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