The west shore., August 30, 1890, Page 43, Image 11

WEST SHORE.
43
One who travels over the usual routes through Oregon and Washington
can scarcely realize that but a few miles distant from him can still be
found many desirable tracts still in their primeval condition; and when, by
some chance he sees them, or hears of them, he naturally wonders why it
is so many men will labor and strike in the overcrowded east, who might
find here homes and independence. Such a tract as this eiiBts in Western
Washington. The section is known as the Big Bottom, and lies in the
eastern portion of Lewis county. It is a valley from two to six miles wide
and about thirty miles long. The Cowlitz river heads in the upper end of
the valley, and is fed by numerous streams from the mountains. It is a
big stream, deep enough in many places to swim a horse. One fork of the
river, known as Muddy fork, gives the water a chalky appearance qnite dif
ferent from that of the various feeders which cross the trail. Mountains,
in some cases several thousand feet high, tower up on the north and to the
south. Fires have swept the sides of many of them destroying the giant
firs and leaving only the dead trunks. On others there is a new growth of
timber, and the fire has apparently never been in some of the canyons.
The first settlement was made in this section only four or five years ago,
and in many respects the settlement of Big Bottom is like that of the new
states a hundred years ago. There is but one wagon in the valley and it
was carried in on the backs of pjnies. There is not a threshing machine or
mowing machine, a sawmill or any heavy piece of machinery. Sleds are
used to haul in grain, which is cut with a cradle and threshed out by hand.
All the women and some of the bachelors have stoves, and the rest bake
their bread in the old-fashioned ovens and cook over the fireplace as our
ancestors did years ago. The houses are of logs and split lumber, and it is
remarkable what neat structures can be built without the use of a sawmill.
Lumber is split from cedar trees that is as true to line as sawed boards.
Out of this lumber houses are built, bedsteads, chairs, tables, cupboards
and every other article of furniture needed is constructed. There is no
school district organized in the Big Bottom, but a minister and a doctor are
numbered among the residents. It cost (3.00 a hundred to carry in flour
and other provisions over the trail. As a consequence no great quantity of
the luxuries from the outer world are nsed, flour, coffee and sugar being the
principal articles carried over the thirty-five miles of road. Pork, beef
and vegetables of all kinds can be produced iu abundance and these, with
butter, eggs and milk, and iruit ana Derries, maxe a powiuw iu uvo m m
ury so far as the table is concerned. While this is the situation to-day,
it will not remain so very long. A railroad is already projected through
that section which will soon bring more people, activity and progress. Al
ready settlers are going in, and the recent discoveries of coal there will add
greatly to the rush. At the head of the valley, near the Cowlitz pass, twenty-six
different veins have been discovered, which are from five to six feet
in depth, and the supply is believed to be almost inexhaustible. Experts,
In the interestof Investors and railroads, have already been over the ground,
and it is confidently expected that it will be converted from the wild which
it now is, into one of Washington's most prosperous sections in a few years.
A contract has been let for the immediate construction of the new elec
tric railway at Seattle, which is to have its lines over Washington and
other streets and Rainier avenue. The Thomson-Houston Electric Co.
has been awarded the contract to supply the plant for the line. The Jam
and Broadway streets line is also to be commenced at an early day. Brick
have already been placed on the ground to build the The
line will run up James street to Broadway by cable, and all the rest of the
road will be operated by electricity. The firet branch will run north on
' Broadway and continuations to the city limits. The second branch will
run south on Broadway to Ye.ler avenue, along South
alonir Main to Fourteenth and its continuations south to the city limits.
The third branch will run from Broadway on Jesse street to Joy and Divis
ion streets to Lake Washington.
A member of the O'Neill party, now engaged in exploring In the Olym
pic mountains, write, a. follow, of the Skokomish falls: These beautiful
Eat the head of the gorge through which the Skokomish, iver run.
for .Stance of about three mile.. The whole body o water is here gath
ered tato a space of about five feet, falling over a ledge in the form of a veil
alSeXnty flv. feet into a very deep pool about thirty feet wid,
!nd Twfeet long At the end of thi. pool it makes another drop of Uilrty
2 d in g . ightly to the left pses through a chut, formed in th.
nek Md .triking the oppose delcend' in cloud,' TJ
.1x3 allingin. solid body into a rocky bowl, which causes
duSmte d ri8e 200 ,eet Ut 00
being made at short distance, to open the vein, which show, the earn,
quality of ore for a distance of several thousand feet. The ore Is very rich
in gold, silver and copper, and assays 540 per ton in gold and silver, but
as yet no test has been made to ascertain the percentage of copper. Sixty
pound, of th. ore have been sent to Anaconda to be tasted. This I. un
doubtedly one of the most valuable properties ever discovered In Lemhi
county. Rtcortler, Salmon City, Idaho.
The Prinet Albert Critic i. one of the most peculiar paper, ever issued,
for it is really not published In the usual acceptance of that term. It has
four pages, and four columns to the page, and is the official paper of Trine
Albert, a .mall hamlet In the center of the Canadian Northwest Territory.
What makes it peculiar is that it is gotten out weekly without pressor
type. Instead of being set In type and run off on a press in the ubusI man
ner it is written by the editor with an electric pen on prepared paper, after
the manner of the stylograph, and reprint, are made from the original
writing. It i. said to be quite a newsy little paper, having about three hun
dred subscribers.
New. was brought from Alaska some time since that Mount Bogoslov
was in a state of eruption. This mountain is 1,169 feet high, and is on
Ounamsk island, which is uninhabited, and hence, it can continue in it
eruption without doing any damage. Mount Shishaldin, on Analgo Island,
has also' joined Bogoslov in the eruption work, and may be seen from the
sea at a distance of ninety miles. It is 5,052 feet high, and In It. firework,
amusement, besides being a thing of beauty, serves, with ita neighbor, a. a
natural lighthouse to illuminate the path of ships through Ounamak pass.
The entire amount of the capital stock of th. Coo. Bay, Eoseburg i.
Eastern Railroad & Navigation Company has been taken, and the follow
ing are the officers elected at a recent meeting of the directors : I. R. Sprel
den, president; I. W. Burnett, vice-president; W. E. Balnes, secretary and
treasurer and R. A. Graham, general manager. The contract for th. con
struction of the entire road from Marshfield, Coo county, to Roseburg,
Douglas county, was let to R. A. Graham, and the work will be commenced
at once.
The Portland, Salem & Astoria Railroad Company has been incorporated
with a capital stock of $1,500,000. The new company will absorb, or consol
idate with the ABtoria & South Coast railroad, and its object is the construc
tion and operation of a railroad from Portland to Astoria and from Portland
to Halem. They will also operate, in connection with the railroad, steam
boat lines upon the Willamette and Columbia rivers, and Puget sound.
The contract for construction of th. .xtenslon of the Huntington rail
road from Coburg to Jasper, Oregon, has been let to G. V. Stevens, former
ly superintendent of construction on the Oregon Pacific railroad. It is said
work is to be commenced at one and pushed as rapidly as possible.
The new land office district in Washington comprises th. counties of
Pierce, Thurston, Mason, Chehalls, Kitsap, Lewis, Paclflo and a portion of
King. George L. Mills, of Seattle, has recently oeen appoimeu
and will open the office in Olympta the first of October.
The motor for the railway which connect, th. west side .tandard and
narrow gauge railroads, between Independence and Monmouth, has arrived
and is on duty. It is twelve tons In weight, and Is of the latest pattern, be
ing supplied with air brakes and all late Improvement..
The city of Sprague, Washington, will vote In September to decide
whether or not It will be bonded for 135,000, for the purchase of th. water
and electric light planto for which It is now paying a monthly rental of from
300 to 400.
The FortTownsend Electric Railway Company has begun operating IU
line at Poit Townsend, Washington. When the entire line Is completed it
will be three miles In length.
The Spokan. division of th. Seattle, Lake Bhor. A Eastern railroad
has been turned over to the Northern Pacific for operation.
The Orph. mine, recently located near this city, is ' mt River RaliwiT Company, of Buckley, Washington, has bn