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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 8, 1890)
202 WEST . It It reported that over 40,000,000 feet of timber It In the boom at the mouth of the Stillaguamish river, on the east tide of Paget' sound, and the ' channel It entirely blockaded with logs. The timber it destined for the var ious law mills along the thore from Tacoma north. A company of Port Townsend, Washington, capitalists are putting up 1100,000 to prospect, locate and develop coal and other minerals. They will operate near the head of Port Discovery bay. Specimens of coal fonnd there Induced the organization of the company to prosecute the work of develop ment. Payette it a live town of 700 inhabitant on the Union Pacific railway in Southern Idaho. Among its business enterprises it a nursery from which half a dozen carloads of young fruit treea have been shipped this fall to var ious points In Oregon, Washington and Idaho. One of the pressing needs of the town It a flour mill, for which the citlzena offer liberal inducements. The mineral fields of Idaho are among the largest in the world, and have produced, and are now producing, the richest ores known in the history of mining. Since their first discovery the minesof Idaho have produced the princely sum of $107,830,1)62.84. The production of last year amounted to $17,344,000. Of thia there was of gold, $2,204,500; tilver, $7,507,600; lead, $0,41)0,000; copper, $85,000. It la reported that Portland capitalists have secured control of the Dray ton Harbor, Lynden & Spokane Falls railroad, which it to run from Blaine, Washington, to Spokane Falls. The company is to be reorganized under a new name and will be placed under the management of the Union Pacific. The road la to be pushed up the Nooksack valley as fast as men and means can do it, and in the spring will be completed to Spokane Falls. The returns from the trial shipment of ore from the copper mines near Waldo, In Southern Oregon, have been so satisfactory that a tunnel 400 feet long will be run Immediately to tap the ledge at a great depth. This tunnel and the various cross cuts will thoroughly prospect the five claims owned by the Oregon & California company, and the five claims owned by the Boston A Montana company. The Anaconda copper company also has five claims which It Intends to prospect. Borne Portland capitalists have made proposition to the Chamber of Commerce of Port Townsend, Washington, contemplating the erection of a large flour mill In Die Puget sound city. The mill will have a capacity for manufacturing 500 barrels of flour dally, and operated in connection with It will be an elevator capable of storing half a million bushels of grain. The agricultural resources of the country west of the sound are fast developing and the facilities for hauling and marketing the product advantageously must toon follow. The plant proposed for Port Townsend will Include the largest flour mill In the state. At the headquarters of the Falrhaven Land company is a display of vegetables from along the line of the Falrhaven A Southern railroad, In the Skagit valley, which Is positively wonderful. There are solid heads of excellent cabbage, while and freah, weighing from twenty-five to thirty pounds, which looked as If one of them would not go In a half-bushel meas ure ; turnips nearly as large In proportion and weighing as much ; hu je po tatoes, many of which would weigh from two to five ponnds; carrots twelve and fourteen Inches In diameter; sugar corn of the largest and most luxuri ant variety ; several different variety of apples, any of which are as large as the biggest pippins grown In the greatest fruit-growing regions of the east. Kveryone who saw this splendid display, which is representative and not plcktd as the largest, waa astonished at It And no one who sees It can any longer doubt Die wondrous adaptability of this region to the raising of fruits and vegetables. Not alone In the Skagit valley, hut for miles In all directions In the region tributary to this city, do the conditions exist for raising this huge fruit and vegetables. Fairkattn IleraUI. Mr. Thomas Daley, of San Diego, hu perfected plans for the establish ment of a permanent coastwise line of sail and steam craft. The steamships will probably take In Victoria, and will be an active opposition to the vessels now regularly employed In the Pnget sound-San Francisco freight and pas senger trade. His sailing vessels will run from San Diego to the sound, carrying the product of Southern California, and will return with coal and (timber, The establishment of this new sail and steam line Is quite Import . The products of the two sections are entirely dissimilar, and this line jmill xiiuuilute ewhange of commodities, and will create new and more SHORE. direct markets. It will also have a tendency to keep freights to more reason able figures. Especially will the line of sailing vessels be found advantage ous in this respect. Mr. Daley's arrangements extend south to pointa in Mexico and Guatemala. He secured the co operation of Mexican officials, and will, through their assistance, be able to establish his business on a permanent basis. Heallle Prat. Some time ago Judge F. A. Bettis went to the mouth of the Little Spo kane river, nine miles northwest of this city, to see what was left of the first white settlement in this region. He found the remains of the huts erected by the Astor trappers in 1812 still well preserved. In July of that year ex peditions were sent up the Columbia from Astoria for trapping. One party was dropped off at the mouth of the Okanogan river, and the rest of the ex pedition came up the river until they reached the mouth of the Little Spo kane. They remained there until the news of war with Great Britain had reached the west, when the Hudson's Bay company sent a force against the new settlement. The man in charge sold out to the Hudson's Bay company, and returned to Astoria. This is a brief history of the first white settlement in Eastern Washington. A statue of John Jacob Astor would be most ap propriate in the metropolis of the region which his men first discovered and first settled.-Spoiton Spohtman. It was not the Hudson's Bay company, but the Northwest company, that interfered with Aetor's enterprise. The first post was established at the mouth of the Okanogan in 1811. Ed. When the statistics of farm productions in the northwest for 1890 are made up they will show unprecedented yields of grain and no failure in any line. Throughout the inland empire the grain crop this year is phenomenal. The snows of last winter lingered in the hills and tempered the breezes that circulated over the country. The wet season continued rather late and left the crops In prime growing condition with the soil stored with moisture to last through the dry season which followed and was in every respect favor able to the crops The harvest time brought heavy work for the farmets and the transportation companies. The latter were swamped by the extra ordinary volume of business offered from the small towns in the agricultural region and are but slowly clearing their lines. Without doubt the systems of elevators built last season along the lines and connections of both the Union Pacifio and the Northern Faciflc railways have contributed to the facilities for handling grain in quantities andin an ordinary season might have relieved in great measure the strain Immediately following harvest; but this year the utmost capacity of line and terminal elevators has hardly made perceptible diminution of the vast quantities awaiting shipment to seaboard. Some grain has been shipped to eastern markets this year in order to balance the shortage of yield east of the Rockies. At almost every station In the Columbia basin, thousands of racks, the overflow from ware houses and elevators, lie piled on the depot platforms waiting for empty cars to transport them to market The grain Is of excellent quality this year as well as of extraordinary quantity and the farmers have reason to be gratified with the results of the season's work. The price also keeps np to a good figure. Some of the wheat raised in the Umatilla valley, the Walla Walla country and the Palouse plain is equal to Mississippi valley wheat in hard ness. On the subject of the culture of cranberries on the marsh lands about Coos bay, Oregon, the Coot Bay Neri says : On Saturday last we received a box containing several gallons of cranberries, from C. S. McFarlin, of North slough. The berries are known as the Belle berry, and the vines were received from Cape Cod, Plymouth Co., Mass. Several parlies dropped In during the day to see them, and the universal verdict was that they could not be beaten anywhere. The vines of this variety were planted three years ago last spring, and Mr, McFarlin estimates that he will get 100 bushels off an acre. He has two more varieties, which are also thriving splendidly the Cherry and the McFarlin. This latter variety takes its name from Mr. McFarlin, who first cultivated It at Carver, Mass. It It the largeat berry of the lot and it superior to other varieties in some respects. Mr. McFarlin has been here five years, most of which time he has devoted to experiment ing with cranberries, spending several thousand dollars in preparing land, building dams for flooding the bog, etc., and he hu satisfied himself that cranberry culture ran be made a grand success In this county, and he pre dict that In the not tar distant future it will be one of the prominent Indus tries of Coos bay. As an illustration of his assertions in regard to the wealth capable of being produced from the culture of cranberries, he showed ns a letter from his brother, living at Carver, Mass., In which It wu stated that there were 1,5110 people picking berries on the bog near that place at present. The bog Is about three miles long, with an average of one-quarter mile in width, and he give u a safe estimate that the crop will bring $40,000 this season. There are hundreds of acres In this county, now lying Idle, which could be utilised for this purpose, and which If properly cultivated would bring a handsome sum annually to the pockets of the owners.