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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 1883)
248 THE WEST SHORE, October, 1883, Payette valley ii irrigated by a number of ditches taken from the river. Two Urge canals, to be twenty milei in length and carrying 25,000 Inches of water each, are under construction. The toil of this sage-brush land ii exceedingly fertile when irrigated, and the section to be re deemed by these and other canals embraces about one hundred square miles of the finest land in the territory. The country north ol the Clearwater river is 2,500 feet above sea level, and its climate is naturally cold and frosty. Ten years ago it was regarded as worthless for agricultural purposes, It was sneered at as a very good summer camping ground for squaws digging camas. It was not only isolated and far from market, but it was practically inaccessible. Its wagnn roads fol lowed up the bed ol the precipitous gulches to the table lands. To-day it supports a population of 50,00a It it an exclusively agricultural popu lati m, and despite the rigors of its climate they have given the country a continental reputation for fertility and productiveness. It ships annually millions of bushels of wheat. There is a con tinuout line of unbroken settlements from the Clearwater river to Spokane Kails and beyond, a distance of over one hundred miles. The climate is cold and frosty, but the toil it rich and the tturdy arm of Caucasian industry hot utilized u for productive purposes, until it it now the granary of the northwest and a mighty common' wealth of American home builders. Villages, churches and schools dot every country cross' roads. A great trans-continental railroad, with its far-reaching branches, traverses it in every direc tion. Townt and citiet spring up and flourish as if by magic in this rich and productive country, and its inhabitants exhibit a truly American de termination and enterprise in their ceaseless efforts to develop its latent resources that are attracting the attention of capitalists and home seekers Irom all parti of the republic. This it the country north of the Clearwater river. South of the Clearwater there it also an area of agricultural land quite at rich and extensive as that to the northward. The country south of the river is the more desirable of the two for settlement and 00 cupation. Its altitude it lower and its climate more genial) it it well watered by running streams and ever-living springs j the grasses and native vegitation grow tpon aneouily and with almost tropical luxuriance on Its prolific soil j the mountain ranges which thelter it are fringed with fine forests of timber ( it is drained by a river navigable for forty miles above its mouth ( it within easy distance of the markets of the world, and It accessible at all seasons of the year. With all these advantages it is a country given over the loneliness of desolation. You can ride for sixty miles without teeing a man, bird or beast, With an area and toil capable of supporting dense population, it it at unproductive as the 11 Aineiicm dert. Where should be the homes of American freemen the virgin soil cries vain for the plow. Where towns and cities should be built no living thing (reels t'ie ee- All this vast region of three quarters of a million acres, which should support a dense population, lying as uninhabited and unproductive as upon the day of its creation. Let our readers till in the details of what we have outlined and study le moral it contains. Upon one side of CI ear- water an active, ambitious, progressive population the full tide of civilization and enjoying the igh noon of prosperity which always attends the active development of a new country. Upon the other side of Clearwater a region no less fertile, no less productive, but lying just as the Almighty left it ten thousand years ago. Upon one side the country rejoices and expands in the genial sunshine of civilization, Upon the other it is crippled by the dry rot of desolation and decay. The one encourages enterprise and invites immi gration! the other retards it. The one is the public domain ; the other is the Nez Perce Indian reservation." Net Perct News. The great Shoshone falls, of which we gave an illustration in July, have been purchased by a party of capitalists, who design building there a large hotel and making it a resort as predicted at that time. Roads are bjing laid out, building sites surveyed, and preparations made for throw ing open this great wonder of nature to tourists the coming spring. A big hotel is to be erected, an elevator will make the passage from the high bank of the river to the base of the (alls an easy task. Boats to connect between the upper and lower falls will be placed in the river and also suitable boats to ferry the river. There is no limit to the water power, and a portion of this will be used to operate electric lights for the $75,- xx) hotel, illuminate the (all, and it may be, sup. ply electricity for places remote from the falls, The improvements to be made will be so arrang ed as to add interest to the great wonders and not in any instance mar their beauty or in any way detract from the work of nature, but rather to add thereto. By thorough advertising, Sho shone falls will become second only to Niagara at a resort, while in some other respects it will out rival it. This enterprise of private gentlemen who have secured the property will be aided, of course, by the Oregon Short Line company, which will at least have an interest in carrying people to tee the wonders, and it is probable a branch road will toon be constructed from the town of Shoshone to the banks of the river at the falls. iHOSHONK COUNTY Wat an organized county in Washington terrl tory before Idaho had being as a distinct political community, and was represented In the legist tuie of Washington territory during the years 1861 and 1862. Early in 1863 the territory of Idaho wat organized with the capital at Lewiston, and here the first and second sessions of the Idaho legislature were held. The first permanent occupation by white people of the region now covered by Shoshone county, was in the autumn of i860, when what wat then known at the Oro Fino placer gold mines were discovered. The fame of these "diggings" toon spread far and wide, and thousands from the older placer mines of California and Oregon congregated in the new u uorauo. me county embraced at the begi iiing nearly the entire region watered by tne " ' merous tributaries ol the north and sourk I of the Clearwater. A portion of the county I, L north ar.d eat uf this water shed, takine in n f linn f tt,. "... . t'"P'- I ""V , ne ranBe or nounuit, and some of the country drained by the tributaries cf the Cceur d'Alene river. The surface of ft, entire region of which we write is high, and 'ft the most part rugged and mountainous, with ,. merous streams of every size, below IU, r.. mam river, penetrating the mountains through f channels that for long sections of their coune t have so little fall that much difficulty was a- t perienced in many cases to get the water to Hot ith sufficient rapidity to wash the gold from lit ; earth and gravel by the first rude process applied v Dv tne miners. All the river and rrxl- w and the flanks of the mountains, are coveted bji I dense growth of the finest pine, fir, cedar, hem. I lock and spruce timber. The lumber interna K -I .1 t - 1 .1 1 r 1, ... ? atuiib .it mat uiu vvumj, mien luuy UCVElOHa, r will constitute a source of great wealth. On thr ' I wt,MWL there are extensive bodies of fine agricultural and grazing lands, which have recently Keen turreveo and which are rapidly being appropriated by set tlers. The mines on the Oro Fino creek and ill tributaries have been continuously worked since 860, and though the long series of luccewre excitements and the constantly decreasing output, have continued to diminish the population from year to year, the good old county has continued to hold its head up bravely under all advene cir cumstances', keeping up its county organization, maintaining its financial credit and keeping ill representation in the legislature ; the compara tively few people remaining there showing t won derful faith in the old camp, and a determinatioi to stay with it to the last. One peculiarity of this old placer region is that though numerom rich and extensive placers have been found and worked, and though the entire region hai b exhaustively prospected for gold bearing quaru lodes, very few of these have been found, m fewer still that have been made to pay tne con working. ' But there have been great excitementt from time to time caused by rumorsof rich qut discovi-ries. What will long be renembered u the " Robinson ledge," and which has'long ww been classed among the exploded humougi t myths, with which prospectors have often deluW . . j ..!.- ..... .1.11 located tnemseives ana omen, w .1, different times in many different parti of to county, where it wat persistently hot vain searched for by eager prospectors. And iwcei gold found in the district 0! tne un known as coarse gold, with indications of having been washed down from a great future labors of the prospector may reveal stance of rich quartz lodes, and who knows m the "Robinson ledge" ltelf m-y P found ? It it a remarkable fact that in ...- mountain regions, particularly where IW J"' is covered with dense forest, no matter " the country has been occupied, or how uJm it may he explored and prospected, near ana discoveries are always possible and a1"'" fc made. The recent discoveries of rich P" the Cceur d'Alene mountains will give petuttoprotpectiruj,andwillberUi to light other placert long hidden in the of the Cceur cf Alene and Bitter Ro' These discoveries and the almost certai.