerent and in proximity to a form- idable naval station of a foreign power, will not be overlooked. horticulture. I am indebted to Mr. Henry Bucey, president of the Washington Horticultural Society, for the following general article upon the horticul- ture of the Territory: Washington Territory presents one of the greatest fields for the horticulturist that is to be found in the United States. But in order to describe the Territory properly as regards its adaptation to horti- cultural pursuits, it will be necessary to divide the Territory nearly north and south by the Cascade range of mountains and designate the parts as Eastern and Western Washington. The eastern portion is principally prairie land covered with bunch grass; this land is very fertile and produces an almost incredible amount of cereals. But along the water-courses of eastern Washington, not only of the Columbia river which drains that country, but along nearly all streams tributary to it, can be found fine land and climate for growing apples, pears, plums, cherries, and in some places peaches are grown very successfully and profitably, while small fruit growing is made immensely profitable. Grapes and melons are also produced here in great abund- ance, melons growing to perfection upon prairie lands. The cause of these particularities being so favorable to fruit culture is attributed to the influence of the warm winds from the Japan current, which sweeps across the WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 35 Pacific Ocean in a northeasterly course from the South Sea Islands, striking the shores of Oregon and Washington. These winds blow up the Columbia river and other channels tributary to the ocean, until their influence is lost by coming in contact with cold air at certain altitudes. That this is considered the true cause and theory is further demonstrated from this fact: That on certain localities on the Columbia river and on other water-courses where the river suddenly curves, and there is low land on one side and high on the other, which somewhat arrests the current of air and causes an accumulation at this point, it will be found that those places are admirably adapted to growing peaches and grapes and other less hardy fruits, in great abundance and of excellent quality. Yet this section of country is somewhat like some of the Eastern States; it is occa- sionally subject to severe frost in the winter and early spring, killing both fruit and trees. The Walla Walla, Yakima, Snake River, and other valleys are famous for pro- ducing fruits; and those engaged in fruit raising in these localities find it very profit- able, as high prices are obtained from home demand. Western Washington is more favorably adapted to fruit culture generally, as the mild climate of this section, being free from the severe frost of winter and the hot and dry weather of the summer, makes it in every respect the natural home of the apple, pear, plum, prune, and cherry, which small fruits grow in great abundance, except the grape, which does only moderately well. This section of country justly deserves the reputation accorded to it for the pro- duction of fine apples, as all those fine and popular varieties which are so difficult to product elsewhere grow to perfection here with but ordinary care. The trees grow thriftily and bear young; overbearing is a thing to be guarded against, and hand- picking and shaking must be resorted to. This is the natural climate and soil for the pear, and the fruit produced here is in size and quality, perfection. And as the pear.growing district of the United States is more limited and restricted by reason of pear blight and other diseases and causes, the production of this fruit alone in this section will be immensely profitable. The production of plums and prunes in Western Washington is the wonder and astonishment of all who visit its orchards and gardens; for size, quality, and quantity they can not be surpassed by any country. There is no insect to prey upon the fruit or the tree, and the fruit is perfect. The tree grows vigorously and bears early. A profit of $600 per acre has been realized from a prune orchard of ten-year-old trees. Prune raising, especially in what is called the Sound country, is destined in the near future to become one of the leading industries. As this section of country is con- tinually under the influence of the Japan current, making the winters mild and the summers not exceedingly hot, I expect to see in the near future numerous drying houses and fruit canneries located on Puget Sound. The cherry also is grown here to perfection, from the Early Richmond for tarts to the sweet and delicious Elton and Royal Ann. The trees bear so heavily that the cherries completely encircle the branches, forming in appearance a rope of cherries. The trees grow more thriftily than any other fruit trees, and the cherries are superior in size and quality; all fine varieties of cherries do well here. The peach has not been successfully grown here, yet some seasons fine fruit of this species is produced. I do not consider this a good climate, generally speaking, for growing the peach or the grape; but for all kinds of small fruit, such as strawber- ries, blackberries, raspberries, currants, gooseberries, and cranberries, this country can not be excelled. The cranberry is now being successfully and profitably culti- vated wherever tried, and strawberries were raised here this last season that measured 7 inches in circumference, several tons of fine berries being raised to the acre. To those engaged, or who contemplate engaging in fruit raising in this country the fu- ture is very promising, owing to the superior advantages afforded for marketing all fruits. The completion of the Northern Pacific Railroad has opened to market all the country east as far as Chicago, and steamer transportation to foreign counties will give us a vast market for all dried and canned fruits that we can raise, making over- production impossible. In order to advance and encourage fruit raising throughout the Territory, there was organized in the city of Tacoma, on March 15, 1887, the Horticultural Society, composed of the leading horticulturists of the Territory. Henry Bucey was elected president, and Ezra Meeker vice-president; the former resides in Tacoma, the latter in Puyallup. The society has printed in neat form its constitution and by-laws, which provide for the organization of branch societies in the various horticultural districts of the Territory. Many branch societies have been organized in Eastern and Western Washington, and much good is being accomplished through this society. 36 WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. The first semi-annual meeting of the society was held at the city of Tacoma, on June 29, 1887, and continued till July 6. The meeting was held in a large tent, purchased by the society for that purpose, in which, also, an exhibit of the horticultural pro- ducts of the Territory was had. The display of fruit, flowers, and vegetables was grand, and it would have been a credit to any of the older fruit-producing States of the Union. The fruits were dis- played upon branches, both ripe and unripe; and most of the popular varieties of the various fruits that are grown in the Middle and Northern States were well repre- sented. I have obtained, and append, the following list of the kinds of fruits exhibited at the meeting of the society at Tacoma: Cherry . — Black Republican, Royal Ann, May Duke, Elton, Date Duke, Kentish, Governor Wood, Major Francis, Klacamas, Yellow Spanish, Blackheart, Black Tar- tarian, Great Bigarian. Pears. — Bartlett, Princess Germain, Vicar of Wakefield, Beurre Gifford, Beurre D’ Anjou, Flemish Beauty, Clapp’s Favorite, Epine Dumas, Easter Beurre, Josephine de Malines, Onondaga, Winter Nelle’s, Dagenne De’te, Louisa Bonne de Jersey, Pound Pear, Dix, Early Madeline. Apples. — Baldwin, Esopus, Spitzenberg, Early Harvest, Fall Pippin, Rhode Island Sweetning, Red Astrachan, Telopky, Blue Pearmain, Yellow and Red Bell- flower, Gravenstien, Duchess of Oldenburg, Waxen, Walbridge, Vandiver, July Bough, Harvest Queen, Golden Russett, Wagoner, King of Tompkins County, Red and Sweet June, English Russett, Lady Apple. Plums. — Columbia, Bradshaw, Washington, Jefferson, Yellow Egg, Howe’s Gol- den Drop, Early and Late Peach Plum, Green Gage, Imperial Gage, Claude de Ba- vay, Damson. Prunes. — Italian, German, Gros d’Agen, Petit d’Agen. Peaches. — Amsden, Early Rivers, Hale’s Early, Early Rare Ripe, David Hill, Early Beatrice, Snow Peach, Early Crawford, Alexander, Heath Cling. Crab Apple. — Vanwyck, Transcendant, Siberian Marengo, Hyslop, Briar Sweet. Quinces . — Apple Shape, Rea’s Mammoth. FTORACUI/FURE. To lovers of flowers Washington Territory presents an inviting field. The mountains and prairies of Eastern Washington are beautifully deco- rated in the spring with numerous wild flowers, both plants and shrubs; and nearly all flowers grown in the Middle or Northern States can be very successfully grown here. But the mild climate of Western Washington makes it indeed “flower land.” Nearly all flowers that can be grown north of the thirty-fifth parallel of latitude can be grown here. Roses do well in out-door culture; even the Marechal Neil rose will stand the winters here, and a climbing rose would soon cover a house if permitted to grow unpruned. All kinds of flowering bulbs do well; even the gladiolus can be left out during the winter. The hyacinth grows so well that a florist living in Pierce county has made their cultivation a specialty, and the hyacinths produced in his gardens are superior to those imported from Holland. This industry is destined to be one of importance here, for growing hyacinths for commer- cial purposes can be made very profitable. UNDEVEEOPED RESOURCES. Very few of the resources of this Territory can be said to be fully de- veloped, so nearly all the vast list could come under this head; but I will only mention a few. WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 37 What is needed just now is capital to develop the very extensive and valuable iron mines. These are in proximity to lime and coal, and all are convenient to tide-water. On the upper Skagit River are said to be extensive quarries of the finest marble. Specimens shown to me as coming from there were suit- able for statuary. There are mines of gold and silver, lead, copper and other minerals that are pronounced to be vaster in extent and richer than those of Cceur d’Alene in Idaho. These are at present comparatively inaccessible, but projected railways will soon reach them. Off the coast of Washington Territory are banks that afford the finest cod and halibut fishing. The difficulty in utilizing them arises from the fact that the banks extend into British waters, and American vessels are not permitted to follow the migratory fishes to the northward. This cir- cumstance practically destroys the value of the fisheries for both nations, as the banks extend along the coasts of Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and Alaska, and the schools of fish are constantly changing their position. Vessels, if not permitted to follow them, must therefore, be alternately busy and idle for uncertain periods. Petroleum is believed to exist under the Puget Sound Basin, and ex- perts have stated it will certainly be found in paying quantities whenever borings are made to the proper depth. Thousands of acres of the richest lands that are overflowed only by the highest tides exist on Puget Sound, Gray’s Harbor, Shoalwater Bay, and the Columbia river. These lands are easily diked, and, when so pro- tected, yield almost incredible quantities of oats, hay, and other crops. Targe areas of bottom lands are covered with the cottonwoods out of which paper-pulp is made, and the limited number of mills for using it now in operation are paying investments. Forests of larch and white pine, finer and more extensive than any yet opened by loggers, exist in remote localities where railroads of con- siderable length must be constructed to move their products. Hemlock bark for tanning purposes may be readily and cheaply ob- tained, and also other raw materials for the manufacture of leather. The few tanneries in the Territory are paying profits to their owners. Altogether there are no more inviting fields in the United States for the investment of capital than Washington Territory. land taws. The following information concerning the public-land laws for the dis- posal of Government lands in Washington Territory may be useful to the intending immigrant: All lands which are for sale or other disposal by the Government un- der general laws are known as public lands, and are divided into land 38 WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. districts, in each of which is a land office presided over by two officers, known respectively, as the register and the receiver. There are five of these districts in this Territory. The register and receiver act as agents for the Government, and pat- ents will be issued for all lands sold or otherwise disposed of by them, if approved by the Commissioner of the General Eand Office, Washington, D. C. Agricultural lands are disposed of to actual settlers only under the homestead, pre-emption, and timber-culture laws. Desert lands are such as will not produce crops without irrigation by artificial means. Timber lands are those not fit for cultivation, being chiefly valuable for the timber, 160 acres of which can be purchased without residence and improvement for $2.50 per acre; also lands valuable for stone can be pur- chased under the same act of June 3, 1878. Within the limits of railroad grants only the even numbered sections are disposed of by the Government, and these are known as double-mini- mum land, and when entered under the pre-emption law the price is $2.50 per acre. Outside the railroad limits the land is known as minimum land, and is sold at $1.25 per acre. Citizenship is required, or a declaration to become a citizen of the United States, before any public lands can be taken in this Territory. Only one claim can be taken by the same person under each of the public-land laws of the United States. the homestead eaw. Every citizen of the United States who is over twenty-one years of age, or the head of a family, can take a 160 acres of the public lands (ag- gricultural) by establishing a residence thereon and cultivating the same in good faith as a home for five years from the date of settlement; or if, after six months’ residence and cultivation, such persons so desire, they may commute their homestead claim by paying the Government price therefor, or if a soldier or sailor, who, having served in the Army or Navy of the United States during the recent rebellion, has been honorably dis- charged, the time of his service will be deducted from the five years’ resi- dence required. . But in such cases a residence of one year* on the land becomes necessary before patent will be issued. THE PRE-EMPTION EAW. Residence, cultivation, and sufficient improvements to show the good faith of the claimant are required. Ond hundred and sixty acres can be taken of agricultural land; qual- ification as to age and citizenship is the same as under the homestead law. The claimant must not be the owner of 320 acres of land, nor leave land WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 39 of his own in this Territory (town lot excepted) in order to settle upon a pre-emption claim, nor take such claim for the purpose of speculation in- stead of residence and cultivation. The good faith of every claimant must be clearly established. He may change his pre-emption filing to a homestead by making proper application to the land office. Not less than six months’ residence and improvement are required by law before payment can be made. On offered lands the declaratory statement must be filed within thirty days and the final proof made within one year from the date of settlement. On unoffered lands the declaratory statement must be filed within three months and the final proof made within thirty-three months from the date of settlement. The price for minimum land is $1.25 and for double-minimum land $2.50 per acre. TlMBER-CUIyTURE DAW. Qualifications of claimant the same as to age, citizenship, and good faith. Amount of land 160 acres. Rand must be devoid of timber. During the first year at least 5 acres must be plowed. The second year said 5 acres must be actually cultivated to crop and a second 5 acres plowed. The third year the first 5 acres must be planted in timber, seeds, or cut- tings, and the second 5 acres actually cultivated to crop. The fourth, year the second 5 acres must be planted in timber, seeds, or cuttings; mak- ing, at the end of the fourth year, 10 acres thus planted. If the claim is less than 160 acres, the area plowed and planted will be in the same proportion as for 160 acres; that is, one-sixteenth of the claim. Not less than 2,700 trees must be planted on each acre to entitle the claimant to patent at the expiration of eight years from date of entry. Residence in the territory is not required for timber culture. COAE-EAND EAWS. Same qualifications as to age and citizenship. One person can purchase 160 acres of coal land. If within 15 miles of a complete railroad, the price is $20 per acre; if outside that distance, $10. An association of persons may purchase 320 acres, or an associa- tion of not less than four persons, who make an expenditure of $5,000 upon their claim, may purchase 640 acres, including their improvements. Coal-land declaratory statements must be filed within sixty days and proof and payment made within fourteen months from date of possession. TIMBER AND STONE EAND EAWS. Rand chiefly valuable for timber and stone, by the act of June 3, 1878, can be purchased in this Territory for $2.50 per acre, area 160 acres; no residence or improvements necessary. Married women may make entries under this act. 40 WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. Pierc e Co unty. P IERCE County was organized in the year 1852, area one thousand eight hundred square miles, a large proportion of which is heavily timbered land, but there is considerable area of rich land in the river and valley bottoms. It lies on either side of Puget Sound, and the lands adjacent to water frontage are admirably adapted to the raising of fruits, from the fact that frosts are less liable to injure the buds than on lands lying eight or ten miles back from the water. Most of the land lying between Tacoma, Steilacoom and the Nisqually river is gravelly prairie land, with scattering swamp and swale lands. The soil on this prairie generally is shallow and fit only for grazing in the spring and fall. It is dotted with a growth of young fir, with occasional cedar and scrub oak trees, and fresh water lakes, which gives it a picturesque appearance. Intrinsically these prairie lands have no value. The swamps, when drained, are highly productive. The chief agricultural portions of Pierce county are the Puyallup valley, the Stuck valley and the Upper White River valley. These are each treated in their turn. The population of Pierce county in 1885 was 11,565. In 1883 it was 6,177. The population now is not less than twenty thousand. The assessed valuation of Pierce county for 1885 was $5, 342, 889. For 1886 it was $6,098,908. In 1885 Pierce county ranked third in the Territory. This year it ranks second. The number of acres assessed in Pierce county is about one hundred and eighty thousand. The number of acres improved about ten thousand. Agricultural products show a yearly in- creasing ratio. The county is extending roads into the more remote por- tions of the county, and school accommodations are increasing as the country settles up. Good government land cannot now be found open to entry in Pierce county, except remote from towns and the railroad. PUYALLUP VALLEY. The Puyallup valley lies on either side of the Puyallup river, which empties into Puget Sound near Tacoma. Its width varies from about five miles at the mouth of the river to less than a quarter of a mile thirty miles east from Tacoma. The main line of the Northern Pacific railroad traverses the whole length of the valley. This valley enjoys a reputation for hop culture second to no other section of the United States. The soil is an alluvial deposit, in some places mixed with sand, and is noted for its productiveness, The chief products raised are hops, hay, fruits and vege- tables. The climate is too cool and moist for corn. The following statis- tics for the year 1886, referring to the hop culture of Pierce county, will be of interest: Number of acres under hop vines 840 Number of pounds produced during the year. . 1,530,000 Maximum price per pound .35 Average price per pound .23 WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 4 A large portion of the hops of Pierce county are marketed in London. The estimated cost of raising hops and putting them in the bale cured ready for market is from six to eight cents per pound. The chief town of the Puyallup valley is Puyallup, which is the center of the hop industry. Other towns in this valley, along the line of the Northern Pacific railroad are Alderton, Orting and South Prairie. At the head of the valley are located the famous coal mines of Carbonado, Wilkeson and South Prairie. The shipments frdm the Carbonado mine for the year 1886 were 176,330 tons. From the South Prairie mine there was shipped during the same year 55,- 220 tons. MoSt of these shipments were consigned to California. The total out-put for the Carbonado and South Prairie mines for the year ag- gregated 231,250 tons. The Tacoma Coal Company’s mine at Wilkeson has not been in operation this year, the company being engaged in putting in coke ovens, of which about thirty are now in operation, with an out- put of twenty tons daily. The company will continue the construction of these ovens until one hundred of them are completed. THE FAMOUS STUCK VALLEY. The Stuck river valley lies between the White and Puyallup rivers, and consists of a tract about two miles in width and seven to ten miles in length, lying about nine or ten miles east of Tacoma. The soil of the Stuck valley is of great depth and consists of alluvial deposit, mixed with vegetable mould — the richest soil that can be found in any gountry on the globe. The Stuck creek is a small stream which branches off from the White river in King county and empties into the Puyallup. The valley was formerly the bed of an ancient stream — the hills on either side rising rather abruptly. The soil in this valley is most remarkable. In its wild state the ground is wet and covered with vine maple and alder undergrowth, or else with heavy, wild grass. When drained the soil is found to be rich, mellow and warm. In working these lands the first thing to be attended to is the drainage, and this is easily accomplished by undertiling or open ditching — the latter being perhaps the least expensive; and one peculiarity of the ditches of the Stuck valley being that they do not cave in, even if cut to the depth of several feet. In a short time after this land is properly ditched it is ready to be prepared for cultivation. If covered with vine maple and alder growth, these are cut about a foot above the ground, and piled conveniently to be burned when dry. As soon as this slashing is done, the soil can be util- ized at once with grass seed, and in two years’ time the stumps and roots will have rotted so as to be pulled out bodily, while meantime the ground has been used for grazing. If the land is of the open kind it can be put under cultivation in one season with little or no delay after ditching. So much for the opening up of these lands. A trip through this val- ley would astonish even a credulous eastern man who had never seen the 42 WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. like before, and did not know the immense yields obtained from these lands. Those now cleared are chiefly used for the raising of hay and hops. On March ioth the writer of this article has seen in all of the meadows of this valley, cattle, horses and sheep grazing on grass from four to ten inches in height. These hay lands are grazed until about the middle of April, when the stock is taken off to allow the hay to mature and be harvested, after which, about the middle of July, the stock is again turned on the meadows and graze upon them until the middle of the next April. Thus used, these lands yield three to five tons of cured hay per acre, and furnish as much more per acre in grass feed, and some 'have been thus used for twenty years, and are as productive to-day as ever. The rich- ness of the soil and adaptability of the climate account for these yields. One acre of these lands will keep from three to five milch cows, or, put in clover, will fatten ten hogs per annum. One acre has produced, in a sin- gle year, six hundred bushels of potatoes, thirty-five hundred pounds of hops, ten tons of clover (three crops), thirty-five tons of sugar-making, sugar beets, carrying 13 per cent, of saccharine matter, one hundred and twenty-five bushels of oats, ninety bushels of barley, and six crops of vegetables. These have been actual yields. On these lands have been raised 8o-pound squashes, 50-pound cabbages, 25-pound rutabagas, 5-pound potatoes, etc. The soil needs no fertilizing. It is always mellow and easily worked. The bluff lands on the sides of the valley afford building locations com- manding extensive views to the White river valley on the north* side, or the Puyallup on the south. Abundant springs of cool, clear water burst from the hills on either side. Fir and cedar are abundant on the bluff land back of the valley, and a saw mill is in operation on the middle of the east side of the valley. A new road to Tacoma is now being graded and graveled from about the center of this valley, which will shorten the dis- tance to about nine miles. The Stuck is sufficiently deep at all times of the year to float a bateau with several hundred bushels of vegetables, and market gardeners could thus, if they chose, bring their goods to the Taco- ma market inexpensively via the Puyallup river. Considerable of this land can be obtained at moderate figures. For a man of a small family and moderate means, who desires to go into grazing or dairying, forty acres is enough, and for gardening twenty acres is abun- dant. Schools are handy. At Summer, situated at the lower end of the Stuck valley, is a well conducted public school and academy. A branch of the Northern Pacific Railroad runs through the valley into Tacoma for the accommodations of the settlers. UPPER WHITE RIVER VALLEY. The upper White river valley comprises the land lying between the White and Green rivers, and consists of about one hundred square miles WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 43 of agricultural and grazing lands lying between the Cascade mountains and the confluence of these two rivers. The western boundary of this tract of land lies about fifteen miles due east of the city of Tacoma. The soil of this valley is, generally, an alluvial deposit with clay sub- soil. The soil is darker in color than that of the Puyallup valley and al- most as rich, though not so deep as that of the famous Stuck valley. From the confluence of these two rivers they diverge until the great- est distance between them across the agricultural area adjoining the foot- hills of the mountains is about fifteen miles. About equally distant from each of the two rivers and lying between them is a ridge that divides the water-fall. This ridge, however, is not high and precipitous, and is gen- erally composed of shot clay or clay loam adapted to the raising of fruits. Five or six years ago this land was comparatively unsettled owing, perhaps, to the fact that it was difficult of access to the settler, there being at that time no bridge across the White river by which it could be reached by wagon road from the Puyallup valley. Now, however, nearly all, if not quite all of the government land has been taken, as well as the rail- road land, and scores of farmers find prosperity here, where but a few years ago the wild animals of the forest held undisputed sway. The first settlers to take up land in this valley were compelled to ford the White river, which is turbulent and treacherous; now a first-class bridge spans the river, where the old military road running from the Puyallup valley across Con- nell’s prairie crossed it at the ford. Inside of the last eighteen months the main line of the Northern Pacific Railroad, running from Eastern Washington, has been built through it, and a station called Enumclaw has been established almost in the heart of the valley, giving the settlers here an outlet by rail for their stock, hay, hops and grain. The timber found throughout all of this upper White river valley on the bottom lands, is not near so dense as in the lower White and Puyallup valleys. It consists generally of a bushy growth of vine-maple and alder. Much of this land has been cleared at an expense of but ten dollars per acre. That the soil is rich is attested by the crops produced here. In the yield and quality the hops raised in this valley are second to none except those raised in the Stuck. In vegetables, hops and grain the yields are larger than in any portion of the Puyallup valley. For grazing purposes this valley offers extra inducements; the foot-hills of the Cascade mountains furnishing an almost unlimited range for stock. Before the building of the Cascade division the settlers found difficulty in obtaining lumber for building, there being no mill nearer than the Puy- allup valley. Now, however, owing to the favorable rates given by the railroad company, lumber can be obtained along the line of the road almost as cheaply as in Tacoma. A mill is now in operation on the White 44 WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. river, near the railroad bridge, where all kinds of lumber can be obtained as cheaply as at any mill on Puget Sound. That the upper White river valley will be as thickly settled as any valley tributary to Tacoma, admits of no question. Immigrants coming here desiring to engage in agricultural pursuits, can find here cheaper lands than in the Stuck or Puyallup valleys. They will find them easier to be cleared. They will find them in a neighbor- hood of enterprising Americans and thrifty Germans. They will find them located accessible to market. A considerable portion of the fruit and vegetables raised in this val- ley find their market at the coal mines just north of the Green river and south of the White river. There are no valley lands on Puget Sound more easily drained than these. Springs are abundant, and water easily obtained by digging wells. The valley can be reached by two routes — one is by the Cascade di- vision of the Northern Pacific Railroad, the other is by the wagon road leading from the Puyallup valley from Sumner and Elhi. At present the roads are in poor condition, and the commissioners of Pierce county could not expend money more judiciously than in constructing a first-class roadway fifteen or twenty feet in width to this valley, and thus make the trade more directly tributary to Tacoma. The most direct route for this road would perhaps be to extend directly east the new road, now almost completed, from Tacoma to the Stuck valley. In a few years the upper White river valley will have attained an im- portance equal to that of the Puyallup or Stuck. « Lewis County. EWIS County is situated about midway between the Columbia river and Puget Sound, and is one of the best agricultural counties in Western Washington; has an area of over 2000 square miles, consisting of rich al- luvial soil, unsurpassed in productiveness and easy cultivation. On the higher lands prairies of fine soil, woodland and brush lands alternate. Tewis county has a population of 6000 people — law-abiding, intelligent and energetic, and its rich lands, timber, forests and undeveloped mines will afford homes and employment for twenty times its present population- The Pacific division of the Northern Pacific railroad traverses the county throughout its extent from north to south, carrying its commerce very cheaply to Portland, or to the great centers around Puget Sound and in British Columbia. WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 45 The Cowlitz river is one of the tributaries of the Columbia, flows through the southern part of the county and is navigable for boats nearly the year around, affording cheap transportation for the produce raised in that part of the county. The Chehalis river flows through the northwestern part of the county and into Gray’s Harbor. Boats have ascended this river as far up as Che- halis City, the county seat of Eewis county; but present boats only ascend thirty miles up the river. Yet, with men of enterprise and liberal ap- propriations, boats will be enabled to ascend to Chehalis, thus opening access to Gray’s Harbor, which bids fair to become one of the great mark- ets of the northwest. This is one of the finest climates in the known world, the thermome- ter seldom rising above 90° and rarely lower than io° above zero. Gener- ally we have snowfall lasting from one to four weeks, seldom longer, and often but little snowfall the entire year. Cyclones and violent wind storms are unknown, and we seldom have thunder and lightning of any account. The year is divided into two seasons — the rainy or winter season and the summer season. The winter season generally begins about the first of November, and lasts until about the first of March. Then comes the spring months with occasional showers but of short duration, and a more delightful climate cannot be found than that of Western Washington dur- ing the spring and summer months. During the warmest part of the sum- mer we have a cool breeze from the Sound and Gray’s Harbor during the day, and the nights are cool and pleasant. The congeniality of the cli- mate, the purest of water, and the close proximity to the Cascade mount- ains, combine to make this one of the healthiest locations in the world. Stagnant pools of water are seldom seen. Our rivers and streams flow directly from the mountains and foot-hills and are as cool and pure as water can be. The manufacture of fir and cedar lumber is becoming one of the lead- ing industries of Eewis county. Within the boundaries of this county there are several forests of timber hard to excel in both quality and quan- tity. At least nine saw mills and five shingle mills are in successful oper ation in Eewis county, producing an output of 200,000 feet of lumber and 170,000 shingles daily. Chehalis, the county seat, is situated on the line of the N. P. R. R., and has a population of about 600; is 54 miles from Tacoma and 86 miles from Portland; is surrounded by one of the finest farming communities in the Territory; is a thriving and pleasant place, and is the natural shipping point for the greater part of the Chehalis and Newaukum valleys. It has a flouring mill, capacity of about thirty barrels of flour per day; a sash and door factory; a saw mill with a capacity of about 40,000 feet of lumber per day; a pump factory; four churches — Methodist, Episcopal, Baptist and 46 WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. Presbyterian — and two newspapers. Chehalis bids fair, in the near future, to be a town of considerable importance. Centralia is situated on the line of the N. P. R. R., and is a town of about 600 inhabitants, and is the natural outlet for Iyincoln creek, Hana- ford and Skookum-chuck valleys and part of the Chehalis valley. It has two sawmills with a capacity of about 50,000 feet of lumber per day; a shingle mill with a capacity of about 50,000 feet of lumber per day; an- other mill with a capacity of about 35,000 shingles per day; flouring mill (water power); has three churches — Methodist, Baptist and Christian. It is situated on a gravelly prairie, is a very pleasant place to live, and its prospects to become a place of note are good. The agricultural products of the county are reported as follows: Wheat, 150,000 bushels; oats, 90,000; potatoes, 50,000; apples, 8000; plums, 25,000; hay, 6000 tons. Five stock: Horses, 4000; neat cattle, 4000; sheep, 3000; swine, 3000. Number of Fruit trees, 10,000. Man- ufactories: Five flouring mills, 11 saw mills, 2 sash and door factories; capital invested, $150,000; assessed valuation of property, $1,007,239. Chehalis County. (QHEH ARIS County lies in the southwestern portion of Washington Ter- ^ ritory, and its western boundary is washed by the Pacific ocean. The Chehalis river runs through the county from east to west and flows into Gray’s Harbor. The valley formed by this river is from three to five miles in width and is very fertile, producing from thirty to fifty bushels of wheat and from forty to seventy-five bushels of oats per acre; while hay, vegeta- bles and small fruits grow in great profusion. The Satsop and Wynoochie rivers, flowing into the Chehalis from the north, are valleys somewhat smaller in area than the Chehalis but equal in fertility of soil. gray’s harbor is twenty miles in length and from two to fourteen miles in width. The entrance to the harbor is approached over a ‘ ‘bar’ ’ carrying twenty-six feet of water at low tide. The channel being straight and unchanging enables vessels to enter the harbor with ease and safety. The Humptulips, Ho- quiam and Wishkah rivers flow into the harbor from the north, and John’s and Blk rivers from the south. These rivers form valleys of great fer- tility. Chehalis county is considered to be one of the best timbered counties on the northwest coast, its table lands being covered with Jhe most mag- nificent forests of fir, spruce and cedar, while its rivers afford ample water to transport this valuable product to the mills, where it is manufac- WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 47 tured into lumber and shipped to all parts of the world; where, owing to its superior quality it finds a ready market. The cutting of this timber, floating it to the mills and manufacturing it into lumber and shipping it away, give employment to hundreds of men and teams, and give to the farmers a home market for all kinds of farm products, at good prices: The present population of the county is about 4000, and is rapidly increasing. The people are industrious, enterprising and law-abiding, are prosperous and contented; and being here to stay are building beauti- ful and permanent homes, commodious churches and school houses. THE TOWN OF EEMA with a population of 150 inhabitants, located near the Chehalis river twenty miles above its mouth, is centrally located in a fine agricultural country. Its busines men are enterprising and prosperous; its schools and churches a credit to any community, while the general outlook for the growth and prosperity of the town is very bright. MONTESANO, an incorporated city of 1000 inhabitants, is situated on the north bank of the Chehalis river and the east bank of the Wynoochie, and is at the head of deep water navigation on the harbor. It is the county seat of the county. The city is beautifully located, has fin^ graded streets, good business houses, schools and churches. Two lines of daily stages connect the city with Olympia, the capitol of the Territory, while two lines of steamboats make daily trips to all points on the lower harbor and connect with a through line to Astoria, Oregon. And it is expected in the near future that Montesano will be the terminus of a trans-continental railroad. It is surrounded by fine farming lands that are being tilled by an industrious and intelligent class of people. wynooche, located on the south bank of the Chehalis river and opposite Montesano, has one hundred inhabitants and a bright future. Its inhabitants are loyal and prosperous and deserve the prosperity that surely awaits them. COSMOPOEIS, situated on the south bank of the river, near where the river is lost in the harbor, is, in some respects at least, the most beautifully located town in the county. It has 250 inhabitants, a magnificent hotel, a steam sawmill with a daily capacity of about 75,000 feet, while a larger one is soon to be built. It has a fine school and church, an intelligent and prosperous people, and bright hopes of being in the near future a rival of some of the now larger towns for commercial supremacy. ABERDEEN. Two and one-half miles below Cosmopolis on the north side of the bay, and where the waters of the Wishkah river are mingled with the waters of the harbor, is the town of Aberdeen with its six hundred in- 4 8 WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. habitants. At this place are lumber mills with an aggregate daily capac- ity of 150,000 feet. The citizens are energetic and enterprising, and have a good school and church, besides other institutions that denote culture and refinement. A weekly newspaper, the Aberdeen Herald , is published here. HOQUIAM. Tour miles below Aberdeen on the same side of the bay, at a point where the gently flowing tide of the Hoquiam river flows into and becomes a part of the waters of Gray’s Harbor, is situated the town of Hoquiam. At this place was erected the first steam sawmill in the county, and from this place was exported the first cargo of lumber. The mill has a daily output of 100,000 feet. Ship building is quite extensively and successfully carried on here. Here, too, is the most extensive general merchandise store in the county, if, indeed, it is not the most extensive in the Territory. Hoquiam has a population of 300 people, who are intelligent and law-abid- ing and possessed of pluck and enterprise. The familiar tones of the church bell call its people to a comfortable and beautiful building. The educational interests are well provided for. There are other TOWN SITES in the county where the surveyor and draughtsman have done their part, and whose projectors are not without reasonable hopes of their some time assuming metropolitan style. The climate of the county is mild and salubrious — thermometer never going above 95 0 in summer, nor below zero in winter. Blizzards, cy- clones, drouths or disastrous floods are unknown. No poisonous vine, plant or reptile find a lodging place in the county; while the gently blow- ing breeze from the Pacific ocean dispels every vestige of miasma. Its rivers and bays teem with fish, and its wooded hills and valleys are the home of wild game. The already developed resources of the county are of sufficient magnitude to give it a commercial standing second to none in the Northwest, while its latent resources are of untold value. The fact that we are 300 miles nearer San Francisco (by sea) than the ports of Puget Sound, the ease and safety with which ships can enter our commod- ious harbor, together with our accessibility by railroad to Eastern Wash- ington and Oregon renders it not at all improbable, that there are now liv- ing in our midst gray haired sires, who will live to see the golden grain of the Inland Empire seek a market in the ports of the world through the entrance to Gray’s Harbor. WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 49 Thurston County. T HURSTON County is bounded on the north by Puget Sound and that portion of it known as Dana Pass, the regularity of the coast line being broken by Henderson, Budd’s Elb and Totten Inlets; its western, south- ern and eastern boundaries are respectively Chehalis, Eewis and Pierce counties. It is of irregular shape, contains an area of six hundred square miles, or three hundred and eighty-four thousand acres; has a population of about four thousand five hundred souls, and occupies nearly a central position in Western Washington. It is needless to enlarge upon the climate of the county especially, in this place; it is much the same as other portions of Western Washington. The immigrant entering it now (the month of April) with remembrances of a foot of ice on their lakes and rivers in the east, will be astonished to see the forwardness of the season here. The surface of the country repre- sents generally an expanse of gently rolling hills, near the Cascades at- taining to the dignity of mountains, intersected by streams and diversified with prairie lands of considerable extent and ' exhaustless forests. The water-courses are the Des Chutes, the Nisqually (which divides the two counties of Pierce and Thurston), the Skookum-chuck, Scatter, Black and Chehalis with their tributaries, along whose banks are small valleys, flats and stretches of bottom land, where agriculture may be profitably carried on, and fruit and vegetables, hay and wheat raised in abundance. In- deed, grain grown in Thurston county took the premium at the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia, in 1876. The entire area of the county in its natural state is wooded, with fir on the uplands and cedar, oak, maple, ash and alder on the level tracts and with this vast quantity of marketable timber at hand, with the super- ior advantages of wagon rogds, railroads and deep water in close proxim- ity, the manufacture of lumber of which there is cut about nine million feet annually, becomes a leading industry of the county. Besides, a large quantity of timber is cut within its limits, made into rafts and towed by tug-boats along the placid waters of the Sound to different mills on its shores. For the various kinds of agriculture, these timber lands when cleared and brought into subjection, are equal, if not better, than any of the open tracts, and prove of great value, not only as wheat producing ground, but also for rearing live stock. On them are grown vegetables fruit and grass better than which is nowhere to be found. Within the borders of Thurston county extensive deposits of coal have been discovered and located, and all await development. During the year 1884-5 an aggregate of 50,000 bushels of grain was grown in Thurston county, while of live stock there were 15,000 head. The assessment roll foots up $2,075,496. 50 WA'SHING^TOR TERRITORY AND TACOMA. Snohomish County. GEOGRAPHY AND TOPOGRAPHY. S NOHOMISH County has about 40 miles water frontage on Pu^tSbuncj and contains about 2500 square miles or 1,600,000 acres. It situated between King county on the south and Skagit county on the ho'rth; the Cascade mountains forming its eastern boundary. One- third of its area is mountainous, one-third is marvelously rich bottom and marsh land, and one-third is comparatively level upland, the soil of which is little less ie 1 ^ tile than the bottoms — in fact, this class of lands produce a better 'quality of fruit and vegetables than the low-lands. The mountains are rich in gold, silver, marble* £oal, irdh, copper and other minerals, but as yet little effort has been made 'develop these re- sources. The railroad company last summer located several claims on rich silver bearing leads, and will probably commence developing them this season. Placer mining is carried on to some extent; in nearly every stream placer gold has been found, while the Sultan river, a stream tributary to the Skykomish branch of the Snohomish river, and situated some 1 5 or 20 miles east of Snohomish, has yielded more gold during the past twenty years than has been found on all other Puget Sound streams put to- gether. Nearly all the mountain land is covered with valuable timber, the finest fir and cedar the sun shines on. Over one-half of it is fertile and should the timber be removed, valuable for hay or pasture. The agri- cultural value of the upland will average about one-half that of the low land. Considering both soil and climate, one acre of marsh or bottom land here has a productive value equal to three acres of Iowa or Illinois prairie. Most of the upland is covered with the same kind of timber, which costs too much to pay for clearing it expressly for agricultural pur- poses. But forest fires annually burn over many thousand acres of such land, and there are also many thousand acres of old logging works, partly cleared, making excellent pasture, which now will pay to finish clearing for farming purposes. In the county, of these old burns and old logging works there are not less than 200,000 acres, partly cleared that will pay to improve for farming purposes. Of these fully 30,000 acres now furnish excellent pasturage nine months out of each year. With the increase of logging, and the extension of settlements, the amount will be doubled during the next five years, at the present rate of increase. There are about 460,000 acres of surveyed land in the county, of which at least 200,000 acres have been taken under the homestead, pre- emption and timber land law. About 10,000 acres are under cultivation. The total number of acres of land assessed in Snohomish county in 1887, 172,287, valued at $71 1,942; the total valuation of all taxable property was $1,052,322 — an increase since 1885 of $372,576. WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 51 The most choice tracts of vacant agricultural land are to be found on the smaller streams, and around the numerous small lakes. Several ex- perienced men are engaged in locating settlers. The tide marsh land at the delta of the Snohomish and Stillaguamish is all taken. This class of land is the richest and most productive in the world. Most of the large river bottoms and large marshes are taken, also the few small prairies, but equally as good land from one to five miles inland, within the same dis- tance of roads, is still awaiting settlers. Brush land can be cleared for from $10 to $20 per acre, and timber lands from $20 to $50, and in many places the timber will a great deal more than pay for the clearing. Many of the farmers of this county went into the woods and with little or no aid or money to commence with, built comfortable houses from the trees on the ground, cleared up a garden spot and raised enough produce to give a comfortable living the first year. Im- proved farming lands can be purchased for $20 to $75; unimproved, $2.50 to $20, according to character, location and distance from market. TIMBER BANDS. The most choice surveyed timber lands are taken, but occasionally a 40, 80 <*r 120 acre tract can be found joining that owned by the mill or log- ging companies. There is almost fabulous wealth in the vast tracts of un- surveyed timber land which will in time be thrown open to settlement. Timber claims of 160 acres, upon which there are from four to six million feet of fir and cedar, within one or two miles of a railroad or a stream large enough to “drive”, sell at $1000 to $ 2000 . The purchase or location of a timber claim under the timber or pre-emption law, is one of the most profitable investments that can be made in this country. The southern part of the county and the northeastern part of King county is drained by the Snohomish river and its tributaries; while the Stillaguamish and its tributaries drain the northern part. (These Indian names are about the only drawback the county has, but they compare favorably with those of Maine.) The Snohomish and its main tributary (the Snoqualmie) are nav- igable for steamers a distance of about 45 miles; the Stillaquamish for about 10 miles. These streams, on which are the older and larger settle- ments, are at present the main outlets for the products of the county. The Bellingham Bay and British Columbia railroad will pass through a portion of the county that is but thinly settled, and will make acces- sable large tracts of timber land, mostly owned by the loggers and big mill companies; also a large area of vacant agricultural land. The great draw- back heretofore in developing the latent resources of the county has been the want of inter-communication; but this is being remedied by the open- ing of new roads, the improvement of old ones; and the building of the railroad. THE BEADING INDB t STRY of the county at present, is lumbering. In 1887, the most prosperous sea- 52 WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. son ever known in the lumbering districts of Puget Sound, there were 45 logging camps in operation in Snohomish county, their output aggregat- ing 110,000,000 feet — the largest output of any county in Oregon or Washington. Last season prices of logs ranged from $5 to $7*5oper 1000. During the hard times of ’78 prices went as low as $3.50. With a rapidly increasing foreign and local demand for lumber, the building of new mills, the purchase of large tracts of timber land and the building of railroads by eastern capitalists, together with the introduction of new and improved methods of logging, the opening of many new camps on an extensive scale; and last but not least, the perfection of an organization by the log- gers, the prospects are unusually favorable “good times” this season. The marketable timber of the county in quality and quantity, has no rivals, and consists of fir, many of the trees attaining a height of 300 feet and a diameter of six to ten feet on the stump; cedar trees often attain the same height, but have larger bodies — the diameter frequently exceed- ing fifteen feet. A stump of this size can be seen on the river bank a few rods below the mill, on which a party of five horsemen and seven men on foot ‘ ‘posed’ ’ for a photograph last summer. Maple, alder and cottonwood reach large sizes and are used in the manufacture of furniture and boxes. STOCK RAISING AND DAIRYING are two industries that are profitably engaged in here, and for which the county is naturally adapted. There is hardly a quarter section of land upon which cannot be found a spring or small stream of pure water. All kinds of grasses grow spontaneously and to the greatest perfection — espec- ially clover and timothy, which grow green twelve months in the year. Two crops of clover and timothy mixed, or clover alone, are cut; those on the marshes, bottoms and rich uplands averaging about 3^2 tons to the first crop and 2^ tons the second. Farmers who keep stock generally, pasture after the first crop is cut. During the past four months, those who had hay to spare found ready sale at $22 to $27 a ton, to loggers. The price of hay usually averages about $12 a ton. Stock frequently run at large all winter, and come out in the spring looking as well as those which were kept up and fed. During the past )^ear, our farmers have been un- able to supply even the local demand, and the butchers were compelled to to purchase several bands of cattle and sheep from Oregon and Eastern Washington. As will be seen by the The Eye' s market report, the price paid for mutton on foot is 4^ , beef 4 and pork 4 cents per pound. Butter and cheese are always in good demand at fair prices. Farmers are paying increased attention to the improvement of their stock by importing pure bred animals for breeding purposes. Work horses sell for $300 to $500 a span; oxen $200 to $400 a yoke, the latter price having been paid here last winter by a logger for a yoke of cattle girthing eight feet each; ponies, $40 to $100; common cows, $40 to $60. WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 53 PRODUCTS AND PRICES. Fruit raising is another profitable branch of industry which our pro- gressive farmers are engaging in more extensively than formerly, and the location of a cannery and dryer at some convenient point — Snohomish, for instance — by some one with capital, or by the fruit growers themselves, would be a profitable and successful enterprise. Among the numerous fruits most successfully raised here are apples, pears, plums, prunes and cherries in many varieties; strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, currents, etc. , which in size, quality and quantity to the acre, bushel or tree can not be equalled* by [any* (country] in the world; and with a little extra care, peaches and| grapes of the largest size and finest quality are raised. Black- berries, raspberries, currents and gooseberries will do as well as strawber- ries, if not better, upon our wild land. The usual prices the grower gets for plums, prunes and cherries range from 6 cents a pound when they first appear in .the market down to 2^ cents later in the season; peaches, 10 to 5 cents; strawberries, 20 to 10 cents; raspberries, blackberries and currents, 6 to 3 cents; apples and pears, 5 to i}4 cents a pound or $2 to 50 cents a bushel — the former price being paid for the earliest and latest in the market. These figures are obtained from dealers, and are reliable. The productive capacity of the land is unequalled, the ordinary yield of wheat being 60 bushels, oats 100, and barley 80 bushels to the acre. One field of 10 acres on the tide flats yielded 134^ bushels of oats to the acre, last season. Corn is successfully raised but not in large quantities. Five hundred bushels of potatoes, of the finest quality to the acre, is not an uncommon yield, while all root crops and garden truck show a proportion- ate yield. Turnips ranging in weight from 20 to 35 pounds, and yielding 8 to 10 tons per acre, is no uncommon thing. Cabbages are often seen in our markets that will weigh from 30 to 40 pounds per head. Wheat has not as yet been cultivated on a large scale. Pumpkins and squash flour- ish; many of them often obtain the huge weight of 150 pounds. The sugar beet has been cultivated successfully in many parts of the county, and the establishment of a sugar factory in the near future at some central point is probable. The cultivation of hops is engaged in by several farm- ers, though not on an extensive scale as yet; 2000 pounds to the acre is a good average yield. Hop lice and other crop destroying insects are un- known here. Experience has proven that with proper care bees are about as profit- able “live stock” as can be kept on Puget Sound. The honey-producing plants and trees bloom early, and the bees often commence their season’s work by the middle of February. The wholesale price of honey varies but little from 20 cents a pound in the comb. With land of almost marvelous fertility, one acre of which will pro- duce as much as four or five acres of the best land in the eastern and north- 54 WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. ern states; with no cyclones, blizzards, grasshoppers, drouths or disastrous floods to endanger or destroy life and property; and with a good demand and generally good prices for everything they raise, our farmers are pros- perous and happy — and can our eastern readers wonder at it? OPPORTUNITIES FOR BUSINESS. The only manufactories in the county are: One fully equipped steam sawmill with a daily capacity of about 30,000 feet of lumber, and employ- ing from 20 to 30 men — a feed mill is also attached; one water power sash, door and furniture factory, employing five men (these are located in Sno- homish); one shingle mill at Edmonds, daily capacity 30,000. Another shingle mill is being built near Stanwood. Other mills will be opened along the railroad. There are fine opportunities here for the establish- ment of a brick kiln, a tannery, a wooden ware factory, a fruit cannery and dryer, starch and beet sugar factories. Raw material is cheap and abundant; home markets are good and transportation cheap aq,d conven- ient. There are several good water powers in the county that can be pur- chased cheap. Skagit County, KAGIT County has some 40,000 acres under cultivation, two thirds of which — comprising the Swinomish, Skagit Delta and Samish Flats — is more or less tributary to EaConner, the principal commercial center of the county. The product is principally oats, probably over 20,000 tons per annum. This together with the logging output, some 55,000,000 or 60,- 000,000 feet, bring the people abundant ready cash — over a half million dollars annually. The farmers are generally prosperous and are branch- ing out in diversified farming, increasing their stock for dairying. There is abundant iron, coal, granite and limestone throughout the county, chief- ly up the Skagit, but capital has not yet taken hold of the development of these resources. The Skagit, coursing through the county, is the largest river emptying into Puget Sound, and is navigable for a distance of 80 miles. The county, is 24 by 100 miles in extent — from the Rosario Straits to the Cascade range, and being immediately in front of the Straits of Fuca is admirably situated for commerce. It has a number of productive islands on the western border, and taken altogether it may be said that Skagit county is one of the richest in agriculture, timber and elementary resources of any in the territory. Population about 5,000. This rich and rapidly developing county is immediately tributary to Tacoma, by a local corporation, which has been recently organized by Tacoma capitalists engaged in logging and merchandising on the Skagit river. There has WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 55 been built at the Ship yard in Tacoma a steamer to run directly from Tacoma up the Skagit river, thus making the trade of this county directly tribu- tary to Tacoma. This new steamer is one of the staunchest and fastest .on the Sound. Whatcom County. \ \ f HATCOM County, in the northwest corner of the territory, at the north- ern end of Puget Sound, extends southward from the British line about 25 miles, and eastward from Puget Sound about 80 miles, and therefore con- tains in the neighborhood of 2000 square miles. The eastern portion is mountainous, exceedingly picturesque, and heavily timbered with white pine, fir, cedar and spruce. In the western portion magnificent belts of fir and cedar alternate with extensive river bottoms of vine, maple and alder. Numerous lakes of Swiss picturesqueness, dot the county, chief among which is Take Whatcom, 12 miles long by 1 to 1 % miles wide, with a depth in places of 400 feet, situated some three miles from Bellingham Bay, and having a surface elevation of about 300 feet above the bay level. The surplus waters of the lake flows through Whatcom creek to the city of Whatcom, located at its mouth, on Bellingham Bay, and furnish a majes- tic water power, capable of moving the enginery of scores of factories. A company is about to pipe the waters of the lake to Whatcom and other towns along the shores ot Bellingham Bay, having demonstrated the fact that with a fall of 300 feet a store of water is available of sufficient magni- tude to supply the domestic and mechanical requirements of a city as large as Tondon. The lumber resources of the county are immense and com- paratively untouched. The fir and cedar attain enormous dimensions. Three saw mills are now located upon Bellingham Bay, one at the town of Bellingham, having a capacity of 75,000 feet per day, and a Michigan company will soon commence the construction of another and larger one at New Whatcom, and will also construct a railroad to Take Whatcom, the timber round which, at a low estimate, amounts to 300,000,000 feet. The large acreage of river bottoms affords an excessively fertile region for agriculture. The alder and vine maple with which they are covered is easily cleared. All kinds of grass grow luxuriantly, and the alder bottom of one season becomes the pasture land and garden of the next. Roots and vegetables of every description attain a phenomenal size, and are un- surpassed in flavor and keeping qualities. Pre-eminently is Whatcom county the land of fruits and berries, the favorable conditions of climate and soil apparently charging the products of horticulture and the orchard with all the elements of perfect development. In the interior of the county along the numerous valleys of the Nooksack river and its tributaries, corn, 56 WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. peaches, and other products requiring warmer nights and a temperature of greater average height than that of the coast, mature readily and yield prolifieally. Tobacco of a superior quality is successfully grown. Stock thrives upon the plentiful grass and clovers indigenous to soil. Poultry is remarkably free from diseases usually preying upon domestic fowls. Fish and game are abundant. Fine large salmon have sold on Belling- ham Bay during the last season for from three to ten cents each. The streams and lakes swarm with trout. Along the shores of the bay salmon trout of delicious flavor are plentiful. Cod in numerous varieties, flounders, and other salt water fish are not only abundant, but very cheap. Oysters are plentiful ; while clams, crabs and mussels can be had by the cart load. Dogfish are exceedingly abundant, and are caught in great numbers for their oil. At Point Roberts, at the northwestern corner of the county, is probably the best 'salmon fishing station in the entire northwest. Deer are killed in great numbers which makes the business a butchery. Grouse and pheasant abound in the woods. Geese and ducks in astonishing num- bers cover the waters of Bellingham Bay during the winter season. Elk are found in the eastern part of the county, while the bear and cougar lurk in the deeper recesses of the forest. The mineral deposits of the county consist chiefly of iron and coal, the former as yet undeveloped. Vast deposits of bog-iron ore exist in the northern part of the county. Extensive coal beds have been found in various localities in the vicinity of Take Whatcom, and have been developed enough to prove the existence of practically inexhaustible veins of an ex- cellent quality of bituminous coal. Gold has been discovered along the Upper Nooksack and its tributaries, but the early fall rains have interrupted the work of the miners before the extent of the deposits could be ascer- tained. The Chuckanut Bay sandstone of this county is justly celebrated as an elegant and durable building material. The incorporated city of Whatcom is the county seat, situated on Bellingham Bay a magnificent landlocked body of water six miles in length by three in width, furnishing an absolutely safe anchorage and harborage for the largest vessels. The. Bellingham Bay and British Columbia Railroad, about two miles of which is completed from New Whatcom, will eventually connect that point and the lines of traffic centering at the bay with the Canadian Pacific. Settle- ment has steadily progressed during the past few years, and the county is becoming populous with a strong, vigorous and energetic class of men. The climate of Whatcom county, and especially at Bellingham Bay, is admirable. The rainfall is not excessive ; there are no moss-covered roofs. An agreeable temperature prevails. Puget Sound, upon its western shore has a wonderfully equalizing influence upon the climate. The waters of this vast Mediterranean of the north are ever ebbing and flowing to and from the sea. Colder than the surrounding atmosphere under the vertical rays of the sun, they absorb its heat and moderate the warmth of midsum- WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 57 mer, while the genial Japan current, which finds its way through the Straits of Fuca and to the shores of Bellingham Bay, constantly parting with its surplus caloric during the colder months, tempers the rigors of midwinter. These and other exceptional circumstances, undoubtedly make the western part of Whatcom county one of the favored localities of the globe. Yakima County. T HE country more immediately tributary to the city of North Yakima, consisting of valleys of the Moxee, Konnewock, Ahtanum, Natchez >■ Coweetchie, Wenas, and Selah, and the magnificent Yakima Indian Re- servation, forms a body of land, which for agricultural possibilities cannot be excelled in America. The growing season is long, warm and steady. Irrigation is necessary and the supply of water is abundant. The soil is very rich indeed, and fertilizers are not required, nor will they be for a generation. The rich riyer water conducted on the land by irrigating ditches, deposits all its wealth on the soil and is a never-ending source of renewed life. Fed from the melting snows of the mountains, the rivers and streams are highest just when their water is of most value to the farmer, and they are as reliable as the laws of nature and the fiat of Divinity. Capital is rapidly flowing into the country, and splendid ditches and irrigating systems are being constructed every year. The irrigation works of the Moxee Company, four miles from Yakima, are perhaps the most nearly perfect north of California. A company has been formed of Tacoma and Eastern capitalists for the construction of an irrigating canal, seventy-five miles long. This canal has its head at the gap in the Rattlesnake hills south of Yakima, and will water several hundred thousand acres of most desirable farming lands. The water power of the Natchez river, from the painted rocks to the City of Yakima, about four miles, is leaping down its forty-feet-to-the- mile grade, rejoicing in its strength and calling in tones too clear to remain longer unheard, for the factories, which will enable it to bend its eternally youthful energies to the service of man. The coal and iron deposits of the Natchez Valley are immense in ex- tent and of the richest quality. The town of Yakima itself, is, as inevitably as its topography is fixed, one of the leading railroad centres, if not the leading railroad centre of the Northwest. The Northern Pacific Railroad already runs through its well-ditched and tree-fringed streets. All the best mountain passes open 58 WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. westward from its surrounding valleys, and eastward to the great wheat belt of the Columbia. The Yakima and Salmon River Mines stage goes over a road, the steepest grade of which is twenty-five feet to the mile, and over which a Central Park turnout could be driven without disturbing the profound repose of its fair occupants. It is, however, as an agricultural ^country, that Yakima County has attracted most attention so far. It is no exaggeration to say that almost everything is grown in this peculiarly favored spot, from corn and potatoes to grapes, peaches, peanuts, tobacco, hops, and even cotton. Over fifty bushels of wheat and ninety bushels of *oats have been raised to the acre, but the leading grain is perhaps barley, to the growth of which the conditions of soil and climate seem peculiarly adapted. Hops have made every farmer who has staid with them well-to- do. Hitherto the hop hills in this district have been set eight feet apart, and the yield per acre has been from fifteen to eighteen hundred pounds. With the six and a half feet measurement lately introduced, the yield per acre should not fall short of two thousand to twenty-four hundred pounds per acre. It costs eight cents a pound to raise hops and bale them ready for market, and the average price obtained for the past ten years has been eighteen cents a pound. Take even last year’s price (thirteen cents) and a profit of five cents a pound is left, which at the low yield of fifteen hun- dred pounds an acre, gives a profit of seventy-five dollars per acre. The hops of the Yakima Valley have taken the very first place in the market. The reason of this is, that, owing to irrigation, the exact amount of water required by the vines can be given to them just when it will do most good. Tobacco nets on an even more conservative calculation, fifty dollars to the acre. Timothy hay which grows on the bottom lands without irrigation, sell on the Sound city markets for from twenty to thirty dollars per ton. It still costs $3.00 a ton to bale, and $4.50 to ship hay to the Sound, or $7.50 (exclusive of hauling) from stack to market. All kinds of feed roots grow to enormous sizes. Alfalfa or Tucern clover, the king of forage plants, is slowly covering the fields of Yakima County with his royally magnificent mantle of promise. Three crops can be cut in the year, but the third crop is seldom cut, the farmers generally leaving it for pasture. From two crops five tons to the acre are easily obtainable. Alfalfa, unbaled, sold last year in Yakima for $8 to $10 a ton, and the demand exhausted the supply before the season was half over. Amid its many resources, Yakima County has perhaps none more valu- able than alfalfa. With a little corn or barley to make the flesh firm, although this is not necessary, it is the prime feed for hogs and cattle, and will yield a steady return per acre which any farmer can calculate for himself. • WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 59 These are not exaggerated statements, but, a few plain facts in the ex- perience of thousands, -and more particularly of one who heard a voice in the East from the West singing the syp en SO n g of unsurpassed fertility. He feared that distance had mellow an d lent enchantment to the song, but he came, and bears his testimony that the half\ia.s not been told. Kittitas County. IZ ITTITAS County by reason of its multiplicity of resources and indus- V tries, is known as the ‘ ‘Banner County of Washington Territory. It lies in the geographical center of the Territory, contains 3600 square miles and between 8000 and 10,000 inhabitants. It is bounded 011 the west by the summit line of the Cascade range of mountains, and by the Columbia river on the east. Its area is nearly equally divided into three distinct parts, viz. : The western portion is occupied by heavy forests of pine, fir, -and cedar. The central portion, or Kittitas Valley, is devoted to agriculture, and the eastern portion bordering on the Columbia river is grazing lands and stock range. The western portion of the county is underlaid with im- mense beds of No. 1 bituminous coal and deposits of sematite and mag- netic iron ore. Also gold, silver, copper and other metals are found in the Cascade range. The Kittitas Valley lies in the center of the county and is 15 by 30 miles in area. It is prairie land surrounded by the foot-hills of the Cas- cade range, two sides of which are covered with timber. Through the ^center of the valley the Yakima river runs, whilst scores of smaller streams course their way down through the valley from the adjacent foot- hills. These streams are fed by the snows and are as pure as crystal and furnishes water for irrigation to all parts of the valley. Kittitas Valley is the best watered valley on the Pacific coast east of the Cascade range. About one-fourth of the valley is under cultivation. The principal productions of the valley are wheat, oats, barley, hay, vegetables of all kinds, horses, sheep, cattle and hogs. From 30 to 50 bushels of wheat are produced per acre; 40 to 80 bushels of barley; from 40 to 60 of oats and 300 to 500 bushels of potatoes. The Cascade division of the N. P. R. R., enters the southeast portion of the county and traverses its entire length in a northwesterly direction. Our market is Tacoma on the west, and Minneapolis, St. Paul and Chicago on the east. The leading industries of the county are agriculture, stockraising, coal, lumber, and iron, gold and silver mining. The county produced in 6o WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. the year 1887, one million bushels of grain and one hundred thousand tons of hay, with not one- tenth part under cultivation. Kittitas Valley is the home of the agriculturalist, the stockman, the manufacturer, the lumberman, the miner, the coal baron and the iron king. The products and resources are so happily located and so diversified,, that most anyone coming west can drift into his favorite occupation. CDIMATE. The climate of Kittitas County is semi-oceanic. Fllensburgh, the metropolis of the Inland Empire, is situated only 125 miles from salt water, hence the county naturally shares the mild temperature of the ocean. The mean temperature being 73 0 in summer and 34 0 in winter. The average winter does not last over six weeks to two months and is dry with a mod- erate depth of snow; sleighing often lasting three or four weeks. Winter generally begins from the 1st to the 15th of December and breaks from the 1st to the 15th of February. Farmers frequently plow here in December and often in January. After the 15th of February, stock- men can safely turn their herds on the range, as from that time on, the warm winds from the ocean cut the snows so that stock improves rap- idly. Many stockmen take the chances of allowing their stock to run on the range the entire year. No cyclone or blizzard has ever visited the county, and since its first settlement, such things have not been known. The conditions and topog- raphy of the county are such, owing to the temperizing influence of the ocean and a vast mountain range, to render such a phenomena as blizzards, cyclones or tornadoes utterly impossible. Owing to the ocean and this range of mountains, we never have protracted “heated terms,” as the nights are always cool; so much so, that a pair of blankets are quite com- fortable in July or August. FRUIT. All of the hardy varieties of fruit do well here and are of excellent flavor and quality. A number of orchards are in full bearing. While small fruits, such as currents, gooseberries and strawberries are in their natural climate. In the northeastern portion of the county, in the Wenatchee Valley, excellent peaches, No. 1 com and sweet potatoes grow to perfection and in abundance. More attention is given each succeeding year to the planting of trees. Another fact should be mentioned, that here we have no pests such as the chintz or potato bug, the grasshopper, the Russian fly the cenculis, the peach borer or any of the destructive pests known to the eastern states. WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 6l Cowlitz County. (pOWI^lTZ County, situated in the southwestern portion of Washington ^ Territory, bordering as it does on the great Columbia river for a distance of about forty miles and having an area of over four hundred square miles; is well adapted to agricultural, manufacturing, lumbering and mining pur- poses. Also a great deal of attention is paid to fruit raising, which has proved Cowlitz County to be one of the finest fruit growing sections in Washington Territory. AGRICULTURAL LANDS. The land principally adapted to agricultural purposes is the land known as ‘ ‘fir timber’ ’ land, which soil will produce in abundance wheat, potatoes, oats, barley, etc. The “fir timber” land is also the most profit- able for fruit growing. The timothy and clover, the latter being best adapted to the high land and the former in the swails or ash lands; but neither does very well on the high lands. PASTURE LANDS. The Columbia bottoms are the principal part of the settled portion of the county, and its production is stock, butter and hay. The hay raised •on the bottom land is most red-top which sells readily at from $10 to $15 per ton when baled. This grass crop never fails, notwithstanding in most cases it is pastured all winter, which is about three months out of the year. This scope of bottom land embraces the entire strip along the Columbia through the entire length of the county. The farmers in the Tewis and Cowlitz river bottoms most all find a ready market for their milk at the Woodland and Freeport creameries, which pays them better to sell their milk than to manufacture it into butter themselves. The Woodland creamery manufacturing into butter the milk from 200 cows, and Freeport about 350 cows — consuming in the two local- ities the milk from 550 milch cows, which adds materially to the finances of the county. TIMBER LANDS. The timber consists of fir, spruce, cedar and ash and in inexhaustible quantities. The fir and spruce are mostly cut on the small rivers or creeks, and floated out to the tide water during the winter freshets which comes regularly as the rainy season comes around. There are millions of feet of fir and spruce floated out each year, which is mostly sold to the mills of Portland, with the exception of what is consumed by the mills supplying the local trade of the county. The cedar is manufactured into shingles by the numerous shingle mills of the county, and are shipped to different paints. The ash and small fir are manufactured into cordwood which is a ready sale at all times of the year. All this land is the finest 62 WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. of agricultural land after the timber is removed; thus in clearing off the timber, the price obtained for the shingles, logs and wood, pays the expense of improving the land for farming purposes. There are thousands of acres of these timber lands still vacant in the county. THE TOWNS. The towns in this county are all beautifully situated. The town of Kalama is situated on the Columbia river, between the Kalama and Lewis rivers, and about seventy-five miles from the Pacific from which we receive- a constant breeze, making it a very healthy location. There is no better- shipping point in Washington Territory than is Kalama. Freeport and Kelso, situated opposite each other on the Cowlitz river are surrounded by fine farming country, and are flourishing little towns. Castle rock is situated about 20 miles north of Kalama on the Cowlitz river, and is a, thriving little town, but like Kelso is building up very rapidly. The- Northern Pacific railroad passes through all these towns except Freeport.. Franklin County. F RANKLIN County, looking from a commercial stand-point, is the great center of the Inland Empire, situated as it is in the south central part of eastern Washington Territory, and embracing a total area of 737,280- acres of land. Its altitude is the lowest of the Columbia valley, being only from 337 to 1,000 feet, the mean being only about 600 feet above the level of the sea, while the average altitude of the surrounding counties is not less- than 1 , 500 feet, thus giving this county a decided advantage in climate. Pasco, the county seat, is the nearest point on the Columbia river to Puget Sound, by the Northern Pacific Railroad, and is the nearest point, on Snake river to Portland, Oregon, by way of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company, and branch of the Northern Pacific- railway. CLIMATE. This is a feature we can boast of and against which but little can be said. Spring commences in the early part of February,, generally. Dur- ing the spring and early part of the summer we have occasional showers. Summers are long and warm, but the nights are always cool enough to sleep comfortably under a pair of blankets. We have no mosquitoes or gnats to trouble man or beast. The seasons between frost for the years 1882-3-4 and 5, averaged six months and two days.. Our winters are short; seldom more than four or five weeks. Snow fall is from five to eighteen inches, average duration about twenty days,, when it is compelled to give way under the genial influence of the “Chinook” wind. In the WASHINGTON TBRM'f'ORY AND TACOMA. 63 spring and summer we have occasional windlS From a westerly direction, but they are light as compared with the winds of the middle and western states. Cyclones, blizzards and tornadoes are unknown. Our soil is of two classes, known here as the bunch grass and sage brush lands, being a light brownish sandy loam, of which the bunch grass land is a finer composition, more compact and comprises about two-thirds of the total area of the county, covering the eastern portion, while that of the western part is sagebrush land. PRODUCTIONS. All cereals are practically grown without irrigation, of which wheat, corn and barley are excellent both in quantity as well as quality. The sage brush lands are especially adapted to fruit raising. The home of the grape. Also, the more tender varieties of vegetables, such as melons, sweet-potatoes and tomatoes, as well as of tobacoo. STOCK. Stock horses and cattle on the range are not fed during the winter. Good beef can be secured the year around from the range. There are sev- eral thousand head in this county of both horses and cattle, SHIPPING FACILITIES. Our shipping and marketing facilities are superior to that of any county in this part of the Territory, in fact cannot be excelled. Snake river, bounding us for fifty-five miles on the east and south, is navigable for three hundred miles, and is plied by steamboats at all seasons, from Lewiston down. The Columbia river, bounding us on the south and west for 42 miles, is navigable to the Ocean, save the portages at the Dalles and Cascades, both of which will soon be overcome so that; then we will have direct communication by water as well as by rail to the ocean market. The country adjacent to the Columbia river above, has not until within the last year offered inducements sufficient to justify navigation, but capitalists are now arranging for placing a line of steamboats on the river (two of which are now being built at Pasco) to open navigation to the great Salmon river mines, as well as the hundreds of thousands of acres of fine agricult- ural lands. The products of all of this must come to Pasco. This move will of course cause the river to be supplied with steamers connecting the Canadian system of railway with this point, only 700 miles separating them, though, connected by navigable waters gives to this point a signifi- cance that no other point has. No part of our county is more than about fifteen miles from rail or water transportation, thus giving it advantages that can not well be had in any other county. For persons in poor health and especially lung diseases, our climate cannot be excelled. Lumber and fuel are rafted down the rivers and brought in by rail. Plenty of good government land to be had, also railroad — both grain *and -fruit lands. 64 WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. Last year our assessment was about $140,000. This year it is about one million and perhaps a little more. The assessment is not yet com- pleted. A part of this difference is caused by the repeal of the gross earn- ings law, though our county is settling up fast as well as improving. It would be hard to estimate the amount or anything like it that is to be placed in this county during the present year. We think we would be safe in saying from one to two million dollars. The Northern Pacific Railroad Company are making extensive im- provements, as well as the county rapidly settling up ; families and also colonies are coming from different parts of the United States to this place. When you come to Washington Territory, stop at Pasco, and let us show you what we have and tell you of our inducements offered to new- comers. Do not mind the sage brush, it is easily removed. Our county is out of debt and prosperous. Our taxes 12^2 mills only last year. Our health unequaled except op the Pacific. If you wish to buy lands, enquire for the editor of the Pasco Headlight , J. N. Muncy, and he will do all he can to show of the advantages here. There are many. We want some lumbering men here to build mills, also every other kind of manufacturing has advantages here offered ; direct rail communications with Tacoma, Portland, Walla Walla and the Bast, in fact this is the commercial center, having the best advantage of the Northwest. — From Pasco Headlight. Lincoln County. T HIS county contains 2500 square miles and is generally regarded as one of the finest agricultural portions of Washington Territory. The greater portion of it is wheat land, the soil consisting of a dark rich loam of from eighteen to thirty inches in depth, composed of alluvial deposits and decomposed vegetable matter, together with a slight admixture of de- composed lava. Underlying this is a subsoil of clay. This soil is exceed- ingly prolific, and the grazing lands are such that Lincoln County has considerable prominence as a stock growing county. It is bounded on the east by Spokane County, on the west by Douglas County, on the north by the Columbia and Spokane rivers, and on the south by Adams and Whitman Counties; and as will be seen by consulting the map, includes the better portion of the famous Big Bend country, about which so much has been written by tourists and correspondents. The Big Bend is un- questionably one of the finest agricultural regions in the world. Lincoln County was organized in November, 1883. At that time there were only 2500 inhabitants. There are now over 6000, as shown by the assessor’s WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 65 returns. The assessed valuation of property is stated as $2,346,570. The total value of school houses, $15,000. Number of school children, 2740. A new court house of modest proportions and small cost is now in course of erection. Sprague, the county seat, is a thriving town of 1500 inhabitants. It is located in the southeastern portion of the county, on the line of the Northern Pacific Railway. The headquarters of the Idaho division of the road are permanently located here, with the machine shops and car shops. All trains passing through either way halt here half an hour. Sprague is well located for a trade center and shipping point, and is destined to be- come a place of considerable importance as an inland commercial center. Targe numbers of horses, cattle, hogs and sheep are brought here for shipment to the east and to Portland, Oregon, from the adjoining counties of Whitman, Spokane, Adams and Douglas. There are plenty of vacant government lands, and quite desirable, within a short distance of market points for the sale of produce and stock, subject to entry under the land laws. There are a great many fine tracts of railroad land still within easy reach, at from $3.50 to $5 per acre. This can be bought on long time at a low rate of interest. Real Estate Loans. F ROM the information given in the preceding pages concerning Tacoma and Washington Territory, it will appear that there are portions of Washington Territory which can offer to Eastern investors in real estate mortgages as safe securities as any other portion of the United States. Scarcity of money has been incident in the development of all our Western Territory. In the early days of all our Western States, the great demand for money coupled with the insufficiency of fhe supply caused the rates of interest to rule high. As the country developed, and as the sup- ply of money from the East increased, the rates of interest, following the law of “supply and demand,” gradually diminished. Washington Territory is not an exception to the experience of Kansas, Nebraska, Dakota and other western sections of the country. Two and three years ago we were able here to obtain ten and twelve per cent, per annum on real estate mortgage loans, running from three to five years. During the past two years the immigration to this country has increased rapidly, and added materially to the circulation of money here. The crops generally throughout the Territory this past year have brought good prices. The hop fields of Puget Sound have yielded this past year on an average two thousand pounds to the acre, and the crop has sold at from 25 cents 66 WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. to 33 cents per pound. This alone has added to the circulation here five hundred thousand dollars. In addition to this, a large amount of Eastern capital has sought and found investment here through various loaning agencies, and this influx of money has naturally reduced the rate of interest on long time real estate loans. In February of last year (1887) the Mer- chants National Bank of this city reduced its rates of interest to 10 per cent, on short time loans, and the other banks of this city immediately followed its example. This being the case , I can no longer assure to my Eastei n patrons a ten per cent, rate on five year loans , as heretofore , but can only pyomise to get the best 7 ate obtainable, on unquestionably good security. This rate of interest is 9 per cent., and the time for which the loan will run will be from three to five years. UntiL recently I have invariably made the interest payments on all loans semi-annual, but with farmers especially, the payment of interest semi-annually is objectionable, as their chief income is in the Fall. Where the borrowers do not positively object, I make the interest payments semi- annual. The attention of eastern investors is called to the fact that in Wash- ington territory non-resident mortgagees are exempt from taxation. This exemption is probably owing to the fact that while the territory is young and rapidly growing the investment of eastern capital is courted to assist in the general development of the various resources of the territory. There is no usury law in Washington territory; section 2369 of the code of the territory makes any rate of interest agreed upon by parties to a contract, specifying the same in writing, legal and valid. The laws for the protection of mortgagees in Washington territory are fully as favorable as those to be found in any state of the Union. The legislature of the territory in 1886, passed a law that the judgment debtor or his successor in interest may redeem any real estate held under execution of judgment or foreclosure of mortgage, at any time within one year from the date of the sale by paying the amount of purchase money, with interest at the rate of one per cent, per month thereon from the date of sale, together with the amount of any taxes which the purchaser may have paid. I use an approved form of coupon note and mortgage that has stood the test of the courts. The coupon interest notes should be paid at my office or at the Tacoma National Bank for collection a few days before the same are due. Asa 7 ule bo?rowe?s insist on having their coupons surrendered when they pay their interest. On all loans in Pierce county, I examine the public records in the Auditor’s office as to the title to the property myself, and with all loans in other counties I require a complete abstract of title to the property, or the County Auditor’s [Recorder’s] certificate that the title to the property WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 67 is vested in fee simple in the mortgagor, and is free from any and all in- cumbrances at the time the loan is placed. I give my personal attention to the execution of the papers in every loan I make in Pierce county, and the mortgage, after being properly recorded in the Auditor’s office, and all of the papers with the loan, are sent to the loaner as soon as possible after the loan is closed. My loans in other counties than Pierce county are made through agents with whom I am personally acquainted and on securities that are approved by responsible parties before the loans are closed. The mortgagee’s interest in every security so far as payment of taxes, insurance and assessments are concerned, is looked after as carefully by myself and agents as if the mortgagee were here personally to do this for himself. My mortgages are so worded and notes so drawn that a default in the payment of interest makes the whole sum of principal and interest fall due and payable at the option of the mortgagee, and on all coupon interest notes I make the penalty for non-payment of interest, two per cent, per month. This operates as a potent persuader for promptness. Interest payments are always collected and remitted to the mortgagee without expense or charge to him. My business here is done through the Tacoma National Bank, to which bank remittances may be made direct, with instructions that the same are to be loaned by me on such real estate as the bank will approve as safe, conservative security. In this way the non-resident loaner may be assured that his loans are absolutely safe. Principal and interest on all of my loans are made payable at the Tacoma National Bank, with New York exchange. In case of my death the collection of principal and interest on any loan can be made through that Bank. The distance of our locality from you being so great as to require several days for the transmission of letters, and realizing the fact that it is to the interest of my eastern clients as well as to my own interest to have a system by which we can communicate with each other by telegraph as cheaply as possible, the following key is given which can be used in com- municating with me: Question. . . . Hasten Supper General Family Morgan .... Island Twelve . . . Ten Require .... Normal. . . . Insurance. Chatham . . . May I draw at sight for Wire name of mortgagee First-class improved farm security First-class business property First-class residence property Can give you Tacoma National Bank approves the loan Twelve per cent, per annum Ten per cent, per annum Will you remit draft for loan of ■ • - • Hundred dollars The insurance which will be assigned as part security is Draw upon me at sight for 68 WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. Boston I accept your proposition in your letter of Roxbury Cannot accept your proposition in your letter of Hartford . Inform me by wire what is the best you can do for me as to time and rate on. Portland Something specially strong as to security Essex Wait letter before deciding Muck. Best quality bottom land drained Loam Clay loam soil Accident Did you receive my letter dated Warning I have this day remitted New York draft payable to your order for the sum of. Judgment Invest for me on the best security possible Prepare I have this day drawn on you at sight for In most cases where parties in the east telegraph me the day the draft is sent and the amount, I can arrange here so that not a days’s interest shall be lost. Remittances should be made by draft on New York or certified check. As our Territory develops, other avenues for investment than real estate loans are presenting themselves, and among these may be mentioned^ city and county warrants, school warrants, water and gas works bonds, etc., etc. In many cases these run for a period of years and at rates of interest equal to that obtainable on real estate loans. Samples of papers used by me in making loans, together with full in- formation connected with my business will be furnished on application. Eastern references will be furnished on application. Home references — any responsible citizen of the city who knows me. Respectfully, AEEEN C. MASON, Negotiator of Real Estate Eoans, Tacoma, W. T. WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 69 TACOMA, THE SOUND CITY, Strange Coincidence in the Location of Tacoma and one of Iowa’s Thriv- ing Cities. — The Wisdom of Gen. McCarver’s Second Selection Apparent to the Visitor to Tacoma. — Her Harbor Conceded to be Unsurpassed on Either the Ateantic or Pacific. — To the East, Majestic Mountains that Rear Their Peaks High Heavenward. — Fed by a Remarkably Rich Agricueturae and Minerae District. — A City of Cities. — Tacoma, a City But Fourteen Years Oed, With a Present and Assured Future Seedom Equaeed. — Naturae Advantages by Location. — Shipping Facieities. ACOMA, W. T., Special Correspondence Pioneer Press, April 9. — Men \ rarely build their own monuments, and it is still more rare when they are built in miles upon miles of massive blocks of business houses, or greater distances in stately and attractive homes. It is singularly strange that one man should leave two monuments in the existence of two thriv- ing cities — yet the man who located the town sites of Tacoma, Washing- ton Territory, and Burlington, Iowa Territory, builded better than he knew. These two cities were located b}^ Gen. M. M. McCarver. There is a coincidence in the earlier history of these two cities that would seem to have been a good omen. Destiny had carved out for the bustling metrop- olis on the Mississippi a promising future, the consumation of which is in the existence of a city with over thirty thousand people developed solely through agriculture and its kindred resources. And destiny will Carve out for Tacoma a future, now so rapidly appearing, in which the popula- tion will be multiplied many times over that of the city that Gen. Mc- Carver first located. Back in the early thirties, while Iowa was still a ter- ritory, Gen. McCarver was selected to locate the site of a town on the Mississippi river. Night overtook him some five miles from the present city of Burlington, and the sparse settlements in those early days gave him shelter on that night in a little log cabin: During this night, in this cabin, a baby boy was born, and when the general bade farewell to the little household to locate the city of Burlington, he little dreamed that the baby boy he left on the Iowa prairie would be encountered in after life, 70 WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. The general drifted to California and thence to Oregon, being prominently identified with the early history of these two states. About seventeen years ago, Gen. McCarver was again selected to traverse the shores of Puget Sound to locate a town. His protege, the city on the Mississippi, had in its growth and development, established his wisdom in the selection of a proper location, and hence his employment by his own syndicate for this new mission. After traveling along the shores of the Sound, night again overtook him, when he found shelter in the only cabin then in this im- mediate neighborhood. The coincidence and good omen came to the sur- face in the discovery of the fact that the owner of the cabin, then located immediately back of the bay from where old Tacoma now is, was the identical baby boy born on the morning of the day that Burlington, Iowa, was located. It seemed TIKE A REVEEATION to Gen. McCarver, who taking the event as indicative of good, immed- iately made the location of Tacoma, truly the city of destiny. Gen. Mc- Carver and his new found friend, the man of Iowa birth, have passed away ere either could witness the fulfillment of their hopes in the growth of the then new town of Tacoma. Were the general living, he would see a city whose future greatness is beyond all human computation. This greatness is already assured, located as Tacoma is on Commencement Bay in Pu- get Sound, with a harbor so perfect and so completely a refuge for all ocean craft, neither science, art nor money could have built it better or more safely. The water course from the wharves of this city out through the straits of Juan de Fuca to Cape Flattery is from twenty to one hundred fathoms deep, making perfect and unobstructed sailing, enabling the largest craft or steamer — even the Great Eastern — to sail right up to the wharves of this city. The superior to Tacoma in accessible navigation is hardly to be found on the Atlantic or Pacific coast. Resting safe on this harbor, free from the dangers of a rugged coast, yet enjoying the salt water breezes with their health-giving, invigorating qualities, is this truly more than wonderful city, whose inhabitants have but to step from wharves ovei; gang planks aboard of the largest vessel that can float in any water in the known world, and the vessel can steam out or sail majestically without tug, encountering neither bar, reef, nor rocks, into the great Pa- cific ocean. As for scenery, there is no place more gifted. Off to the east, just sixty miles away, stands the majestic mountain that rears its lofty head toward the skies to the distance of nearly 15,000 feet, the grandest of all peaks in the Cascade range. It seems to pose like a royal sentinel, its gorgeous beauty tinted at times in prismatic hues and standing boldly outlined, piercing its mighty top through the clouds in seeming disdainful defiance to all save the God who made it. So grand and imposing is this Mount Tacoma that the observer views it in amaze- ment, his soul filling with the thoughts of the majesty of the being who WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 7 1 placed this wondrous mountain, mantled forever in snow, in the midst of a country so plenteous, and in an atmosphere so clear that the vision is de- ceived in the belief that (though sixty miles away) one might with out- stretched arms almost touch its crest. Mount Tacoma, by its mightiness, presents to the eye a world of wondrous beauty, and it proves the utter fallacy of Americans going abroad to witness scenes of majestic greatness or mountain loveliness. Here is a mountain whose massive crest is an eternal glacier, which, under the heat of a genial sun and the warm, gentle zephyrs of THIS SEMI-TROPICAT CEIMATE, melts into streams of waters to enrich the beautiful and productive valleys below. These streams of melted snow and ice course through the chan- nels that time has marked for them, until they reach the mighty Pacific ocean, resting at the base of Mount Tacoma. Nature has been lavish to this section, of which Tacoma is the great commercial center. To the eastward is the great range of the Cascade mountains, at whose feet rest the fertile valleys of the Yakima. These valleys, so rich in deep alluvial soil, watered by plenteous and never-failing streams whose sources are found high up in the Cascades, are thus assured eternal moistures for pre- cedent yields in cereals and all agricultural products which will find the markets of the world through the great Cascade tunnel of the Northern Pacific, thence by the waters of Puget Sound out into the ocean. In these ranges of the Cascades, or tributary lands, are found inexhaustible mines of coal, iron and even precious metals. Not even Pennsylvania is so fav- ored, for in the canyons of the ranges, by tunnelling into the mountain side from the very surface of the ground, magnificent bituminous coal is found, which makes a coke, the superior of British coke. Above the coal great mountains of iron exist, of a quality that makes steel rails. Ordi- nary chutes drop the iron to the coal; no shafting, no hoisting nor massive machinery are required. All over these mountains and running down to the shores of the bay are massive forests, with trees so large and tall that the greatest ship that ever sailed carries no timber that could not be du- plicated here. And the abundance of coal, iron and lumber is past calcu- lation — enough to support a city whose population could be larger than the combined cities in America. Neither has nature stopped here — she has given this country a climate so mild that a day has never yet been seen during which outdoor work could not be done without even the possibility of suffering. Added to all of this, the fish food of these waters, if util- ized, would feed the continent, and all this is the foundation of Tacoma, a city with possibilities before her greater than any other city in America ever had at a parallel age. This advantage, gained by the wonderful facilities of the present day, which facilities did not exist when such cities as New York, Chicago and Pittsburg were only fourteen years old. 7 2 WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. WHENCE HER GREATNESS. A Wonderfully Rich Ag? {cultural Country Tributary to Tacoma — A Rival of Duluth — Vast Expoits From This Port — Shipments to Chma — A New Route to Europe. To the man who has watched the development of the great North- west, the growth of western towns is no marvel. The same man can read- ily see, when the facts are placed before him, why the city of Tacoma is to become a very great city. There is no city on the American continent that can rightfully be compared to this city in its past, present or future possibilities. In the start, let the prophecy be recorded that the now fast- approaching great growth of this city will outstrip the marvelous record of any city extant, not excepting Minneapolis and St. Paul, Kansas City, Omaha or Denver. The immediate feature of Tacoma, however, promises greater than the realization of Kansas City, Omaha or Denver, and it is destined to equal the present proportions of St. Paul and Minneapolis. The reason for this prediction may here be set forth. First, the Northern Pacific railway is an enormous corporation, the main transcontinental and great trunk line in America — the only corporation running thousands of miles through a country that, in sections or its entirety, is capable of some form of product to support and maintain a railway. The great Pennsyl- vania line was fostered, nourished and really built by the one state of Pennsylvania, its chief original earnings coming from the mineral pro- ducts of that state. The Northern Pacific started with a gift in land that made it wealthy. It goes through one great state and four great territor- ies. It commences normally on the great lakes and ends on Puget Sound (or the Pacific ocean) at Tacoma, this city having easier, less expensive and nearer great sea- trading centers than San Francisco or Portland. In 1873, in compliance with the requirements of its charter, the Northern Pa- cific appointed a competent, conservative and intelligent commission to make the location of its terminus, somewhere on Puget Sound. The re- port of that commission culminated in a full meeting of the directory of the Northern Pacific, Sept. 10, 1873, as per the following resolution: Resolved , That the Northern Pacific Railroad Company locate and construct its main road to a point on Puget Sound on the southerly side of Commencement Bay, in town 21, north of range 3 east of Willamette meridian, and within the limits of the city of Tacoma, which point in the said city of Tacoma is declared to be the western terminus of the main line of the Northern Pacific. Here then is the foundation stone of Tacoma, and what Gen. McCar- ver discovered the Northern Pacific has made. The casual reader may not discern any import in the fact that a great railroad has selected a city for its terminus, but let us see its significance. Somewhere in Western Da- kota or Eastern Montana, all other things being equal, will be the dividing line of this road. All products raised to the east of this line must find a market and outlet by way of Duluth; all products to the west of that line must find a market WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 73 VIA THE PACIFIC OCEAN. It is conceded by the result of test that all the states and territories through which the Northern Pacific passes, raise a hundred, yes thousand fold more (or can,) in products than it can consume, and these must have a market. Now which city is the key to the greatest and most easily accessible market — Duluth or Tacoma? The first has the eventual final market of Europe, via Chicago and Buffalo for all surplus or unconsumed products. Tacoma has identically the same market at actually less cost to reach it than via Duluth. When the statement is made that there are vast exports sent from this port, it will either arouse the credulity of some readers or amaze them. Here are the figures for Puget Sound as compiled at Port Townsend, the port of entry, and it is gathered as shown for 1885, 1886 and 1887, the increase in 1887 over 1885 being over six million dollars. three years’ shipments. Exports. 1885. Dollars 1886. Dollars. 1887. Dollars Increase of 1887 over 1885. Dumber for foreign ports Freight money for above Lumber coastwise Freight money for above Coal coastwise 1.076.000 830.000 2.040.000 850.000 1,037,750 740,250 200.000 30.000 62.000 1,142,470 1,061,790 1,888,000 710.000 1,589,980 853,988 300.000 40,000 1,003,186 860,328 3,349,957 1,289,445 2,602,600 1,301,300 i, 364,3 22 1,000,000 49,375 1,309,957 439,445 1,564,850 561,050 1,164,322 970,000 Freight monev for above Produce of all kinds Merchandise to Alaska Value Total 6,866,000 8,036,228 12,820,513 6,009,624 The following table shows the destination of these exports: EUMBER AND WHEAT SHIPMENTS. Falmouth Melbourne Hawaiian Islands Sydney Valparaiso Callao Mexico Hobson’s Bay. . . Iquique Hong Kong.*. . . . River Platte Coquimbo Tokio Townsville Brisbane Montevideo Buenos Ayres Todas Santos Samoan Islands. . Total Destination. No. of Car- Feet of Lumber. Values. goes. 1 * 33,937 149,375 35 24,844,615 335,402 25 13,697,096 178,062 16 9 > 9 I 4 , I 3 ° 128,883 13 9 , 1 9 °, 99 ° 124,078 4 2,770,113 37 ,n 5 1 3 1,249,105 16,862 1 1,778,834 24,014 2 1 , 435,300 18,658 2 1,257,000 16,341 1 1,030,000 13,390 2 99 b 5 °° 13,085 1 490,000 7 , 5 oo 1 2 670,000 9 V 45 1 300,000 3 , 9 oo 1 558,073 7,254 1 573,620 7,457 2 613,000 8,475 1 330,000 4,290 1 14 71,693,383 $1,003,186 *Sacks wheat. 74 WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. Of the cargoes sent to foreign ports, 40 were in American vessels, 30 in British, 23 in Norwegian, 7 in Swedish, 6 in Chilian, 5 in German, 2 in Hawaiian and 1 in Nicaraguan. The freight money received in trans- porting the lumber averaged $12 per 1000 feet, amounting to $860,328. Three hundred and seventy-seven cargoes of lumber were sent in Ameri- can vessels to coastwise ports, amounting to 257,689,438 feet, valued at $3,349,957. The freight money received for transportation averaged $6 per 1000 feet, amounting to $1,289,445. how distributed. For the benefit of doubtful students in geography, the shipments in 1885 are given herewith — the shipments above covering cargoes sent out in 1887, the following list having been taken from shipping records at the wharves in Tacoma, as follows: Distributed to the following foreign countries: Chili, Peru, Bolivia, Argentine Republic, Uruguay, Mexico, United States of Columbia, Nor- way, England, Ireland, British possessions in Australia, New Caledonia, Hawaiian Islands, British Columbia, China and Japan. From the above, the reader is left to his own conjectures as to the possibilities of Tacoma, as he notes that this city has the market of the world before it; but for his further enlightment he must consider that the expense of pulling heavy trains by the way of the ‘ ‘switch back’ ’ across the Cascade mountains naturally deters shipments, and it must also be re- membered that even the “switchback” track has not been in existence long. This fact will explain why, as yet, but little of this export has been received from east of the mountains, the increase in exports of 1887 over 1886 coming partly from the railway traffic over the switchback. In other words, the furthest east that exports have been received is from Spokane Falls. The great tunnel through the Cascade mountains, which the Northern Pacific will have finished by June 1, at the furthest, possibly twenty days sooner, will be the cause of doubling the exports for 1888. Another important fact is that Eastern Washington is now filling up in its agricultural districts as rapidly as Dakota ever augmented its population. The same applies to the Big Bend countries, the Yakima and Kittitas val- leys and the long stretch of agricultural land in the Palouse country, all east of the Cascades. THIS INCREASED POPUEATION will treble the increase of acreage employed. The most startling, yet true, statement is that any and all of these enumerated sections will raise more wheat and grain to the area, of acreage than any other country known to man. The actual yield of wheat per acre in these valleys will be thirty to thirty-five bushels, and where will this surplus grain find market? Via Tacoma and Puget Sound. If the price of wheat continues low, remem- WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 75 ber that, while Dakota is raising her average of twenty-three bushels per acre, Washington Territory is raising her thirty-five bushels on the same amount of land, viz., one acre, and with an ocean outlet, with freight to Liverpool less than to New York, yes, less than to Chicago; the Washing- ton Territory farmer can continue to raise wheat at half the price Dakota does. Can the reader now realize what it is that will make Tacoma grow ? And yet, this one item of grain is the weakest or lightest revenue of this coast. Consider also, that when the country tributary to this coast is as fully settled as Minnesota and Dakota, and this settlement is coming now so rapidly that Tacoma will handle all the surplus products raised from the Eastern Montana line to the shores of Puget Sound. When that time comes, how much more in shipments will Duluth have over Tacoma? Duluth has jumped into a population of 37,000 people from 15,000 in about two years. Tacoma will grow faster, if a water front and shipping inter- est make a city, for now Tacoma is an infant shipping port to what she will be five years hence. Duluth has several railroads — five or more. Tacoma has one. It will take two or three years to build another road over these mountains. As Tacoma has the only eastern railway outlet direct, and is the actual inevitable and permanent terminus of a main trunk line, she will grow beyond the fear of any possible rival, and her prestige will be settled and assured ere any rival city on this coast can equal or outstrip her. If the many railways running into Duluth should reduce the price of freight and also force each road to cut or fight for its pro rata share of freight, could not the Northern Pacific, for the sake of carrying the most of the produce, make rates that would justify it (by the increased quantity of each crop it would get) in hauling grain for an European market via Tacoma? It could land the volume of grain products from the Missouri slope in Dakota to this coast, reaping its reward, even if it carries it at a less prorata rate than to Duluth, simply because it could thus carry the whole product to market without dividing the haul with competitors. New York is in the front of America, with the markets of the world be~ fore it. Tacoma is in the rear of America, with the same market; and’ while the distance to Liverpool via Cape Horn forces the longer trip for sailing vessels from here instead of New York, the nearness of China and Japan to Tacoma over New York more than compensates; with this addi- tional advantage to Tacoma that China is emulating the progressive nations and is fast becoming our very best foreign customer. 7 6 WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. Coal and Iron Galore. Her Coae Interests One of the Most Vitae Factors in the Wonderful Growth of Tacoma. — A Vast Increasing Home Demand with Excellent Markets to the East and South. — All Choicest Gas and Coking Coals have been Found and are being Mined. — Iron Ore in Inexhaustible Quantities on Either Side of the Cascade Range. — The Entire Product of the Alaskan Gold Mines to be Sent to Tacoma for Reduction. — Puget Coal Fields. — An Important and Certain Factor in the Growth of Tacoma. — Black Diamonds Unsurpassed in Quality. — California in the Field. — The Principal Mines. 7 "ACOMA, W. T., Special Correspondence Pioneer Press, April 9. — The coal interests of Tacoma, through its immediate tributary fields, is a vitally important and now certain factor in the development and rapid growth of this city, and it is destined to be one of the most important industries. Aside from the vast increasing home demand; the coal inter- ests have a market to the east practically to the Dakota line, and in gas and coking coals Dakota can be included as a purchaser. Better coals are found as mining progresses, and economy in production is fast securing a minimum cost. If the lower beds in the formation should yield a better •coal, the greater advantage is with this section — yet all these coals are merchantable, and are fast supplanting foreign coals in California. That state consumed 1,500,000 tons in 1886. Up to a very recent date the capital employed, the means of transportation to market and the number of available mines were limited. Now, though the coal interest here is in its infancy, it is becoming a leading export in the costwise trade, and if the California demand continues to increase in the ratio of the past, 75 per cent, of the coal used in that state will be furnished from the coal fields of Puget Sound. A better conception of the extent of the California demand is shown in the fact that that state has no coal, or nominally none, and the larger mines in this and adjacent counties are owned and worked by California railroads. The Central Pacific own and consume the entire yield of the Carbonado mines. The product is hauled by rail from the mines, thirty miles distant from Tacoma, run into the great coal bunkers on the wharves here, and run thence by chutes into the hold of the com- pany’s ships, which are daily loading here at this port. The published claim that Washington Territory is the Pennsylvania not only of the Pacific coast but of the Northwest, is no idle or unwarranted boast. Unough has already been discovered and developed to establish this claim. All the coal fields proper have been found west of the Cascade range, and the very choicest and best coking and gas coals have been found and are being mined in this (Pierce) county, of which Tacoma is the county seat. An idea of the importance of these coal mines can best be formed in the WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 77- statement that the only coal ever yet found west of the Missouri river that will coke is from the mines immediately tributary to this city. The analysis of the coke from these mines proves it the superior of the Con- nellsville (Pa.) coke, viz: Pierce county coke — carbon 60.67' Connellsville coke — carbon 60.OO' ANOTHER IMPORTANT FACT. Another very important fact is that every city on Puget Sound using gas buys this Pierce county coal, as up to the present time no other gas coal on this sound has been discovered. The coals are either bituminous or semi-bituminous, and while all bituminous coals do not make coke, those tested here have made a superior coke. In other words, the majority- of the mines worked in this county furnish the bituminous character of coal, while in adjacent counties the mines worked furnish lignite coal.. The classification of these coals in their adaptability to general use is that the lignite is admirable for steam and domestic purposes, while the Pierce county bituminous coal is excellent, not only for these purposes, but also* for gas, forge coal and coke, thus establishing the certainty that smelters or reduction works must find lodgment in Tacoma. All the elements, viz : lime, coal, coke and ore, are here or in close proximity to this city. The coal measures in the Puget Sound baisin are of the tertiary formation. In tracing the seams of coal, disregarding minor irregularities, it is found they lie in a wide trough between the Cascade and Olympic ranges. The * lignites are found in the central part of this trough, and strata-graphicilly in the upper series, while lower down in the series true coals, or those re- sembling them are found. A belief prevails that the tertiary rocks rest, unconformably on the cretaceous, and are separated from it by a lapse of time during which the folding of the older beds and elevation of mountains took place ; but it is not improbable th^t in some places there may be: a more or less complete series of passage beds between cretaceous and ter- tiary, as occurs on the eastern slopes of the Rocky mountains ; or that there may even be two unconformable series of tertiary rocks. THE COAE ANALYZED. An analysis of the coals in Pierce and adjacent counties is here given, from which the reader can see the relative value of each, and easily deter- mine the advantage given to Tacoma over other points, by the superiority of her coal for manufacturing purposes: Carbon Hill coal, mined at 'Carbonado, Pierce county; Wingate vein — Fixed carbon 64.58 Volatile, combustible matter (carbonaceous) 28. 99 Moisture 2.33 Ash '*'3-94 Sulphur, traces 16 IOO.OQ 7 « WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. South Prairie coal, Pierce county — Fixed carbon Volatile, combustible matter Moisture Ash Sulphur, traces 64.06 28.06 2.22 5-52 .14 100.00 Bucoda lignite coal, Thurston county — Fixed carbon 49-75 Volatile 35.40 Moisture 12.55 Ash 2.30 Roslyn mine, east of the Cascade Range; semi-bituminous coal— Fixed carbon Volatile Moisture Ash Sulphur ... 100.00 59-31 30.29 3-35 6-93 .12' 100.00 These analyses clearly establish that the bituminous coal of Pierce county, which is to-day the best coal on Puget Sound — the Wingate vein at the head — is far suprior to all other coal in competition, and that the Roslyn coal, which is on the eastern side of the mountain, is next best, and is the best coal on that side as far as known. The Thurston county lignite, but little remote from semi-bituminous, is the superior to all other lignites on this coast, as it does not exhibit the slightest trace of sulphur. IN SUCCESSFUL OPERATION. The following are the coal mines now in successful operation near here. The majority haul their products by rail to this market, and ship all surplus not consumed in Tacoma, from here, viz: Carbonado mines, coking coal, owned by Central Pacific railway, a mountain of coal in the mine. Output 30,000 tons per month. South Prairie mine, gas coal, owned by San Francisco parties. Out- put, 10,000 tons per month. Among the best in this market. Present working vein about four feet. Inexhaustible. Wilkeson mines, coking coal. - Working three veins, five feet, six feet and eight feet thick. Two mines, one owned by Northern Pacific, and used by them; one owned by Tacoma Coal company. Output, 4,000 tons each; 8,000 total. Bucoda mines. Owned by Messrs. Buckley, Coulter & Davis, Taco- ma. Output, 12,000 tons per month. This vein is six feet thick. The above four mines are turning out 60,000 tons per month, which amount will be rapidly increased hereafter. At this time they carry a total pay roll of 750 men. The character of this coal has but recently become known away from home, but the foreign demand is constantly increasing. With the completion of the tunnel under the Cascade range, the demand for this coal must increase, while the shipments to California WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 79 are steadily increasing. The following item pertaining to coal shipments is taken from the holiday number of the Daily hedger of this city, and shows the extent of this trade, now hardly begun. There were 251 coal cargoes shipped during the year from Puget Sound to coastwise ports, amounting to 520,520 tons, valued at $2,602,- 600. The freight money received for transportation was $1,301,300. VEINS OF IRON. Immense Veins of Iron Ore found in the Cascade Range. — Hematite and Magnetite Inexhaustible. — Great Iron Works Assured. The existence of iron ore in inexhaustible quantities in and around Cleelum on the eastern side of the Cascades, as well as on the west side of the range, has long been known, but not until the completion of the Northern Pacific to Tacoma has the discovery received the attention it deserves. The governor of this territory, in his official report to the sec- retary of the interior, states that “it is an established fact that bog iron ore of the best quality exists in practically exhaustless quantities through- out the Puget Sound basin. ’ ’ Its exact location is now given — due south and running parallel to the Yakima river; three miles from Cleelum the iron belt commences, and runs to the west to the Cascade mountains. From twelve to fifteen distinct veins are now uncovered, the veins varying in thickness from three to -fifteen feet. This belt covers about twenty-five continuous miles, the ore of this section generally being magnetic ore. The next belt is up the Cleelum river. It commences about twelve miles north of Cleelum. Here is a group of mines, included in which is the purchase of a wealthy syndicate. This syndicate has a representative who is located in Tacoma. This gentleman is an experienced man in iron mining and associated with him are gentlemen equally well versed in the reduction of iron ores. They have secured several valuable claims. Their intention is to erect massive iron works at the mines, or rather to remove to these mines a two million dollar plant they now own elsewhere. L,et the reader be assured that this statement is an absolute fact, which can be substanti- ated by addressing the chamber of commerce of this city. The name of this company and its officers or stockholders and superintendent would be given but for th£ fact that the publication of this at this particular time will materially prejudice certain pending interests. Suffice to say that the name of this company is well knoWn in this country and abroad and it represents a vast capital. The Northern Pacific or its officers can furnish the requi- site information to those seeking the facts concerning these iron works. When pending negotiations are consummated these works will be estab- lished. The Take Superior iron belt is of minor import to the importance of these 8o WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. VAST IRON FIELDS in this territory. One seam or vein, next adjacent to the group owned by this syndicate, can be followed as uncovered for three miles, and is from 30 to 96 feet thick. The ore in both of these properties — the syndicate’s purchase consisting of three seams or veins, each of which will average from 40 to 90 feet — is both hematite and magnetite, principally the former.. An old experienced miner or expert declares that the field now uncovered presents the largest body of iron ore ever seen in any mine. By assa}^ these ores run 60 per cent of metalic iron, and are practically free from sul- phur and phosphorus, and are suitable for the very best steel or Bessemer rails. Between the two properties above enumerated is still another dis- trict or field; it lies between the property of the syndicate and Cleelum,, and consists of three distinct veins of equal thickness, as above. In the same district, magnificent copper mines exist, the ore being known as. peacock, and run over 60 per cent in copper. Gold and silver quartz lodes are not far distant and within a radius of five miles from the group of iron mines owned by the syndicate is an abundance of lime rock, sam- ples of which are reported as assaying 90 per cent of lime. In the Sno- qualmie pass, a section of country fourteen miles north of the east end of the “switchback,” there is abundance of iron, innumerable veins; also silver, gold, marble and lime mines and quarries. The Northern Pacific has surveyed a branch railway this fourteen miles, it being through a practically level route, which, upon completion, will open this country to immediate manufacturing occupancy. As though nature in her liberali- ty sought to omit nothing, there is found at a distance of but two miles from one of the Northern Pacific branches an excellent quality of fire clay. Coal fields abound in and around these mines, and it would seem that nothing but salt was lacking to furnish all the component parts requisite in the reduction of these various ores. The distance to all these valuable mines from Tacoma is trivial. Ere a great while America can point with pride to her |Puget Sound rails, nails, forgings, sheets, etc., and as the gov- ernment proposes to fortify her Western coast and establish a Western naval station, it would not be surprising if she should utilize some of the naval, or water front reservations near here — of which she has several — for her Western navy yard. Here she could build her guns and arma- ment cheaper than at any point in the United States. ALASKA GOLD MINES. Their Entire Yield to be Reduced at Tacoma — Great Reduction Works Assured , with a Capacity of Four Hundred Tons per Day. Ground has been selected, cleared of timber, and laid out for immense smelters or reduction works at Tacoma, and the right of way for WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 8l the railway secured. The road is contracted for, and is to be speedily built to these works. These works are being built by Dennis Ryan and others of St. Paul and the Bast. The necessity for the erection of such works has been apparent to the Northern Pacific and the monied interests of the city for some time. All the preliminaries for the immense plant had been nominally arranged last year, but a temporary delay occurred in the right of way through the land of the immense Tacoma saw mills of Mr. Hansen, situated on the lower part of the bay, but this difficulty has been harmonized and the work begun, both for the short strip of railway and the smelters themselves. The location of these big mills is most excel- lent. It is far enough away from the city to free it from objectionable sulphurous smoke incident to the smelters at Butte, and the grounds are accessible by ships, steamers or rail. The rapid development of the Coeur d’Alene mines, whose ore is now shipped long distances, the Salmon river mines and copper, silver and gold fields just east of the Cascades next adjacent to the big iron fields near Cleelum (now commenced in develop- ment and owned by Tacoma parties) have prompted the erection of this immense smelter. But the Alaska mines probably have had a material influence in this undertaking. These mines have immence machinery already located near Juneau, and old experienced miners declare the ore unusually rich and comparatively easy to mine. With the reduction works completed here, the entire product of Alaska will be sent here. This city being the terminus of the Alaska steamers, vessels will go to Alaska loaded with merchandise, and come back loaded with ore. With- in the past three weeks an immense invoice of groceries bought here from a large wholesale house was shipped direct to Juneau, Alaska, showing the possibilities of this trade. With all the various gold, silver, copper and lead mines near and tributary to Tacoma, the wisdom of locating the big smelters here is clearly shown. This one industry will contribute to the material and rapid growth of this city. SALMON RIVER MINKS. These mines are east and north of the Cascade range — and the Yaki- ma, Kittitas and other magnificent agricultural regions, including the Big Bend and Palouse country — all find an outlet or market via Tacoma. The Salmon river mines, all of recent discovery, will prove the richest in galena ores of any mines yet discovered. Several hundred claims are filed in this district, and a great number will be worked from this on, Tacoma parties, a syndicate, have purchased a fifty- ton concentrator which will be erected at their mines there, and it is estimated that fully $500,000 in machinery will be placed in this new mining belt within the next twelve months. All this ore is destined for Tacoma, to be reduced in the large smelter or 82 WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. reduction works in this city. The ores from these mines so far have been transported by wagons or pack mules a distance of 1 65 miles to the nearest point on the Northern Pacific, thence shipped by rail to Denver, Omaha^ San Francisco or Wickes, paying this enormous freight and still leaving a handsome profit. The value of these mines to Tacoma is apparent to any one. Tacoma capital has, added to other interests, built a steamer at, or near Kllensburgh, which by traversing the navigable waters to these mines, reduces the wagon haul to a comparatively short distance. The completion of the railroad now projected to the Salmon River country will bring the entire products to this city, it being the nearest point to reduc- tion works. The superabundance of coal, coke, lime and iron, gives these works the cheapest possible fluxes for the smelting and reduction to bul- lion of these new and rich mines. freight receipts. The average number of freight trains arriving daily in Tacoma is ten; this excludes Sunday. Of the number three are coal trains, which haul a daily average of 120 cars of coal to the bunkers at the wharf. The other sey^ji trains bring in 105 loaded cars, this being the daily average since Jan. 1, 1888, and up to March 27, the date these figures were secured. The grand total of loaded cars received here in the eighty-seven days is 7,770, carrying 116,550 tons of freight, or an average of 1,575 tons P er diem. These figures are about double those of one year ago, and present indications point to a doubled increase for the coming year. All this freight, the passenger trains and all of the shipping is done under the hill along the shores of the bay, and entirely out of sight of people on the streets. Tacoma to be seen in its greatness must be viewed at the wharves and depot. A SHIPPING POINT. Tacoma is the shipping point from which Vancouver Island receives its main supply of live stock, and at its stock yards there pass every week for shipment to British Columbia and Seattle eight car loads or 144 head of cattle, and twenty car loads or 1,600 sheep and a few hogs. In addi- tion, there is an average of 100 head of horses per week which pass through the city. The local consumption of live stock in Tacoma and sales ag- gregates 150 head of cattle, 300 sheep and seventy-five hogs, besides about thirty calves, and this number is daily increasing. WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 83 \ Yield of the Forests. Ere Long Over a Million Feet of Lumber Will be Sawed Each Day in Tacoma . — Two Massive Mills Now in Course of Construction and Five Already on the Ground. — A Phenomenal Building Record for 188 7, Which will be Doubled the Coming Year. — Excellent Schools and Newspapers , Sure Signs of the Character of a Community. — An Im- mense Wholesale and Retail Trade. — Hotel Accommodations Nowhere Better. — Lumber Trade. — Something as to the Oldest and Greatest Bidustry in Tacoma. — An Immense Daily Cut Soon to be Quadrupled. T ACOMA, W. T. special Correspondent, Pioneer Press, April 9. — Two hundred and fifty thousand feet of lumber sawed each working day in 1887 is the exact average of one mill here — the Tacoma. There are four other mills here now, or immediately tributary, and two massive mills in course of construction. One of these mills has purchased twenty-five acres for its mill site. This is the Pacific Mill company, with an actual capital of a half million dollars, its president being I. R. McDonald, of Seattle. Mr. Hanson is the sole owner of the Tacoma mill. The last named mill has lately been running day times and with a half force at night and em- ploying a total of about three hundred hands. The last week in March this mill cut 2,100,000 feet of lumber. During 1887, in addition to its cut of regular lumber, it also cut 16,000,000 feet of lath, 310,000 feet of pickets. The sawdust and waste of this mill is burned continuously in an immense tall and large brick furnace or kiln, and if this waste was measured into cord wood would equal one hundred cords per day. The actual daily ex- pense of running this mill alone, not including loggers, as stated by its proprietor, is $3,000 per day. He built this mill at an early day, it then being the only mill on this whole sound, except one small portable con- cern several miles from here. As an experiment recently this mill cut against the biggest record of any mill on this coast. It ran ten and one- half hours and turned out on this occasion 417,000 feet of lumber. The daily cut in lath is 800 bundles, or 80,000 lath. Where does such a mill sell its products ? The answer would be plain to those here by seeing the number of ships daily loading at this saw mill’s wharf, averaging eight vessels. The proprietor owns five sailing vessels himself, and but recently bought a ship (costing to build $57,000) with capacity of 1,500,000 feet per cargo. Its market is coastwise ports, Australia, South America, etc. It could ship lumber to China at less expense than any other point on Puget Sound, for China is several hundred miles nearer here than it is from San Francisco. The logs for these enormous mills (this one running in adjacent frames, two gang saw mills with thirty-three saws to each 8 4 WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. gang) come from all over the sound, from lands owned by the proprietor and other parties, and these are towed to the mill boom by steamers and tugs also the property of Mr. Hanson. It is safe to predict that within a year the daily cut of lumber at Tacoma will equal 1,000,000 feet. This industry is one of the corner stones of Tacoma’s coming greatness. Here is one of what will eventually be a dozen mills, this one employing in the mill 300 men, aside from its 400 or 500 employees aboard vessels and in logging camps. At the ratio of the past increase, with the completion of the two big mills to be erected here in 1888, the total pay-roll list in the lumber interests of Tacoma will crowd well up to 5,000 men in all of its branches. PHENOMENAL BUILDING. Record of Building in Tacoma for 1887. — A Grand Record Which Will be Surpassed the Coming Year. During 1887 there were erected in this city 350 buildings, of which sixty-seven were business houses, many of the latter being the elegant business blocks now seen on these streets. There were also three new school buildings, two new churches, five hose houses and 450 feet of wheat warehouses, nine buildings in all. The total cost of these buildings ag- gregates $869,583. 15. The number given and the cost of the same is under the estimate, and in round numbers it is safe to say that $1,000,000 was expended here, and that it erected four hundred buildings. The building season has not fairly set in for 1888, but the contractors and archi- tects report that if not another building is contracted for this year the number already either under process of completion or arranged for will cost over a million dollars. The list for 1888 to date em- braces eighty new business houses or blocks and 350 new dwellings. A $4,000 addition to the East school building is among the new enterprises, as also new churches costing $20,000, and the Methodist University to be built this year involves an eventual cost of $75,000. The exact figures even as covering existing contracts in new buildings up to April 1 , in Tacoma is $1,064,000. Nothing but shortage in mechanical labor and building materials (and that only brick, all other in superabundance) will defeat the erection of 650 to 700 new buildings, and the expenditure of $1,500,000 in 1888. Building in Tacoma costs less than at most any point in the Northwest, or more properl}'' stated, at no point can frame buildings be erected as cheaply as here. The following market reports are clipped from the daily Ledger in this city : Building Material — In great demand. Cement, $4.50 per bbl; plaster, $3.75 per bbl; hair, $1.50 per sack; lime, $1.75® 1.80 per bbl. WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 85 Dumber — Market very firm. Rough common, per M, $11; rough common sized, per M, $12; flooring, 1x4, No. 1, perM, $20; flooring, 1x4, No. 2, per M, $15; flooring, 1x6, No. 1, per M, $18; flooring, 1x6, No. 2, per M, $15: dressed lumber, is, per M, $16; dressed lumber, 4s, per M, $20; for rustic No. 1, per M, $18; rustic, No. 2, per M, $15; dressed clear cedar, per M, $30; clear cedar, No. is, $30; No. 2s, $20; door jambs, pulley styles, etc., per M, $22.50; pickets, 1^x1^, 3 and NA feet, each, i^c; flat pickets, ix^, dressed, each, i^c; gutter, 3x4, per foot, 7c; gutter, 4x6, per foot, 9c; mouldings, inch and under, per foot, ic; mouldings, 1 % inch and up, ^ c; laths, $2.35; laths, i$ 4 , $2.50; shingles, No. 1, per M, $2.35; shingles, No. 2, per M, $1.65. fruit growing. No Fruits Grown in Other Regions Can Compare With Those of Wash- ington in Quality , Size and Abundance of Yield. — Some Surprises. Such fruit no country ever raised. Better apples, pears, plums, prunes, blackberries, gooseberries, currants, cherries, are grown nowhere. But above all else give us this territory for strawberries and melons. Think of growing four tons of strawberries to the acre. You do not believe it! Suppose you write J. W. Blackwell at Tacoma. This gentleman has lived in California and Oregon, and for four years has resided on the up- lands, three miles south of this city. He realized seven cents per pound for his berries, grows all varieties — Wilson’s and Albany s — his profitable kind being the Jumbo’s. He has an acre and a quarter in strawberries which bloomed three weeks ago. If frost should destroy the bloom, the berries rebloom afterwards. Picking for the market commences about May 25, and continues until about July 1. Samples of strawberries pre- served in jars seen here justify the report of enormous sized ones, for it is said that this market has seen home-grown ones so large that two or three berries would fill the ordinary box, or four berries would weigh a pound. That they grow to perfection in size and flavor is beyond dispute. This climate and soil is conspicuously excellent in producing plums and prunes. It may not appear natural to a Minnesota or Dakota man, but it is delight- fully refreshing to see fruit trees in full bloom, as they are now, bursting out. A. N. Miller, of Puyallup, Pierce county, Wash., has been here since i860. He raises twenty-five varieties of apples, the same varieties, generally, as he grew or saw grown in New York before coming here. He declares this yield to be much greater, 'more certain and to keep better than Eastern apples. Be that as it may, he furnishes the hotel now with apples that he has carried through the winter, and no finer flavored or sounder apples can be found. This gentleman raises every variety of fruit; and states he is less troubled with fruit pests here than in the East. It is folly to deny the pre-eminently successful raising of fruit in this country. The 86 WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. day is not far distant when the choicest canned fruits will come from Wash- ington Territory. The growth of trees here is very rapid and they yield at two to three years old, the only difficulty being the profusion of yield. All the young fruit trees here must be propped or the limbs will break off with their own fruitful weight. Nothing pays better here so far than fruit raising, while prunes from Puget Sound, when grown in quantities for the market, will prove the choicest known. Some portions of the coast raise peaches and grapes — in fact anything but tropical fruit — while the Yakima valley raises tobacco of superior quality, the yield being at the rate of 1,000 pounds per acre. Parties there are going into tobacco raising as a busi- ness. The nearest perfection in all things, weather, products, people, cheapness in living, rapidity of making money and health, is Washington Territory. Ere long all America will admit this. INTO THE MILLIONS. An Immense Wholesale and Retail Trade Enjoyed by Tacoma. — Chances for Those With Capital. — Gratifying Growth. The business of Tacoma for the year ending March 31, 1888, was very encouraging, and the outlook is for fully double that amount the com- ing year. The following figures give an estimate, as nearly as can be made, of the total amount of business transacted by Tacoma merchants during the year above mentioned. The estimate is a conservative one, based on the experience of the best business men of the city, and is be- lieved to be considerably within the amount rather than above. In every case merchants claim that their business for the first three months of 1888, is fully double that of the first three months of 1887, an d in many cases it has quadrupled. All branches of business are represented except lumber, coal and banking, and the sum total of the retail sales of this city for the twelve months, from March, 1887, to March, 1888, as taken from dealers themselves figure up $7,363,000. The retail figures do not include any wholesale trade. There is an exclusive wholesale grocery, wholesale paper, and nearly every line has a jobbing department included under the retail roof. The grocery house, although but recently established, is selling at the rate of half a million per annum. At no point on this coast, or in the Northwest, is there a better or more extended field for exclusive wholesale dealers. New towns are springing up all around. The mining Camps of the territory, the fast-developing Alaska (this city being the terminus of this line of steamers) and the great influx of emigration — 4,500 new citizens coming to Washington Territory in March alone — will make Tacoma an immense distributing point. The reader must remember that railway con- nection with the East was but recently completed here. He must also WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 87 ¥ '' remember that the new tunnel does away with climbing over a great mountain, which lessens freight expenses. The men coming here with capital enough to carry good wholesale stocks are absolutely certain of rapidly building up a magnificent and permanent trade to a constituency that is surer and better pay than older countries. Here is a splendid point at this moment for a wholesale queensware store — or retail for that matter — and the same in a shelf hardware trade, including heavy hard- ware. Let the man seeking a location correspond with the chamber of commerce here, or come out himself and talk with the people. These merchants are broadgauged, wide-awake men. No “hide-bound” men live here. They will welcome reputable dealers with means — and only such merchants should come here. SHINGLE MILLS. A Number of Them Scattered Through the Woods, and Many More to be Erected. The lumber mills referred to in another arcticle are exclusive of shingle mills, a good number of which are now scattered through the woods, and more are to be erected. These mills make cedar shingles, the durability of which is known to all. Some of the buildings erected in the town of Steilacoom in 1842 were covered with cedar “shakes,” and some of these “shakes” are still in existence, weather worn, but sound as ever, the writer having seen and handled one that is preserved by a gentleman here to show the durability of cedar shingles. These shingles are in great de- mand, which keeps beyond supply and they are shipped to Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania; in fact throughout the East. One of the largest lumber firms in Chicago had a representative here within one month seek- ing to buy the entire products of the .shingle mills around Tacoma. A New York commission and ship lumber merchant spent two days in Tacoma recently. He has been handling ship lumber manufactured by Mr. Hanson, and came in quest of more. Two ship loads of spars, finished and ready for use, were shipped lately to ship builders at Bath, Me. ; also to Boston and all kinds of ship lumber are sent from here to ship-building ports all over the United States. The longest piece of timber ever cut and finished without knot or flaw in the Tacoma mill was a 24X24-inch square timber that measured 125 running or continuous feet. The Blakely mill, before it burnt down, sawed one piece, 24x24^2 inches square, 15 1 feet long, free from knots. This enormous length timber is now in the Mechanical institute in San Francisco on exhibition. As to the size of the logs in these forests reports state some very large and long straight trees grow here. The “boom ” at the mill has several logs on hand, seven 88 WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. feet in diameter at the butt. A shipment by car load lots has been made to the Pullman Car works at Pullman, 111 ., being principally cedar. No prettier colored or more uniform or attractive grained cedar is found than the trees cut on Puget Sound. The result of the beauty and desirability of this superior finishing wood is that a con- stantly increasing demand from all parts of America continues, be- sidesthe demand from seaport markets. The average yield per acre of timber is given by experts at 30,000 feet. The trees growing in Wash- ington are fir, pine, cedar, spruce, hemlock, larch, some white oak, maple, ash, cottonwood, with other varieties. It is not a difficult task to find fir trees 250 feet high, pine 150 and white cedar 100. THE TACOMA PRESS. A true index to the character of a community is shown in its news- papers, and nothing so thoroughly convinces a stranger of the true status of the town he visit*, as the columns of the local press. Here is a city with 15,000 population which supports two daily, three weekly and one monthly paper. In addition there is a real estate advertising paper, a daily issue of mortgages, deeds, etc., a theatrical issue — all doing well. The Daily Eedger is an eight-page forty-eight column Republican paper, which prints a full daily report from the associated press. Its columns, filled with “ads,” bespeak its popularity and success. Its editorials are forcible and effective and its loyalty to Tacoma commands the admiration and respect of this people. The News, an evening four-page paper, is well patronized, ably edited and newsy, representing in politics the present ad- ministration. This journal is well patronized, its columns representing a line of active and aggressive dealers. Both papers are a credit to the city, and each contributes in no small degree to the growth and prosperity of Tacoma. The visitor in this city is forcibly impressed with the possible future of the city, for these two papers constantly set forth Tacoma’s many advantages and do this in a conservative way. The Northwest Horti- culturist, a weekly journal, is doing lasting work for Tacoma and the ter- ritory in educating farmers to a proper cultivation of the farm, garden and orchard. There is also the Tacoma World, a live weekly, devoted to social and local matter. ANNIE WRIGHT SEMINARY. The existence of the Annie Wright seminary lessens the terror of the thought of being 2,000 miles away trom Eastern schools. This seminary would be a credit to any city in America, as its faculty consists of instruc- tors eminently fitted for their profession and possessing the experience of association with Vassar and other prominent institutions. The Annie Wright seminary is an institution for the education of young ladies. Its location is in the midst of the better homes of Tacoma, and is both com- manding and attractive. The very finest view of the city mountains and WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 89 bay is secured from the magnificent seminary building. Its scholars are from Montana, Idaho, California, Oregon and this territory. This institu- tion is under the supervision of the Episcopal church, and is the just pride of this community. This building and St. Euke’s Memorial church (Episcopal) are memorial buildings, the first named after and the second dedicated in memory of Annie Wright, the deceased daughter of Charles B. Wright, of Philadelphia. To Mr. Wright this city is most deeply in- debted. He has been a working and distinguished director of the North- ern Pacific railway, and to him more than any other officer, director or stockholder is this road and the whole country indebted. When others faltered, wearied or were doubltful he was loyal in heart and ready with money. He has made the occupancy of this country possible, and it seems fitting that the memorial structures which he has built here should be re- vered. Tacoma honors itself in honoring Mr. Wright. EXCELLENT SCHOOLS. Few cities have better schools and school buildings than Tacoma. There are six substantial buildings owned by the two school districts, which cost in all about $66,000, exclusive of the sites, which are valued at as much more. In every case the sites are at least 120x300 feet, and most of them are double that size. The Central school occupies a com- manding site between G street and Yakima avenue, and cost $24,000. In 1887 there was a total number of 1,250 pupils enrolled in the public schools of the city; this year there is a total of 1575. In 1887 there were twenty- three teachers employed besides the principal; this year there are twenty- five teachers in addition to the principal. The increase of scholars varies from 60 to no per month, at which rate there will be an increase of nearly one thousand before the year closes. In point of ability the teachers will compare favorably with those of any city in the East, and most of them are graduates of either a normal school or of a creditable college in the Eastern or adjoining states. HOTEL ACCOMMODATIONS. If all the cities along the line of the Northern Pacific could induce the road to build hotels and pattern them after the Tacoma hotel here, then indeed would the West have the finest hotels in America. One of the blessings to Tacoma- — if not chief and important factor in its growth — is the hotel built here by the Northern Pacific, costing $250,000. It is pat- terned after the Hotel Del Monte at Monterey, Cal. , and is furnished lux- uriously. So home-like and comparatively inexpensive is this hotel that hundreds of travelers through California and Mexico, those coming in from the East and residents of Oregon and California, come here for rest, climate and recreation, as well as for the salt breezes of the bay. This cozy hotel has been the means of bringing many a dollar here for invest- ment, and it will contribute as a future factor in the development of this 9 o WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. city. Nor is this the only hotel here, for the Central and Western are good houses, and seventeen more hotels are here, a total of twenty hotels. The number being insufficient, other good hotels are going up. Two will soon be completed, so travelers need not fear that they will be out in the cold. There are accommodations now here, if crowded, for 1,200 guests per day. The need of this is shown in the fact that the total arrivals here now, via steamers and cars, run up to the enormous figures of 9,006 people per month. These figures are arrived at by the records of the steamboat officers and railway passenger departments, including the hotel registers. The local chamber of commerce, anticipating the rush of immigration have joined the Northern Pacific railway in the construction of temporary quarters for those coming here and finding the hotels full. This building is a long one, with a hall its entire length, each side thereof being neat little rooms with bunks, the whole patterned after the Pullman sleeper. At one end of the building is the wash room, with hydrant attachment to the city water works. The dining room is at the other end. This new build- ing will prove a blessing to many coming here, as it will afford shelter and a temporary stopping place while people are looking for a permanent home. The chamber of commerce here has outstripped all other towns, as this new building is the neatest, most handy and best ever put up for the purpose on the Northern Pacific or by any one else. HOPS. A prairie farmer, who has been accustomed to look from the door of his home over waving fields of growing grain, will, if he comes here, ex- press his pity in tones of tenderness for the poor farmer who is grubbing out a ten-acre patch in Western Washington. He will inwardly thank fortune that he is not compelled to support his family ou a ten-acre farm. What a waste of pity this is ! Here is a clear case to exemplify the ignor- ance of the prairie farmer. J. P. Stewart lives at Puyallup up in the valley of this name, ten miles from Tacoma. He has resided here since 1855 or thereabouts. For sixteen consecutive years he has raised hops off the same land. His yield has averaged him 1,000 pounds per acre, while some yields have been as high as 2,000 pounds. His average price per pound in that sixteen years has been 2 1 cents, and his profit has been about or near $200 per acre. This one experience is the prime or possibly best of all, yet it shows how care and good farming will pay. E. Meeker, of Puyallup, is not only a practical grower like Mr. Stewart, but is an able writer on agricultural topics. He makes an estimate, based upon the ex- perience of eleven consecutive years, the price averaging 19.30 cents per pound, with the net annual profit of $100 per acre. The picking of hops in this county is done partly by Indians. Strange as it may seem they prove the very best hands. Their aptitude to the work superinduced by their search for wild fruits has made them adepts at hop picking, while rain or WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 9 storms in nowise deter them. In this connection it will do here to state that no Chinese are employed in or around Tacoma, and no competition to white labor exists save in that of the Indians, who are civilized and thrifty. The ground or land employed in hop raising is chiefly timber land. That it is expensive land is shown from the returns it bears. The young man of pluck and a little means, whq will come here, shed his coat and work clearing his land can make more money in hops, fruits and veg- etables off of a twenty acre field than he will average off of 320 acres wheat lands. The truth of this statement is everywhere apparent in this country. This coast has many cities and if none but Tacoma grows it alone will use the products of hundreds of farms, for its population will be 100,000 ere ten years. READ ESTATE TRANSFERS. During the first seventy- two days of this year, ending March 27, there were entered for record in the office of the auditor of Pierce county, 1,965 instruments, of which 1,186 were deeds for land. The considera- tions named for these deeds amount to $1,942,013.20, showing an average per day of 16 % deeds, and of considerations amounting to $31,139. The average amount of the consideration named in each deed recorded during the year was a little over $1,654. The tardiness of non-resident property owners augments the number on the tax sale list, but the list is very small compared to cities to the east of Tacoma. An excellent showing is made by the sheriff records. There has been but one foreclosure of mortgage on real estate in over a year, and but three chattel mortgage foreclosures in same time. Of the latter a less number are recorded in this (Pierce) county than in the counties in Minnesota or Dakota. Sales of real estate involve actual cash and not credit. Property in this country cannot be bought at one-fourth or one-third down, balance in one to five years, but it usually commands all cash, or over half cash in city property. This feature is a healthy sign of the times, and proves there is no boom or in- flation here. NOT SALOON-RIDDEN. The freedom from the influence of the liquor traffic in Tacoma is one of the noticeable and encouraging signs. Here are congregated the ship- ping or sailor element, with the local stevedore, the transient western man — that migratory element (but none of the cowboy species,) and added to these is the general transient traveling public — all elements calculate to stimulate the liquor traffic to a marked degree. But in no city in the west, regardless of size, unless in prohibition states and territories, is the liquor traffic apparently under such complete control. Every other door is not a saloon, neither does the saloon invade the best blocks or business centers. There is an occasional saloon on the main thoroughfare, but the saloon business seems to be regulated chiefly to a block by itself, and it seems 92 WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. evident that the saloon interest has no deep control in local affairs. This may be accounted for by a wholesome dread this trade has of this busin ess like, self-possessed and morally inclined population, or because the dealers here are of the very best class of men and possessed of sagacity enough to know that leaving well enough alone without intruding on better localities is their best safeguard against annihilation. No studied effort on the part of this people has produced this excellent state of affairs, but the prestige of an established commercial center, as secured through the business pru- dence and wisdom of a superior commercial people, now here, seems to have assured to them a perfect freedom from an offensive saloon promi- nence in public and general affairs. A CONSPICUOUS STRUCTURE. The new headquarters of the Northern Pacific in this city is a most imposing and magnificent structure. It is on Pacific avenue, standing just above the company’s wharves, depot and freight buildings, and on a site overlooking the bay. This building will be ready for occupancy in a short time. The erection of this building at the terminus of the road, is further evidence of the interest the company takes in this city.- A further guarantee of this interest and their intent to foster Tacoma, is the fact that they will speedily erect their largest machine, car wheel, repair shops, round houses, etc., built anywhere along their line, in this city, this work to commence right away, and involving a total outlay of several hundred thousand dollars. With the expenditures of the Northern Pacific, the grand aggregate in building in Tacoma for 1888 is over $2,000,000. BANKING BUSINESS. There are four well managed and prosperous national banks in this city. Their aggregate capital foots up $550,000, their total deposits (of the four banks) are $1,350,000, and their undivided surplus, remaining over or accumulated since last declaration of dividends, is $70,000. Prob- ably no city of its size is as well and fully provided for in banks as Taco- ma, while a fifth bank with $50,000 capaital, with resources to double that amount, will open as soon as their building is ready for occupancy. These banks have studiously avoided the loaning of money for speculative or boom purposes, and they have thus kept Tacoma in a continuous healthy growth. Some of the shipping and lumber interests do their banking abroad as a matter of convenience. SHIP BUIEDING. Tacoma is an embryo ship building point. Here is secured the very choicest lumber — especially keels, spars, etc. — and the very best “knees” extant are cheaply cut out of these forests. The first ten feet above the ground of these fir, pine and cedar trees, seem to grow in a twisted, knarled and stubbornly strong condition. The trees are cut down, leaving WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 93 these ten-foot stumps, as it requires too long a time to chop through the twisted buts. A spring-board platform is erected for choppers. The roots run out in all directions and above ground, so that naturally bent ‘ ‘knees’ ’ for vessels are found in these fresh stumps in abundance, and the frame work for vessels are cheaply secured. Repairing boat ways are occupied continuously, as many vessels disabled at sea put in here for repairs. When the iron manufactories are established, Tacoma can build as dura- ble and cheap vessels as any place in the United States. WITHIN EIGHT YEARS. Striking Comparisons Illustrating the Magic Growth of Tacoma Within Eight Years. — Immense Shipments of Wheat to Foreign and Coast- wise Points from Tacoma. — Another Important Factor to the City of the Sound , Is the Abundance of Food Fishes. — Thousands of Acres of the Choicest Tillable Lands .Available for the Settler. — An Embryo Shipbuilding Point. — A Climate that is Surpassed Nowhere. — A Re- capitulation. — Striking Features of the Wonderful Growth of the City of the Sound. — A Bright Outlook. — Comparisons and Figures. Tacoma had 720 population in 1880, and 15,000 is a very low estimate of her present population. Her assessed valuation in 1880 was a half million dollars. To-day this valuation is $6,555,433. The miles of side- walk have increased from two in ’80 to fifty in ’88. No streets existed then save a wagon track through a few stumps, now .thirty-five miles of streets graded in 1888, added to former streets, gives her fifty miles of roadbed, along which are eight public school buildings and colleges, twenty churches, twenty hotels, six banks, with nearly a million and a half in deposits, one of the largest railroad buildings in the Northwest, ^ gas works, electric lights, twenty-five miles of telephone and telegraph wires, waterworks with twelve miles of mains, supplied with pure water from a fresh water lake, that is conducted through an aqueduct eleven miles long. Nor is this all, for along this fifty miles of streets are five saw mills, three shingle mills, three planing mills, sash and door factories, one steam flouring mill with a capacity of one hundred barrels per day, one tub and pail factory, one fish cannery, three foundries, ten blacksmith shops, five brick yards, one spice mill and two soda works, one railroad car shop soon to be enlarged to four times its present size, two machine shops, two wheelwrights, four boat builders and several miles of street railroad tracks now built; also a big wholesale grocery house that would do credit to Chicago, and added to all this are five hundred business houses located along the line of five parallel streets, with cross streets twice that number. Who can say that Tacoma has not grown in seven years, and 94 WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. who can foretell the growth in the next seven years ? She starts off in the ninety days of 1888 — to date — with about four hundred new houses con- tracted for, with her population increasing — as shown by postoffice and free delivery record, of forty new families per day; while 300 daily new arrivals are here to investigate. Everybody is busy; the unemployed man in this city is the lazy man, or shiftless one — as there is work for all. Here is the only city this side of St. Paul whose chamber of commerce owns its own stately block and whose income is $7,000 per year. Here also is being erected an immense smelter for the reduction of precious ores, and two large saw mills go in to swell the list, while the greatest of all great enterprises is the pending iron works, to commence the reduction of these mountains of iron. Reader, are you looking for a new home? If so, regardless of your occupation and business, if you possess thrifty hab- its and want to succeed — come here. If you are penniless, remember that nothing but hard labor will relieve you, and you had better earn money where you are than come here without it. The busy people have no time to condole with unfortunate people; neither is this or any country espec- ially inviting to penniless people. The present population here, generally, came here poor; yet to-day their assessed valuation of property, their bank deposits and bank capital, aggregated together and then divided by the number of population, gives each man, woman and child a pro rata share of $563. Helena is quoted as being the richest city for her size in the world. Her pro rata division was $571 to each inhabitant. Tacoma is and should be proud of her past record. Washington Territory and Am- erica at large, will be just as proud of her future record, for Tacoma will be the largest city on Puget Sound, and will have 100,000 population in ten years. There are good and substantial reasons for this prediction. Tacoma is the terminus of the Northern Pacific, the Oregon Railway and Navigation trains and steamers, the Alaska steamers, all Sound steamers and Central Pacific steamers. It is the terminus of the China and Japan trade proper, the center of coal, iron and lumber fields, and is the foreign shipping point for all produce from the Missouri river to the Sound, be- sides the natural reservoir, with obstructed navigation in the Columbia, of the surplus products of the Willamette Valley in Oregon. WHEAT SHIPMENTS. Shipments of Wheat to Foreign and Coastwise Ports From Tacoma — Taken From Duluth. Duluth has enjoyed the monopoly of water transportation of wheat raised along the line of the Northern Pacific until the past year. But things are changed and are still changing. It will astonish members of WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 95 the board of trade in Chicago and St. Paul to know that even Oregon wheat has this year been shipped from Portland to Tacoma, thence abroad. Wheat raised in the famous Willamette Valley in Oregon, has found a market via Tacoma. The shipment of wheat from Tacoma by cargoes has just commenced, and the future will demonstrate that all the surplus grain from the Missouri river to Tacoma, including the Oregon crop, will yet find a market from here. This last remark is most easily explained by the following extract and comparison, clipped from the Oregonian, Port- land’s most valued newspaper: On the 1 8th of January, the ship W. F. Babcock; sailed from Tacoma with the largest cargo of wheat that ever left Puget Sound — 73,033 centals. Her port expenses (not including advances to seamen) were as follows: Towage to and from the sea $300.00 Custom house charges . 70.00 Discharging ballast, at 40 cents a ton, 600 tons 240.00 Dumber for lining ship 205.00 Dabor for lining ship 100.00 Stevedoring 3,260 tons wheat in bags 978.00 Water at Tacoma 26.25 Broker’s fees, $2.50 per man 30.00 Surveyor’s fees 30.00 Total $2,059.25 If this ship, carrying over three thousand tons, had loaded at Portland, her expen- ses, at the specific rate charged here, would have been as follows: Bar towage (in and out $1,000 Bar pilotage (in and out) 352 River towage (up and down) . . 400 River pilotage (up and down 118 Discharging 600 tons ballast, at 75 cents 450 Dumber for lining 285 Dabor for lining 100 Doading 3,260 tons, at 50 cents 1,630 Dighterage, not less than 1,400 Broker’s fees, $15 per man 240 Surveyor’s fees 30 Custom house 70 Total $6,075 Here we have a total bill for loading at Portland, of $6,075, against a total bill for loading at Puget Sound (Tacoma,) of $2,059.25. In several of the smaller items, it will be seen that the fees are larger than at Puget Sound (Tacoma). Stevedoring here cost 50 cents per ton, and at Tacoma only 30 cents; to discharge ballast here costs 75 cents per ton, there 40 cents; brokerage for supplying sailors costs $15 per man here, and only $2.50 at the Sound; but it is not these smaller items that make the con- trast. Towage, pilotage and lighterage here would cost, for a ship like the Babcock, $3,270— at the Sound $300. Here is the secret of the cheaper ocean rates at Puget Sound (Tacoma,) and the corresponding higher prices for wheat. It was up to about the close of 1887, that Portland enjoyed the ex- clusive monopoly and control of the entire wheat shipping interests from 96 WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. the agricultural yields of Washington Territory and Oregon. An experi- ment was undertaken by chartering the ship Persia, to load wheat at Ta- coma for Liverpool. The result showed a clear saving of about five cents per bushel on the first shipment without any prior arrangements for the experiment in favor of this city. Since then, seven other vessels have been loaded, all of them employed since Jan. i, 1888. Their entire car- goes footed up 21,029 tons, or 700,966 bushels, an average for each vessel of 3,010 tons, or 100,138 bushels. A number of other vessels have been chartered, and a conservative estimate places the probable shipment for 1888 at 150,000 tons, or 5,000,000 bushels. The yield of Washington Territory alone is estimated at over double this amount of 1887. The Northern Pacific Elevator Company have shipped about 50 per cent, of the shipments from here. ANOTHER GREAT FACTOR. An Abundance of Food Fishes in Puget Sound and Washington Terri- tory. — Cost of Living Lessened. — Canneries Coming In. The arrival on this coast of a part of the Gloucester fishing fleet this spring, suggests the thought that the food fish of these waters will consti- tute another source of material revenue and play a conspicuous part in the financial resources of this section. The great abundance of fish in these waters is a blessing to its inhabitants, for it lessens the cost of living. The most abundant fish in this territory are the salmon in Columbia river. This great river is the dividing line between Oregon and Washinton, and fish canneries are on both sides of the stream. There are five varieties of salmon found here, viz., Dog, Humpback, Silver, Blue Back, Quinnat or T’Quinnat — the latter being the Chinook name applied to the best of these five varieties. The legislature of this territory has failed to create a fish commission, neither are there any official statistics of the fisheries of the territory. Enough is known to establish the existence of the better varie- ties of fish in quantities sufficient for commercial purposes. Halibut abound in the deeper waters of the Sound and are taken during the winter months. The absence heretofore of fishermen (with fleets and parapher- nalia or equipments) acquainted with deep sea fishing, or catching and curing for markets, has left the fisheries dormant. Unless the American fishermen are cheated out of their rights by diplomatic acumen, the Glou- cester fleet now here will hunt in the American waters of the Northern Pacific, Behring sea and the Arctic to develop these fisheries. That they will find cod banks is assured. Cod are supposed to exist along the Sound in sufficient quantities to pay for the expense of the catch, and the next in abundance to the salmon is the cod. The varieties are several — true WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 97 cod, sing cod, black cod, etc., possibly a dozen in number. These, too, are taken in deep waters. Fourteen varieties of rock fish, from the “reg grouper” of forty pounds weight to the small, dark, so-called black bass. Of the flat fish besides the halibut, are many varieties of flounders — a fish the Indians are fond of. These are very plentiful. Sturgeons, the fish that Hudson river steamers dote on, are very plentiful, varying in size from two feet to six and eight long. The Shell fish of Puget Sound, comprise several varieties. Clams — some “whoppers” in size, are very plentiful and being gathered by the Indians are very cheap. Crabs are the same — plen- tiful and large — but the oysters on this coast are exceedingly small and flavored different from Eastern oysters, but are exceedingly good eating. Lobsters are to be transplanted by the dominion government, and it is be- lieved will soon be bountiful. Canneries are increasing. One canning establishment is located at Tacoma. The future will develop the fisheries of Puget Sound and Tacoma will prove a supply depot for this industry. For information on this subject the writer is deeply indebted to Hon. James G. Swan, connected prominently with the United States museum and fish commission. LANDS FOR SETTLERS. Thousands of Acres of the Choicest Public and Railroad Lands at the Disposal of Prospective Settlers. It would be impossible to give the exact location of Public lands sub- ject to entry, but an abundance of good lands are in this country. In the Big Bend country, Palouse, Yakima and other sections, government lands are found. Some of these lands, both east and west of the mountains, are available without irrigation, this applying wholly to the lands in Western Washington. Land requiring irrigation is easily handled, as there is an abundant and never- failing quantity of water all over the territory, all of these streams being mountain streams, fed by springs and melted snow. Where small colonies go in together, they can construct ditches by their own labor, and after that, a failure is simply impossible, one remarkable feature in the superiority of the ‘ ‘sage brush’ ’ lands after water is ditched on to them. These sage brush or alluvial sand lands are the very choicest and best yielding of all the lands. Throughout the Yakima, Kittitas and other valleys, the yields after irrigation are so immense that to tell of them occasions a doubt. Forty acres of such land would outstrip in yield two hundred acres in Minnesota or Dakota. As to fruits and vegetables they grow in superabundance. All kinds of fruit raised in any but a tropical climate grow in these valleys, on both sides of the mountains. Anything but oranges, lemons, figs, etc. , can be found and of most excellent flavor. 9 8 WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. At a county fair in Yakima, some of the vegetables on exhibition weighed as follows: Potato, 6 % lbs.; cabbage, 60 lbs.; beet, 60 lbs.; turnip, 58 lbs.; carrot, 20 lbs; parsnip, three feet long; cauliflower, measured 51 inches in circumference. Of course, these were ‘ ‘show vegetables, ’ ’ but the larg- est sized vegetables ever seen anywhere by the writer are those grown throughout this whole territory, and they are as good as they are big. In the article on “hops” it will be seen that ten acres of the timber land, when well cleared, will yield more actual money to the owner than any 160 acre Dakota farm ever yet put in wheat. The Northern Pacific Railway is fast selling its lands. The following list of Northern Pacific surveyed and unsold lands is given for the information of the new home seeker — who requires but little money to commense with. Of this list about 54 per cent, are agricultural lands, 15 per cent, timber, and the balance mineral. County. Stevens Spokane .... Ivincoln Kittitas Snohomish . . King Whitman . . . Adams Garfield Columbia. . . Walla Walla Franklin . : . Klickitat Yakima Douglas Pierce Thurston . . . Dewis Cowlitz Clark Wahkiakum Pacific Chehalis. . . . Mason Acres. 205, 100 198,105 486,930 412,080 23,680 125.880 183,185 517.840 37,840 83,830 i45,56o 370, 130^ 352,160 799,640 679.880 116,610 89,930 63,370 84,040 68,64 13,100 99,770 170.840 97,88o SOME SHIPPING STATISTICS. Proof Positive That Tacoma is the Largest and Most Important City on Puget Sound. The following correspondence and data is taken from the columns of the Tacoma Daily Eedger, holiday number, Jan. 1, furnished from the port WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 99 of entry at Port Townsend. These figures clearly establish the writer’s claim that Tacoma is the largest and most important city on Puget Sound: Port Townsend, Dec. 31. — The wheat, coal and lumber trade from Puget Sound to foreign and coastwise ports has steadily increased during the past year. In fact, in the past three years, as will be shown by the the following tables, it has nearly doubled in its volume, and it promises to increase in the same ratio in the future. The total number of shipments of wheat, coal and lumber made in 1887 was 742, an increase over 1886 of 80 cargoes. The aggregate tonnage engaged for the year was 786,897, distributed as follows: Ports. Tonage. Tacoma 247,477 Seattle 246,711 Port Blakely 71,719 Port Gamble 6 1 , 85 2 Port Discovery 54,663 Port Hadlock 32,438 Port Madison 27, 287 Port Ludlow 24,078 Utsalady > 20,672 Total 786,897 There were 114 cargoes of wheat and lumber sent to foreign ports, amounting in the aggregate to 33,937 sacks of wheat, valued at $49,375, and 71,693,383 feet of lumber, valued at $1,003,186. Large shipments were made by sea of oats and other produce from the surrounding country to San Francisco, valued at $1,364,322. Merchandise to the value of $1,- 000,000 was shipped from the Sound north on Alaskan steamers during the year. The British ship Persian was dispatched from Tacoma for Fal- mouth with 33,937 sacks of wheat, valued at $49,375. The American ship W. F. Babcock also loaded 3, 100 tons wheat in Tacoma, the value of which is not included in this statement, as well as the British four-masted ship Wendur and the ship Reaper. Recapitulation of value of shipments for the year: Lumber to foreign ports Freight money for same Lumber coastwise Freight money for same Coal coastwise Freight money for same Produce shipped to San Francisco Merchandise to Alaska Value of wheat by Persian $1,003,186 860,328 3,349,957 1,289,445 , 2,602,600 1,301,300 1,364,322 , 1,000,000 49,375 Total $12,820,513 IOO WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. AN UNEQUALED LOCATION. Tacoma May Boast of a Location and Shipping Facilities Superior to Those of Any Competitor. Either wisdom, fate, intuition, or that genius which foretells greatness caused the location of the present town site of the city. It is beyond all cavil the very best location on the shores of Puget Sound, being at the head of Commencement Bay, the ground on which the city rests being on an available and commanding hill-side, at once and forever settling, or solving the problem of sewage for a great city, and yet including a vast area of acreage of low level land contiguous to the waters of the Sound, thus providing without artificial recourse, for the heavier business of large cities. There is a height of over 300 feet from the water front to the top of the hillside. Back of this are miles of magnificent land over which are roads as level and attractive as though graded by the hand of man for park purposes. The hillside on which the resident portion of the city rests is of easy approach, lying naturally in four distinct plateaus or handsome terraces, which has enabled the city authorities to build the most attract- ively level, broad roadways, graded in the most superior manner, with road beds as even as block pavement and as hard and firm as macadam. Without fear of contradiction the statement is offered that the eleven new streets and avenues of 100 feet wide and each averaging over two miles long are the most attractive in appearance and durable of any streets in any city in the whole Union, save those constructed of asphalt or wooden blocks. So far as the natural location of the city of Tacoma is concerned, it is superior to that of St. Paul as it was first found, and less expensive to utilize for great commercial purposes. And as to beauty, it is beyond comparison in perfection to any city in the whole Northwest, not except- ing St. Paul, Helena, Denver, Portland or San Francisco. At any point in the city, conspicuously so on the brow or crest of the hillside, the view to the naked eye is unsurpassed. From all directions, or from almost any point in Tacoma is presented a panoramic view of beauty that thrills the soul and makes glad the heart. In front of you is the bay, with its sheet of tranquil, placid water that enlarges in unmeasured ele- gance at full tide. The Sound is dotted with islands; each side of the bay is fringed with timber, its foliage always green, but in springtime or mid- summer shaded with all the tints of nature’s forests. As thrown in by the hand of an artist, the Puyallup river, replenished hourly by the melt- ing of glaciers on the crest of old Mount Tacoma, meandering among the hills, through a distance of many miles, and finally emptying its waters along the front of the city into Commencement Bay. Across the bay, in WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. IOI fronts to the right and left, the Olympian and Cascade or coast ranges, snow-capped and commanding, stretch their continuous miles of wierd-like beauty, as an everlasting, but never wearying sight, while the monarchial monarch of towering mountain greatness stands the cloud-capped and snow-enveloped Mount Tacoma reaching heavenward just 14,444 feet. Each additional gaze seems to encounter a more delightful view during daylight, and in the bright moonlight this wonderous mountain in the soft shimmering light stands out boldly yet softly in pose as an artistic tableau. Nor is this mountain alone. Mount St. Helens, 9,750 feet high, and Mount Adams and Mount Baker, almost as high, can be seen at times. For scenic effect no spot is peer to this. A natural park, with roadbeds of clean, bright gravel, and land as level as a floor, interspersed at fre- quent intervals with groves of evergreen trees that have grown (the lower limbs resting on the ground) to the top in pyramidal shape so accurate, regular and perfect as to suggest careful cultivation and training. This park is twelve miles in length and two to six miles wide. At a distance of almost equi-regularity handsome fresh water lakes with grass-grown and tree-bedecked shores are located, while sparkling, rippled creeks or rivulets cross and 'recross this plain or prairie, producing an effect as charming and pleasing as that of Central Park, New York. This natu- ral park commences just outside of the city limits of Tacoma and runs southerly, but parallel to the shores of Puget Sound, terminating a few miles below an old government fort (now the location of the insane asylum of Washington Territory) established in 1852, namely, Fort Steil- acoom, the first military post or fort, it is reported, at which Gen. U. S. Grant did duty. a deeightfue ceimate. Each locality in the West and Northwest boasts of its weather until the average reader is surfeited and doubts. The climate of this section is as near perfection as anywhere on this continent. No place or country is wholly exempt from objections. But for all the year round, weather in Washington really takes the palm. Eastern people imagine that the ‘ ‘ rainy ’ ’ season commences here with their frost, and that it pours down in torrents. It does no such thing. There are more pleasant dry days than wet. As to the rain, it is of that character, temperature and quantity in which boys are delighted in being outdoors, somewhat as they are when they attempt to catch the first falling snow flakes in winter. A cruelly mistaken notion prevails as to the severity of this rainfall. There is enough of it to keep the grass eternally green, and not so chilly as to pre- vent the ever-constant blooming of flowers outdoors every month in the year. Talk about the coast rains. They are not to be dreaded one-half as much as the rigorous weather of neighboring territories and states. People here continue to do business uninterrupted, and where one man is 102 WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. under the shelter of an umbrella, a dozen are without them. It may strike the reader as singular that you positively see a hundred umbrellas day in and out on the streets throughout the East, to five on the streets of Tacoma. Neither is it on the shoemaker order of going bare-footed, for they are not needed. There is more mud on the streets of a busy Illinois village in springtime than there is here the year round. Why it is, some philosopher must explain, but it is supposably because these rains do not wet very badly. Whatever inconvenience is experienced by the inclemency of the rainy months is offset by the incomparably lovely summers. The law of compensation is divinely set forth in these two seasons, for here the temperature is uniformly just warm enough in summer to make good growing weather without extreme heat. A shorter explanation and better one is in the statement that the same wearing apparel in winter as in summer. The summers are simply delightful. Daylight continues un- til 9:30 p. m., and resumes again at about 2:30 to 3 a. m. It is a contin- uous round of bracing yet satisfying weather that is the source of hourly congratulations. While other localities are sweltering in the heat, this city is enjoying the coolest and most delightful weather. The following is a copy of the thermometric record as kept at “The Tacoma” last summer: juia, 1887. 6 a. m. 12 noon Mean temperature for month, 65 y 2 deg. AUGUST. Highest. Lowest. . 67 deg. 5i deg. . 76 deg. 63 deg. .76 deg. 60 deg. . 68 deg. 54 deg. . 86 deg. 64 deg. . 82 deg. 62 deg. .62 deg. 44 deg. .71 deg. 5i deg. .63 deg. 55 deg. ocean craft that Mean temperature for August, 69^. SEPTEMBER. j a. m > noon j p. m Mean temperature for September, 57 PUGET SOUND STEAMERS. reach this port daily, on which last year was shipped 377 cargoes of lum- ber, 251 cargoes of coal, besides innumerable vessels carrying oats, wheat, hops and other products, even to horses and cattle, there are twenty-two regular passenger and freight steamers plying from this port to various points on Puget Sound, California and British Columbia. Several new vessels are in course of construction to accommodate the rapidly increasing business. Most of the sound steamers make daily trips, while a weekly service of passenger and freight steamships ply between Tacoma and San Francisco, one freight steamship of 4,000 tons burden making the round WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 103 trip every ten days between the two ports. The passenger steamers bring in an average of over 2,200 passengers weekly. Besides this, there are a dozen tugs, used in towing logs, also vessels after disembarking ballast, or from anchorage to wharves. Two of the largest of these tugs are owned wholly by Tacoma parties. Any point on the Sound or Pa- cific coast is accessible almost daily by steamers, and a regular line of Alaska steamers make their terminus here. The bulk of Alaska freight and passengers embark and disembark at Tacoma. increased raieway business. Perhaps nothing would show the increase in the business of Tacoma more than the fact that in February,’ 1887, there were twenty-nine men employed by the traffic agent of the Northern Pacific in this city, while in February, 1888 there were seventy-two men who found regular daily em- ployment under the same agent. IMPROVEMENTS. The visitor to Tacoma sees active industry and improvements on all sides. Targe numbers of laborers are found at work extending and grad- ing the streets of the city and improving them with twelve-foot sidewalks on either side, and making the finest thoroughfares to be found in any town or city on Puget Sound. The city council has recently undertaken the further improvement of the graded streets by causing to be planted thereon, forest trees, many of which are varieties brought from the east. Large sums of money are now being expended in properly sewering the city, thus contributing to the health and convenience of its citizens. As indicating the amount of building now in progress at Tacoma, it may be noted, that from January 1st to May 23, there have been constructed at Tacoma, three hundred and fifty buildings, aggregating in their cost $825- 307.46. Among the large industries recently acquired by the city is a mill to be constructed on the water front this year at a cost of upwards of a half million dollars and which will manufacture every piece of timber re- quired in the building of the frame structure. The product of this mill is for shipment to the Mississippi Valley, and in connection with the mill, the contract made by the mill company with the railroad company, re- quires the construction of a railroad southeast from Tacoma into the great timber belt from which the company are to obtain their timber. It has been reliably estimated that the location of this mill at Tacoma will add to its population during the year 1888, at least twenty-five hundred people. The extension of the standard guage railroad down the water front has been effected by Allen C. Mason, Esq., who has during the spring, con- structed that road himself. This road will be operated by the Northern Pacific Railroad Company as a part of their system if it is not purchased outright by them. This railroad opens up the best water frontage of the city and the only water front owned by private citizens. The above named 104 WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. gentleman has announced his intention to construct a line of street rail- road from the city dock in the first ward of the city by the most practicable route to the smelters, and this street railroad when constructed will open for settlement the very finest residence portion of the city. One of the chief attractions which Tacoma can offer in the course of a few years is the natural park, consisting of upwards of six hundred acres located on the point of the peninsula on which Tacoma is located. A bill is before the Congress of the United States now, providing that the United States Government will dedicate this track of land, now held by the government as a military reserve, to the city forever, to be used as a public park and never alienated by the city. A broad boulevard has been surveyed from the city, to, and through this park which will afford one of the finest drives, overlooking the bay and the narrows throughout its whole ex- tent. The construction of the shore line railroad, insures the completion this year of the large smelting works, which will have a capacity of four hundred tons per day, and be the only smelting works on Puget Sound. Among other industries not yet definitely located here, but yet which prob- ably will be during the coming summer, are extensive export flouring mills, a brewery and various iron industries. The contract has already been let by the Tacoma Opera House Company, for an opera house to cost one hund- red thousand dollars with a seating capacity for twelve hundred people. WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. 105 TACOMA RETAIL MARKET PRICES. APRIL 1st, 1888. HARDWARE. N ails p keg, from 1 od to 6od$ 3-50 do do lathing, 3d fine 8.00 do do finishing 4-50 do P It)., retail 5 Iron, refined bar, fR),... 3 / 4 @ 6 Iron, Norway, | R) 5X@ 7 Steel, refined bar, P lb . . . 16 @ 18 Horseshoes, P lb 5 @ 7 Hoop iron, P hi 7)4 Axes, handled. 1. 00 @1.75 Hatchets 50 @1.25 Door locks, P doz 3-50 18.00 Butts, common door,P doz. Strap hinges, P pair 75 @2.00 15 @ 75 Grindstones, p lb 3/4 Sash Weights, p lb Shovels and spades 75 @1.35 Cross-cut saws, P foot. 50 @1.00 Hand-saws, each 75 @2.00 Screws, P gross 15 @2.00 Picks and Mattocks, each. 1. 00 @1.50 Powder, p hi 25 @1.00 Shot, p hi 10 @ 15 Rope, p hi 15 @ 25 Cot rope & seine twine, p lb 35 @ 50 Axle grease, p box Lard oil, P gallon 23 @ 50 85 @1.50 Belting, 3-in. single P foot 33 Belting, 6-in. single p foot 69 Belting, 8-in. single p foot 93 Rubber packing, |R) .. 30 GROCERIES. Eastern lard, P lb California lard, p fb io>4 Cheese, p lb 20 Butter, P lb 15 @j 35 Dried apples, P lb 15 Dried peaches, P lb 15 @ 20 Soda, p h> 8 @ 10 Java coffee, P lb 25 @ 30 Costa Rica, p lb 16 @ 25 Rio coffee, P lb 16 @ 25 Tea, p lb. , best family. . . . 35 @1.00 Crushed sugar, P lb 7 Granulated sugar P lb . . . . 7 Salt, p lb 1 @ 2 Rice, P lb 6 @ 8 Candles, p box 2.50 @'3-5° Soap, P box 50 @2.25 Kerosene, P case 2.50 Arbuckle coffee, p lb . . . . 25 Assort, table fruits, 2 J^Ibcan 25 Assort, pie fruits, P can . . 20 Canned vegetables 12 >4@ 20 Prunes, P hi 15 @ 20 Currants, P lb 10 Raisins, Valencia 20 Raisins, seedless 20 Corned beef, 2-lb cans 25 Baking p’der, Royal, 16-oz. Bakingp’der, Pi’n’r, 16-oz. 50 50 Syrup, maple, P gallon. .$ 1.25 @1.50 Syrup, P gallon . 75 @1.00 Candy, stick, p h) 15 Candy, mixed, P hi . . . 20 Spices, 4-oz. cans, assorted 15 @ 25 Chicory, p hi 12 Buckets, cedar, painted . . . 25 @ 40 Wash tubs, ac’rding to size 25 @2.00 Peas, split, p lb 8 @ 10 Beans, p lb. 3 @ 5 Pearl barley, tapioca, sago, p hi 8 @ 10 PRODUCE. Wheat, P cwt 1.20 @1.75 Oats, p cwt 1.50 @1.80 Barley, P cwt 1.50 @1.60 Potatoes, p hi Flour, p bbl 4-73 @5-50 Chickens, p dozen 3.00 Onions, p hi 5 Hams, p hi 16 @ 18 Shoulders, P hi 10 Bacon, p hi 10 @ 12 % Eggs, fresh, p dozen 20 Hay, P ton ; 20.00 @25.00 Chop barley, p cwt 1.50 @ 1.75 MEAT. Beef, p hi 12 / 4 @> 20 Mutton, p hi . . . 10 @ 16 Pork, p hi I2>^@ 16 Veal, p hi 12 >£@ 20 Venison, p hi IO @ 15 Corijed beef, p lb IO @ 12^ Pickled pork, p lb i2/4 @1 16 Sausage, p hi l6 @ 20 Bologna, p lb . ... l6 @ 20 Lamb, P lb . . I2/4@ 16 HIDES AND SKINS. Heavy steer, (over 55,) P lb 7 @ 8 Med’m steer, (48@5o,)pib 6 Light steer, (4o@48, ) p lb 7 @ 8 Kips Dairy calf, according to 7 @ 8 quality and weight, each 50 @ 65 Dry hides, as to quality . . 12 @ 15 Sheep pelts, as to quality . 15 @1.00 LUMBER. Dressed Lumber — All dressed fir lum- ber, including flooring and rustic, $16 P M first class; second class, $ 13.00. Rough Fir — No. 1, $8@9; culled, $6@7. Cedar — No. 1 dressed. $20 to $30; rough, f 9 lM. Laths — $ 2.25 p M. ShingeES — No. 1, $2.25; No. 2, none. The above are the prices of lumber de- livered. CIRCULAR OF INFORMATION AND Annual Statement FROM THE OFFICE OF ALLEN C. MASON, Negotiator of Real Estate Loans, MASON BLOCK, TACOMA, WASHINGTON TERRITORY FOR THE YEAR ENDING APRIL 1st, 1888 . WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. IO9 OFFICE OF AEEEN C. MASON. Negotiator of Real Estate Eoans, Tacoma, Wash. Ter. FOURTH ANNUAL STATEMENT For -the Year Ending April ist, 1888. Total amount of money loaned to date $ 935 , 936 - 5 & Number of loan made to date 1,206.00 Average size of loans. . . 776.06 Largest loan 20,000.00 Smallest loan 50. 00 Time of longest loan * 7 years. Time of shortest loan 6 months. Average length of loan ' 3 yrs. 4 mo. Number of foreclosure from June ist, 1883, to date. 6 Amount involved in foreclosures ... $ 9 , 600.00 Loss sustained by mortgages consequent on foreclosures o Number of farm loans 636 Number of city loans 570 Amount of interest paid through the office for the year preceding April ist, 1888 . 168,902.61 Number of loans outstanding April ist, 1888 1,012 Number of loans matured and paid at maturity. 194 Amount of loans now outstanding 1716,363.58 Amount of loans having matured and been paid. .... 1219,573.00 Estimated value of securities covered by outstanding loans . $2,807,809.74 Interest collected and remitted to eastern investors since June ist, 1883... 162,766.61 Amount of money loaned in each county of Washington Territory up to April ist, 1888, Pierce $682,572.58 King 72,780.00 Whatcom 45,365.00 Chehalis 28,430.00 Thurston 24,845.00 I IO WASHINGTON TERRITORY AND TACOMA. Snohomish . . . Lewis Spokane Skagit Columbia Mason Cowlitz Whitman Kitsap ...... Yakima Island Lincoln .... Stevens Jefferson Garfield 23.267.00 18.725.00 9.400.00 6.000. 00 5.800.00 5.485.00 4.217.00 2.000. 00 1.600.00 1.500.00 1,500.00 1.000. 00 700.00 500.00 250.00 The following table shows the states from which investment funds have been received with the respective amounts from each, up to April 1st, 1888. Alabama California . Canada Colorado Connecticut Dakota Delaware District Columbia. . . . Illinois Indiana Iowa Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Missouri New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina Ohio Oregon Pennsylvania Vermont Virginia Washington Territory Wisconsin Texas Florida $ 4,000.00, 26.750.00 8.360.00 26.509.00 42,932. oo 750. oo 4.500.00 2.500.00 30.575.00 28.395.00 4.489.00 2.800.00 2.800.00 27.100.00 1 1.005.00 15.200.00 2.475.00 16,000.00 6r, 795.00 5,000.00 43 6 ,397- 00 7.865.00 28.450.00 2.800.00 46.995.00 17. 700.00 500.00 55 , 432.58 8.262.00 3.800.00 3,800.00 Grand Total $935,936.58 • ■ • H ® ■ • THE safest of all investments are Real Estate Mort- * gages on improved productive property at con- servative valuations. Washington Territory affords investments of this character second to none. The test rate obtainable on Real Estate Loans running from three to five years is now Nine per cent., and in one or two years, as the advantages of the Territory become more generally known, this rate will be reduced, as it has been in the Mississippi Val- ley. Those who are investing now are reaping THE BENEFIT OF THE HIGHEST MARKET RATE. Borrowers here pay their interest as promptly as those do who live in the East. Allen C. Mason. ■ • a © 9 9 A. solid Nine per cent, per annum on first class improved productive Real Estate se- curity at one-third its valuation. Interest pay cdole semi-annually, net, by New Fork ctraft in favor of the mortgagee,, and all in- terest payments collected and remitted to the loaner without cost or charge to him. Absolute Security — the realty on which the loans are placed being in a new country where property is increasing in value, and where titles have not coirte down through scores of transfers where there is tictble to be imperfections in conveyances. For full particulars address ALLEN C. MASON, Negotiator of Real Estate Loans, TACOMA , W. T.