The west shore., July 01, 1884, Page 222, Image 22

222
THE WEST SHORE.
NOTES OF THE NORTHWEST.
The extension of the Wood River branch of the
Oregon Short Line to Ketchura hns been commenced.
The Philadelphia Smelting Company is backing the
movement financially.
The Maiden Reduction Company nan been organized
to construct a Biuolter in the Maiden District, Montana.
Capital for the enterprise was furnished by the miners
of the district and the business men of Hillings.
The MaginniH Mining Company Iibb been incorporated
with a capital stock of &r)00,000. A mill, with a capacity
to crush from fifteen to twenty tons of ore per day, will
bo orectod immediately in the Maiden District, Montana.
Lieutenant B. A. Colonna, of the United States Coast
and Oexletic Survey, is making a thorough Burvey of the
Straits of Fuca. He has received permission from the
Dominion Government to erect marks, signals, etc., on
Vancouver Island
A planing mill, with a full Bet of wood-working
machinery, has been added to the industries of Weston,
Or. Graham & Son, the proprietors, projxwe at no dis
tant day to add machinery for iron work, bo that agricul
tural implements and machines can bo repaired, and to
eroet a chop nnd feed mill.
The sealing season oft" Cape Flattery has closed with a
totnl catch nearly twico that of last year. Tha fleet con
sisted of Beven American schooners and a uumbor of
English vessels. The season this year began in January
nnd lasted until tho 1st of June, when the seals departed
for their Arctic footling grounds.
Title deeds for the right of way for the proposed
branch of the Oregon Short Lino to Boise City have
boon secured and delivered to the attorney of the com
jwny. Contract for tho grading hns been let and a large
force is now on the ground Boise will Boon rejoice in
loing united to the great railway system of the country.
A chief of the Makah tribe, named Teter, has pur
chase! tho Hchtxmer LWi'i'o, a craft of thirty tons, and
enUred her at the Tort Townsend Custom House. ' The
captain of tho little vessel is Jeff Davis, a full bl.xxl
Indian, who was educated at tho Agency school. The
Lrlilia will engago in tho coast trade along the Sound
and Straits of Fiu'a.
The new steamer Attn, for tho coast coal trade, has
lon complete at Bath, Me., and will soon sail from
New York for San Francisco, passing through tho Straits
it Magellan. She is '.Ml fat long, 22 feet 7 inches
brwulth of bram ami 16 feet depth of hold The saloon
is handsomely furnished, and she jxwsessos stateroom
accommodations for fifty passengers.
ClaU.p County has increased rapidly in populntidn,
wealth and business enterprises during the past four
W u. IMS. iJ l..W u 1881 Iu tho city of Astor
m vote, were cast, while 1.2113 ballots were debited at
tho recent election. At the usual rate of five inhabitants
to each voter, this will give a total population of 6 460
exclusive of some 2,000 Chinamen. . '
It has been reported that a contrnet for 200,000 000
feet of lumber, for use on the Panama Canal this season,
has been awarded to a combination of the Puget Sound
mills. Tho annual demand upon the seven mills of the
combination is 300,000,000 feet, and they are working but
nine hours per day, and to fill this contract they will be
compelled to run continuously night and day. It will
add $2,000,000 to the value of lumber shipments, load
300 large ships, and give employment in the woods and
mills to 2,000 men in addition to the present working
force.
Sixteen miles from Caldwell. Idaho, minim? in hp,nn
done in a portion of the old bed of Snake River, which
has recently become exposed by a change in the current
of the stream. The cold of Snake River is fine flnnr
gold," and consequently difficult to work, but in these
new diggings nuggets and coarse gold are reported At
intervals along the river, for several hundred miles, the
banks are being worked by the use of a number of newly
devised machines for saving the fine gold, several of
which are reported as working very successfully. The
indications are that, as these new processes become better
known, mining along the whole course of the stream will
be engaged in profitably by thousands of men.
Lower Yakima, that portion of the county in which
the Northern Pacific is at work, is settling up quite
rapidly. At Prosser Falls, about midway between
Yakima City and Ainsworth, the town of Prosser is
springing up, in the midst of a fine agricultural country.
The falls have a descent of thirtv fnot and furnish
abundant power for manufacturing, as well as unrivaled
pennies ior irrigating the land on both sides of the
Yakima below that point South is the fine bunch grass
region known as "Horse Heaven," which is now being
rapidly taken up for agricultural purposes, while north
lies a vast stretch of bunch grass uplands. Several irri
gating enterprises in various portions of Yakima County
will s(K)n open to cultivation thousands of acres of land
To show what can be done with the land oh the Uma
tilla Reservation, it is only necessary to tell of the opera
tions of "Hank" Vaughn. Only fourteen months ago
he began work on a tract of over 2,000 acres, which was
then unbroken and unfenced prairie land, similar to
thousands of acres around it He now has 900 acres of
wheat, 480 of barley, 15 of oats, 30 of vegetables, 160 of
pasture, and 000 broken for fall seeding. He expects to
clear $22,000 by his year's operations on this wild land.
To accomplish this result required energy, judgment and
sufficient capital to pay for help, procure the best ma
chinery, eta, and it demonstrates what can be done by
the right kind of a man, with a few thousand dollars for
capital, in the magnificent region lying at the northwest
ern base of the Blue Mountains.
Atteution is now being turned toward the Aleutian
Islands, off the west coast of Alaska, as suitable for
stock ranges. The area of the whole group is in the