878
WEST SHORE.
MOSCOW IS MOVING.
The enterprising young city of Moscow, in Northern Idaho,
is accomplishing a great deal in a quiet way this year. It has
sustained two heavy fires since the snow disappeared, but the
buildings burned were wooden structures and are being re
placed with better and safer ones. This ordeal of fire is one
that seems inevitable in the average town, and the earlier it
comes the less disastrous it generally proves. On recovering
from these visitations of fire a spirit of rugged independence is
developed and the whole subsequent growth is on a better
basis. Moscow's fires have in no wise crippled her.
The first important enterprise carried to successful issue this
year was the project of supplying the city with artesian well
water. The boring of a well there was in the nature of an
experiment, but it terminated successfully, and now there is an
abundant supply of pure water conducted through the city in
iron pipes for domestic use and for fire protection. The ques
tion of obtaining an adequate water supply and of disposing of
the city's sewage were the most perplexing ones that confronted
the people and both are completely solved by the success of the
artesian well project. No city in the country has a better water
service now. The water is even employed in irrigating gar
dens, though this is not necessary in that country.
Another important thing for Mobcow is the extension of the
Paloupe branch of the Noithern Pacific railway to the Potlatch
country and on down the Clearwater river to Lewiston. This
extension, which is now under construction, will pass through
Moscow and give it competition in transportation as well as to
afford an outlet to a different seaport for its vast grain output.
By harvest time this year Moscow will have not only two rival
railway lines to ship over but the choice of two seaports to ship
to. The result must be an increase in the amount the producer
gets for his product and a proportionate increase in the wealth
of the section. And to make grain raising more profitable is to
make the country more attractive to industrious settlers.
It was only five years ago that all produce from the Moscow
region had to be freighted to the Snake river, that being the
only transportation route out, and for but a few weeks in the
fall. Almota, Wawawai and Steptoe canyons and Lewiston
hill were the practicable approaches to Snake river from that
direction, and they were from twenty-eight to thirty-seven
miles from Moscow. Mwt of the grain went by way of Wawa
wai canyon because that was the eat iest road to travel. But
such transportation was uncertain and expensive at best. Often
heavy losses were sustained by reason of the inability to get
boaU to float the grain down the river during the brief period
that the stream was navigable after harvest. Often long chutes
were constructed in which the grain was sent from the top of
the canyon down to the river, 2,000 feet or more, thus making
a short cut when teaming was impracticable. Th AAA Inn ft
- v-w tviia
spouts may be seen along the Snake to-day. But the railroads
have relegated them to " innocuous desuetude," and the farmers
are correspondingly more prosperous.
TEKOA JUNCTION, WASHINGTON.
The Washington & Idaho railway is the branch of the Union
Pacific system extending into the Cceur d'Alene mining region
It Joins the main Spokane line of that system at Tekoa, a young
town at the forks of Latah and Hangman creeks and but a few
miles from the Idaho boundary. The town was platted in the
summer of 1888, when the railway survey was made through
that country. A raw mill had been in operation there two
years previously. The real growth of the town did not begin
until a little more than a year ago, when the railway construc
tion pushed it into prominence and a prosperous community
gathered in a few months. It was last year incorporated under
the law that was afterward declared void, and re-incorporated
the past spring. The town now has a population of about 400
souls.
One of the advantages of Tekoa is that it is an important
railway junction and a divisional point on the line. The rail
road company has a round house there, and car shops are in
coarse of construction that will have a pay roll of $25,000 per
month. These shops will be in operation before the end of the
year. The establishment of such enterprises in so young a
town surrounded by a richly productive country greatly hasten
its growth and place it upon a substantial foundation. Tekoa
has two large grain warehouses that are insufficient to accom
modate the crop marketed there. It has a weekly newspaper
and three hotels. A public school house, to cost about $6,000,
will be constructed this year. A church is also under way. A
flouring mill and a machine shop and foundry will be built this
year and a brick yard put in operation. Considerable attention
is being directed to grading streets and putting walks in good
condition. An artesian well, 100 feet deep and flowing about
twenty-five feet above the surface of the ground, supplies an
excellent quality of water.
Tekoa is in the midst of a very rich agricultural country.
Not all the land around the town is under cultivation yet, but
the fields are immensely productive and the crops of grain
taken are mrprising to the ordinary farmer. There iB sufficient
natural moisture for crops and the use of fertilizers of any sort
is unknown on that rolling, elevated plain. The creek bottoms,
hill sides and hill tops are all cultivable, though the Bteeper
hill sides are generally left to furnish pasturage for grazing ani
mals, and only the land in more favorable situations put under
the plow. There is no scab land to interfere with the opera
tions of the husbandman. The roads in the country are in
good condition, and the general trend of the ridges toward the ,
streams and down their courses brings a wide range of countty
directly to Tekoa to market products and buy merchandise, for
it is situated at the junction of the two most important streams
of that region. The Idaho boundary is only two miles to the
east, beyond which is the Cceur d'Alene reservation, of which
220,000 acres will soon be opened to Bottlers. Fuel is obtained
in abundance within four miles of the town. The heavy tim
ber supply about the streams flowing into Cceur d'Alene lake
can be brought by rail to Tekoa to be manufactured. It i
likely that many enterprises for utilizing these advantages will
be started in the young town this year, and there is every pros
pect that the growth, bo auspiciously begun, will be continued
with the development of the tributary country.
The grounds of the Washington State Reform School, re
cently located at Chehalis, are being cleared and graded pre
paratory to building.