108
THE WEST , SHORE.
men alone. Thore are between 2,000,000 and S3,000,000
invested in the business, and the value of the season's
pack, at the low rate of rr , in f3,2r0,000. It can
easily be understood how thriving must be a community
supported by such an industry, yet thin is but one of its
advantages. Situated aa it is at the mouth of the Colum
bia, witli a good lmrlxir and a custom house, it is the nnt
ural gateway of Oregon for all ocean commerce; and with
a railroad connecting it with the Willamette Valley, a
road that has been aurveyeil and may eoon.be con
structed, Astoria will become an important shipping point
for wheat and other valley product, and will no doubt
lxcoiiie tho stopping place of many vessols that now anil
pant it docks and go 100 miles inland to receive their
cargoes at Portland The facilities for shipbuilding on
large scale are very superior, and as a manufiicturing
jMiint, eHeciHlly of flour for foreign shipment and lumber
for markets at home and abroad, she possesses great ml
vantages. Two saw mills are located thera
Outside of the city Clatsop County hits an area of
1,401) square miles. The surface of tho country is chiefly
mountainous, but many siren inn flow through, along which
are areas of flue agricultural land Even back from the
streams, almost everywhere, tho soil is oxcellent and well
. adapted to cultivation, when the ground has been cleared
, of its dense growth of timber. Clatsop Plains, a strip of
, laud lying along the sea shore, whiah has been settled for
thirty-five years, is the largest Uxly of agricultural hind
ill the county. Tho soil is light and sandy, and produces
vegetables, grain and small fruits in abundance. Put
little wheat is raised, otits and barley being the principal
cereals. Hay is the chief crop and dairying the leading
feature of the farming buaiuoss. The soil is well adapted
to hop oulture, though that industry is not yet carriod on
there. The same is generally true of the ranches on the
Nehalem, Lewis ami Clarke, Young's and other rivers in
the county. On these streams and in the mountains are
large areas of vacant land, covered with timber, still oeu
to settlement
In the vicinity of Saddle Mountain, whore rise the
Lewis and Clarke, Nekanikan and North Nehalom, thore
is a large tract of desirable land These streams diverge
but slightly for a number of miles, and the ridges be
tweeu Uietn are easy of ascent. Tho streams are lined
with bottom lamls, which near Uieir sources become sev
ersl miles in width. In the whole region there are prob
ably 600 square miles of exeellout land, the meadows of
those streams being the richest jxmaible, and the soils of
the intervening shqins equal to any upland It is all
timbered For vegetables, hay, dairy products and small
truiU there is sure market at high prices. From end
to end Uie couuty is covered with a dense growth of mag.
nifloeut timber, and hundreds of men make money by
logging iuUi the streams from the claims of settlers and
selling the logs to mill men at Astoria, Much charcoal
and oordwood are also taken from the claims. In the
Nehalom Valley, lying partly in Clatsop and partly in
Columbia, is the largest body of the most desirable tim
ber and Uie greatest extent of valley land Groat induce
ments are offered there for Bottlers to locate and enjoy
the benefits of the railroad when built through that sec
tion of the county. Coul of a superior quality has Wn
discovered in the southern portion of the county, and it
is probable that whole region is underlaid with seams of
that valuable material. Iron ore has been found in sev
eral places to the east, and it probably exists in Clatsop
as well.
TILLAMOOK COUNTY. v
One of the most inviting of Oregon counties is Tilla
mook, as yet but thinly settled and almost entirely unde
veloped It lies for about seventy miles along the coast,
reaching inland as far as the summit of the Coast Range
Mountains, and having Clatsop adjoining it on the north
and Benton on the south. From the mountains a num
lor of rivers of considerable size and many smaller
streams flow down to the ocean. The Nehalom flows out
from Clatsop and enters Nehalom Bay at Jhe county line;
the Wilson, Trask and Tillamook flow into Tillamook
Bay, and tho Nestucca and Silotz enter the ocean direct
further to the south. Along all the streams are many
thousand acres of valley and bottom lands, the greater
portion of which are as yet unsettled, and in the uplnnds
lying along the coast, between the streams, are vast tracts
of splendid grazing land, fitted also, for agriculture when
cleared, that remain still in their primitive state. The
largest ami oldest settled section of agricultural land is
Tillamook Valley, surrounded by mountains on the north,
east and south, and sheltered from the ocean winds by a
range of high hills that rise between it and Tillamook
Bay, it possesses the most dolightful climate of the whole
ooast of Oregon. Back of the fringe of timber, a mile or
two deep around the bay, the valley opens in a fine vari
ety of prairie, woodland, knoll Bnd ravine, stretching
away for miles, to climb at last the easy and wooded
slopes of Uie Coast Ranga Three or four rivers come
down from the mountain through narrowing arms of the
vidley, gathering the bright, pure waters of hundreds of
mountain rivulets and brooks. The best of the valley
land (meaning that which is prairie and most easily
cleared) is, of course, occupied by settlors already there.
But Uiere is room for thousands of homesteads on Gov
ernment land which can be put in cultivation at an
expense of a few dollars per acre, which, if at first more
encumbered and troublesome to subdue than prairies of
Lastera Oregon, is, when onoe in cultivation, far more
valuabla
Twenty miles south of Tillamook Bay is the Nestucca.
The river has about ten miles of tidewater, with splendid
ill on both sulos of the stream for twenty miles np from
ho bay. The bottom land is narrow, not more than
Uiree-quarter. of a mile wide on an average, but the foot
hills are low, with numerous small streams running down
from the mam mountains, on which there is considerable
good laud, as good as there is in the State, vacant The
country has no m lis. altlmnd, !
i , .... uc quite a uemanu
steamer. The bmber is mostly dead from fires, but there