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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (July 1, 1889)
:ts8 THE WEST SHORE. Itnndo rirer near where the .tream enter, the valley lhe river ha. a considerable volume and fall enough to admit of water Wing uied three or four times within a mile of it. course. At Oro Dell, about a mile from the city, there is an excellent water power, tut a mere fraction of which ii utilized. It is a val oablesita for factories There are now twelve saw milli within a few mile of Laflrande, all in the country legitimately tributary to the city, which u 1 the Doint from which the bus- in. 1. ,,n.!nniivL Theio mills are all in the bills to the westward of the city. A lumber syndicate fmm Wisconsin is constructing a large saw mill .;tt,ln tl.riwi miU of LtGrande. where preparations It IIUIU " - .r. Uina madn for an extensive manufacturing plant, mill, shinnle and lath mill, planing mill and sash, door and blind factory. This plant will I read for work the ooraina fall and have a ca t.ltv fur manufaoturinn one hundred thousand feet of lumber a day. It will employ two hundred and fifty men. This will raise the daily manufacturing capacity of the saw mills in the LaGrande district to two huudred and fifty thousand feet The timber belt tributary to this city extends back in the mountains distanc of about a hundred miles and most of it is MWMiblft immediately. Instead of attempting the somewhat difll ult task of getting the timber from the forest to the city before it is manufactured, it is found more economical to erect the mills near the timber and 11 t the lumber out by means of flame or draw it with teams to suitable points for shipment The mouutain streams generally have a too rapid de- ocut to make them satisfactory for driving logs. In some case it is found advisable to bring the log fron (he niouutalus before they are sawed, a treat deal depending on the character of the land from which the timber is rut and the location of the man ufactorins plant The vast timber suphW lvins im mediately to the wett of the Grande Hondo valley af- h k ft I A . t m oMs a oroM ficia lor tlie operation of saw mills am all manufactories of wood. There is an abundant of od of the Wat quality, never failing and eaiily i i . i . ... . oevriopea waur power ana smppiug laeilities to a grimly market are gtxxl lWde the twelve saw mills mentioned above, I Grande ha car shops of the Orogou lUilway A Navigation Company, two brick kilua, a aah and door factory, a emmery rwutly construct-vl, a brewery, and a grain elevator jat being completed having capacity or one nundrtM thonaaud buahla, t K divisional point on the railroad, and one of the Wg. h ahlpplcg stations on the line. 1Ui,U the lari r portion of the Grand Honde valley, which pours it products Into U Orande lor transportation, the lu. dian valley and fclk fiat Country Wow, u well at a considerable part of the Wallowa valley, are also drained in the same direction, lne cnier snipments are grain, live stock, wool and lumber, and the groat 6 , . ... mi i 1 -V..' i- .1 amount is prodigious, ino auium uui omyiuuuis w produce from La Grande last year aggregated twenty, six hundred car loads, of which one thousand can were grain, six hundred cars railroad ties, four hun ilrwl cars live stock, two hundred and fifty Chrs lum- ber, one hundred cars each of hay and flour, fifty cars wooL The grain, live stock and wool are raw pro ducts of the country that might be utilized to much better advantage by the building up of manufacto ries. Flouring mills, creameries, cheese factories, meat packing houses, tanneries and woolen mills may be mentioned as among those manufacturing institu tions for which the valley is best suited by reason of having abundant supplies of raw materials and favor able conditions in which to operate. At the present time LaGrande offers special inducements to secure the location of a good flouring mill or woolen mill in or near the oity. Parties giving proper assurance of building and operating enterprises of this kind will have no trouble in getting bonuses from the business men that will make it an object to invest there. There is no doubt that the business would, in itself, prove profitable. LaGrande is an unusually attractive place for people from the east Those accustomed to the Mis sissippi valley, or even the rocky hills of New En gland, do not often fancy locating in a country where they can not see green graBs throughout the summer season. One of the things they are seeking to escape is the drouth that so frequently carries devastation to the erstwhile promising fields of the region from which they have fled. It is difficult to convince those people that there is much merit in sage brush or bunch grass land, even if irrigation is easily obtain ed. They want a country that has moisture of its own-where some of the same grasses and flowers they have seen wither in the scorching sun of their eastern homes flonmh tbrnncrh the entire season, and whoro the same crops they have fruitlessly toiled over never fail but ordinarily yield results hardly dreamed of before. The very objections the eastern farmer is fleeing from he finds to be absent from the Grande It rode valley, and, naturally enough, that seems to be the place he is looking for. But not everyone is informed of the merit of that section. Too many easterners have but a very vague idea of the Pacific slope, Comparatively few of those who pass through the Grande Ronde valley are induced to makrt a close examination of the country; but those 1 who do stop are not in a hurry to leave. As a loca- lion for farming, stock raising or manufacturing it i ' HH(J iu but few places in the world.
