Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 27, 1890)
SHORE. 107 WEST The largest law mill in Oregon at present ia that of the Willamette Steam Mills, Lumbering and Manufacturing Company, located on North Front street, Portland. This company employs about 400 men in Its mill and around the yards, and its daily output amounts to about 250,000 feet of lumber a day. Extensive improvements are now in progress, however, which will place this establishment second to but one mill on the Pacific coast. Ad immense engine of 2,000-horse power capacity has been con tracted for, and in addition to this all the machinery in the mill will be taken out and replaced with more modern styles. The sawing will all be done by machinery, where now the logs and lumber are handled by men. The output of the mills will be increased to 450,000 feet per day when all the changes are completed, the cost of the improvements being in the neighborhood of $50,000. This is one of the largest manufacturing estab lishments on the coast, and including logging camps, logging railroads and steamboats, furnishes employment to over 1,000 men and disburses an immense amount of money every month in the one item of wages. A large sash and door factory Is also operated in connection with the mill, and to this part of the plant has recently been added a dry house with a capacity of 1,000 doors and 20.000 feet of lumber. The products of this mill find market in all parts of the world, and foreign ships may be found moored to its docks at all seasons of the year taking in cargoes which greatly add to the reputation Portland has established as a manufacturing and shipping center. In enumerating reasons why it thinks the city of Aberdeen wiil grow into one of the largest seaports on the Pacific coast, the Aberdeen Herald says: That there is to be a great city on Gray's harbor is no longer a mat ter oren to question ; comparative geography has decided this point beyond dispute. From the Straits of Juan de Fuca to the harbor of San Diego, in Southern California, a distance of 1,200 miles, there are but five natural harbors: Puget sound, Grays harbor, Columbia river San Francisco and San Diego. When one thinks of the hundreds of great seaport cities on the Atlantic coast, whose aggregate population runs into the millions, because of their outlet to commerce, the fact becomes patent to all, that with only five harbors as outlets for the entire Pacific coast there must be great cities built on their shores. But the especial claim of Aberdeen to b the city of the harbor lies in the fact of her ideal business position. She is situated at the junction of the Chebalis and Wisbkah rivers, one-half mile above where the former empties into Gray's harbor. The river at this point is from two to three thousand feet wide, and carries a depth of from forty to seventy-five feet of water for a distance of four miles, and is completely land-locked. The Wishkah river, which cuts the city in two, is 250 feet wide, and carries a depth of thirty-five feet for distance of three miles from its mouth. The city's harbor and wharfage lacilitiea, therefore, are most excellent and extensive, and make it a natural location for the build ing of a large city. Port Crescent the bottom and approaches are sandy, offering the best pos sible protection to the cable after once being laid. The length of the line will be twenty-one miles, eleven of which will be cable. This line will be operated as a competitor of the Facific Postal Telegraph Company, and will undoubtedly act as an incentive to it to increase its present facilities. The question of a supply of pure water has for a long time been a serious problem for Tacoma, which now seems about to be solved. Sur veys have been completed for a pipe line, twenty-three miles in length, to run from a 5,000,000 gallon reservoir which will be filled from the abun dant fbw of Green river, one of the numerous streams which find their way to the sound from the heart of the Cascade mountains. The expense of maintaining and operating a large pumping plant will be done away with, as the source of supply is sufficiently elevated to give a heavy pressure in the mains. Work will commence soon and will be pushed as rapidly as men and means can do it. The estimated cost of the new system is $1,200, 000. The residents and property owners of Mukilteo, Washington, have raised a large sum of money for the erection of free dock at that place. Boats are invited from any and all ports, with a guaranty of no charges tor wharfage, which is certainly an innovation in the history of eteamboating on the sound waters. The railroad company will erect large docks and coal bunkers, and negotiations are pending for the erection of a saw mill, a fine hotel and an electric light plant. The carrying out of these projects will greatly Increase the business of the town. Men to work on the railroad are greatly needed, $2.50 a day being offered for laborers. During twenty-five years past the boundary line dividing the counties of Polk and Yamhill has had only an imaginary existence. No difficulty has ever been experienced as a result of having no permanent establish ment of the line, though no mutual agreement could be arrived at by former representatives of the interests of the two counties. An agreement has at last been reached, however, and parties of surveyors have established a line and marked it by permanent iron monuments. Several thousand acres of land are placed on the Yamhill side which have formerly been claimed by Polk. The assessment roll of Custer county, Montana, shows the total value of property subject to taxation to be $0,107,405, an increase of $1,042,054 over the year 1880. The assessment includes the personal property of the Crow Indian reservation, which was also included In the assessment of 1889. The net increase in the county proper amounts to $1,302,054, which is certainly a very encouraging showing. A good deal of attention is being directed toward the Okanogan country, in Northern Washington, this year. Under development work the mines of the Okanogan and Conconnully districts are rapidly increasing in rich ness and only the handicap of being so remote from transportation routes prevents them from ranking with such rich districts as the Caw d'Alene, in Idaho. The Central Washington and the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern railways, extending west from Spokane Falls, promise to give the Okanogan country an outlet, but their progress has not been sufficiently rapid to suit people having interests in that region so independent lines have been start ed. The Ellensburgh & Northeastern is one of these lines. After about twelve miles of this road were graded, however, Ellensburgh burned, and the energies of the railway promoters were diverted to rebuilding the town. Now that the city is rebuilt the road toward Okanogan is again claiming at tention and preparations are being made la prosecuting the work. Spo kane Falls capitalists also organised a railway enterprise for the Okanogan this season, and capitalised the concern at $5,000,000. It is not at all like ly that another year will pass without adequate transportation being pro vided through the Big Bend country and to the rich mineral district to the northwest. The Great Northern is by no means the least transportation probability for that region. A plan for giving Victoria, British Columbia, increased telegraphic facilities is now under consideration by the Western Union, Northern Pacifio and Great Northwestern telegraph companies. The scheme is to run a cable from Port Crescent, on the south side of the Straits of Juan de Fuca, to a point on Beecher bay, on the north side, and connect there with an overland telegraph line to Victoria. It is thought permission will be readily granted by the dominion government for landing the cable, and the nature of the bottom of the straits at that point offars no obstruction to the early completion of the project. At Dunginess, the place where the present cable crosses, the shores and bottom of the straits are rocky and constantly inter fere with the successful working of the line. At the proposed crossing from A telephone system has been established at Pendleton, Oregon, which will be operated in connection with the lines of the Inland Telegraph and Telephone Company. This company has an extensive system of telegraph and telephone lines ramifying the entire Palouse country. They also extend northward as far as Lake Cu-ur d'Alene, Idaho, and to the south and west to Walla Walla, Washington. The Forest Grove Cannery Company filed articles of Incorporation last week. The capital stock is placed at $10,000, of which amount over $l0,0JO has been subscribed. In addition to operating a cannery and fruit preserv ing establishment, numerous other branches of trade and traffic are per mitted under Its incorporation articles. A new electric railroad, eleven miles In length, la building between Tacoma and Steilacoora. The equipment will be of the Thomson-Houston system, and the contract requires the road to be finished and in operation January 1, 181)1. Denver capitalists are erecting works for the manufacture of paint (rom the product of the mines recently discovered at Vollmer, Idaho. They will also engage in the manufacture of linseed oil on an extensive scale. Flans have been adopted and work commenced on a four-story hotel for the Chebalis Land and Timber Company, at Chehalla, Washington. The cost of the structure will be about $30,000. The net value of all the taxable property in Clackamas county, Oregon, is $3,296,034, an increase of $554,105 over (lie amount returned by the asses sor for 1889.