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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 1, 1889)
62 THE WEST SHORE. government and railroad lands of Clarke county, as well as private holdings offered for sale. The gov ernment land is in the foothills and mountains, where the ground is rough and heavily timbered. The most desirable unimproved lands, lying within from five to twenty miles of Vancouver, can be purchased at from $5.00 to $10.00 per acre, while partly improved farms can be bought at from $15.00 to $30.00 per acre. Good dairy ranches are worth from $30.00 to $50.00 per acre. Land specially desirable for fruit, being high, dry and covered with valuable timber, and lying within five miles of the city, are held at from $25.00 to $50.00 per acre in tho wild state. Orchards with five-year trees are valued at from $1,000 to $1,500 per acre, but none are for sale, and the person who intends to embark in the fruit business must reckon upon planting his own orchard. The highest figure quotod has been refused for an orchard now in bear ing. The cost of clearing land within a reasonable distanco of the city is about $10.00 per acre. It is figured that ten acres of prunes can be put in at a to tal cost of $1,000.00, and that the use of the land be tworn tho trees for the four or five years during which they are maturing will pay for their cultivation. It is, of course, better not to raise any crop on the land while tho trees are growing, but not to do so increases tho exponso of maintaining the orchard. Dairying and stock raising are extremely profita ble in this region. The foothills and mountains fur nish a splendid rango for cattle and sheep, which grazo tho entiro year on tho rich grasses and wild peavines that grow in luxuriance in the forests. Ev ery settler finds that a small band of stock is a pay ing adjunct to his farm. Tho winters are so mild, and so littlo snow falls, that the perpetually green forage keeps tho cattle in eicellent condition at all seasons. A number of dairies are doing a good busi ness, being located generally along tho bottom lands of the various streams, where good meadows and ex cellent water exist in conjunction with tho forest ranges. No regular creameries have yet been estab lished, but thero is an excellent opening for them. Millions of pounds of butter are imported into this region annually, and good dairy butter sells at from thirty to fifty cent per pound. Instead of importing butter, great quantities of it should be shipped to less favored localities, and there scarcely seems a pos sibility that tho dairy business can bo overdone here for many years to come, Tho city of Vancouver lias a population of four thousand and possesses a full city government and many metropolitan features, including forty-five arc electric light of twelve hundred candle power put in by tho city at a cost of $11,000.00. Thero are an excellent water supply and a volunteer fire depart ment, equipped with one steam engine, one hand en. gine and a hook and ladder truck. Besides the man. ufacturing industries there are two banks, one of then a national, a building and loan association, a large number of stores, shops, etc., three churches, a ca thedral, convent, hospital, court house, school house, and many neat and tasteful residences. The court house of Clarke county is a large brick structure erected in 1883 at a cost of $60,000.00. A large two story and basement school house, built aboat the same time, stands near the court house, and is one of the best school buildings in the territory. A large three story brick convent and orphanage, a hospital, a school for girls and a college for boys are main tained by the Catholics. Here, also, is the United States land office for the district. A handsome brick structure on the river bank just east of the reserve is occupied by the school for defective youth. With the exception of a short period, Vancouver has been the military headquarters of this region, and is now the headquarters of the department of the Col umbia, under command of General Gibbon. At this post are generally stationed six companies of infantry and one of artillery. The buildings embrace houses for the officers, barracks for the men, library, gymna sium, etc., and necessary magazines and ordnance storehouses, commissary warehouses, etc The mili tary reserve is one of the most beautiful in the Unit ed States, and the parade ground is an almost level tract of large extent overlooking the river and offering a splendid view of the, distant mountains. Under the impulse of new enterprises now under taken, the value of desirable residence and business property will steadily increase. The Columbia Land fe Improvement Company was organized in January, to supply cheap and desirable property for homes. The company has five hundred acres adjoining the city on the northeast, of which one hundred and sixty acres have been platted into blocks two hundred feet square, with north and south avenues eighty feet wide, and east and west streets sixty feet wide. Lots fifty by one hundred feet sell at from $100 to $150, according to location. The company has procured a franchise for a street railway, which will be built through the main business streets of the city to thU desirable residence district Vancouver Heights, as it is called, has a most commanding site, and is one of the most beautiful places of residence in the north west Portland addition, consisting of twenty blocks, ad joining the city on the northwest, is another desirable place of residence. It is but three blocks from the school house, and about ten minutes' walk from the ferry landing. The line of the Vancouver, KlicbW lakima railroad runs along its western
