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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (June 21, 1890)
WEST SHORE. 780 THE NEW TOWN OF DETROIT. Puget sound proper is a comparatively restricted area of water. It by no means takes in all of that vast body of water putting inland from the ocean to which the name is ordinarily applied. Admiralty inlet is a much larger body. So is Hood's canal, which is the western arm extending around the west side of that peninsula that is shaped so much like a spear head. The numerous inlets, passages and bays jutting into the land in all directions to the south and east of the Straits of Fuca go by the general name of Puget sound. The sound proper, however, includes only that water between Anderson's island and the mainland to the southward and, with the excep tion of Budd's inlet, at the head of which Olympia is situated, is the southernmost ramification of the inland sea. Rounding the point from Tacoma the NarrowB is passed and then the steamer traverses Puget sound proper for fifteen or twenty miles on its way to the capital. From the western end of Puget sound an inlet extends due north a distance of about fifteen miles. It is known as Case's inlet. At the head of this inlet, on the weft side, is being built the new town of Detroit. It is on an isthmus scarcely more than a mile wide with Case's inlet on the east and the extremity of Hood's canal on the west. Both bodies of water are navigable for the largest craft. The construction of a ship canal across the narrow isthmus is a matter of comparatively small expense, as there are no important engineering difficulties to overcome. The project simply involves the digging of a ditch in which water of the two inlets can mingle. Then the present Kitsap county peninsula will be another island in that famous archipelago. At Detroit there are none of the hampering influences that often accompany old settlements and are not inaptly termed mossbackism. It is new in every respect. The men who are backing the town are well known and they are above any sus picion of lending their names to bolster up wild cat town sites. The advantageous location of that iBthmuB for building a flour ishing city appealed to these men of large business experience, and they secured the property and laid out the town. A saw mill has already been built and is in operation, a fine hotel is under construction, the site is nearly cleared of timber, streets are being graded and sidewalks laid. A commodious wharf has been built and boats land there regulai ly . An important element oi strength of the new town lies in the rich resources surrounding it. The country is very new. No development work to speak of has been done. There is a heavy growth of valuable timber extending back from the very edge of the water. Coal and iron are known to exist in the adjacent hills, and measures have already been inaugurated for bringing out the wealth that now lies useless there. There is good agricultural land near at hand. It Is a field entirely un worked and it promises abundant profit to those who will assist in its development Eastern capital has for the past decade been seeking west ern fields for profitable investment, and millions of dollars have found employment in the west at rates which greatly increased the earning power. During all the time a majority of eastern men have apparently looked to real estate and building for secur ity and profit, and have found a successful realization of their most sanguine hopes. Some few have invested in mining prop erties, and in seventy-five per cent, of cases where mines were developed in a sensible and conservative manner the results have been satisfactory, and Montana has never had a shadow upon her reputation as a field for mining investment. But the capitalists seem to have overlooked one of the very best of all the opportunities presented for legitimate money making, viz , the building of canals. It is one of the few classes of invest ment where the profits are absolutely certain. There is nothing Montana needs so much as a judicious use of the water in sight. There is really no scarcity of water for agricultural and manufacturing purposes the lack is in facilities for its use. Hundreds of thousands of inches of water flow to the larger streams each year simply because the facilities for utilizing it are not there. Ninety per cent, of the agricultural lands of Montana would become valuable under a judiciously managed water system. The average homesteader can not afford to build the ditches required he has not the means ; but where he is able to go into partnership with his neighbors for the conptruc tion of a canal he has always found the returnB all that be could desire. We commend the subject of canals to the capi talists who are peeking investments. We believe there is no class of improvement in Montana to-day which is better or safer. A good ditch will pay ten per cent, per annum on its coft. and in many cases the returns are double that percentage. -There are many places where the canal builder may find a field, and time will prove that no better expenditure can be made by the capitalist, or one from which the returns are more satisfac tory. It will pay the man with idle money to investigate the matter. Helena Journal. The Okanogan Mining and Railroad Company has been . incorporated in Spokane Falls, with a capital of $5,000,000. The incorporation's object is to secure railroad connection with the vast Okanogan mining region, to build wagon roads through the district, to build a town to be known as Okanogan City and to generally develop the mines. With the exception of Colonel W. Thomas Hart, who represents the largest and wealthiest mining syndicate in the United States, the gentlemen who incorporated the company are all of Spokane Falls. The com pany is the outgrowth of six months' work on the part of Sam uel I. Silverman, who sold the Fourth of July mine to Helena parties. Extensive reduction works are to be constructed just above the town on the bench of the mountain, in which most of the mines are located. The Spokane Falls gentlemen who have gone into the enterprise have done so with the expecta tion of making their developments entirely in harmony with the best interests of Spokane Falls, and add another source of trade to that city. One of their principal objects will be to secure railroad connection with Spokane Falls as soon as possi ble. At the present time there are two railroads headed toward the Okanogan district, the Spokane Falls & Northern and the Washington Central. Efforts are being made to secure a government survey of a canal from Puget sound to Lake Washington.
