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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 29, 1890)
WEST SHORE. 247 ALBANY, 0REO0S. Prominent among the interior cities of Oregon is Albany, seat of justice of Linn county, one of the largest and most prosperous counties in the great Willamette valley. On the center page are given a number of en gravings of buildings and scenes in Albany that convey an excellent idea of the city and its characteristics. The business streets of Albany are well bnilt up with two and three-story brick blocks, some of them very handsome structures, and all of them occupied by stores carrying large stocks of goods. In fact First street presents a decidedly metropolitan appearance. Three large brick blocks have been erected the present year, also a handsome church, several elegant residences and a large number of other houses and business structures. The city has voted to bond itself for $100,000 for the purpose of paying for a system of sewerage costing $00,000, the work upon which is nearly completed, and for building a wagon and foot bridge across the Willamette at the mouth of the Callpooia, near the west end of the city. The bridge will be a steel structure costing about $100,000. There is already a good bridge across the river, built by the Oregon Pacific railroad. A line of street cars runs through the chief business streets to the Southern Pacific depot, and there is a project on foot for the construction of an electric motor line through the city and by a circular route reaching all the leading additions. The Oregon Pacific owns a great deal of property in the city, along the river and in the suburbs, and such a line would greatly increase its value. It has a round-house there, and has selected this place for the location of machine shops. This railroad connects Albany with the ocean at Yaquina bay and has been constructed eastward into the Cascade mountains, heading for Boise City, Idaho. Being where it first touches the Willamette river from either direction, Albany is its most important point and chief shipping station. Steamers on the river run in connection with the railroad. The main line of the Southern Pacific from Portland to San Francisco runs through Albany, and a branch line runs eastward to Leb anon, tapping a fertile agricultural section further to the east. The Union Pacific has a line of boats on the river, running to Portland, so that Albany has three transportation companies competing for business, rendering this the most extensive shipping point in the upper Willamette valley. Im mense quantities of grain and considerable flour are shipped. Three large ware-houses, belonging to the Union Pacific, Oregon Pacific and Farmers' association supply storage room for a large amount of wheat. Four flouring mills consume a portion of the crop and ship much flour. The country for miles around Albany, on both sides of the river, is very level, and la one vast field of wheat, yielding an average of thirty bushels of the finest quality of white winter wheat to the acre. An idea of the luxuriant growth of wheat can be gained from the engraving, where is shown a man six feet tall standing in a grain field, the wheat reaching far above his head, topped with large and plump heads. This is an exact copy of a photograph. Fields of this sort yield from thirty to forty bushels per acre in tracts as high as 400 acres. Not only is this a great grain producing region, but it is becoming a fruit growing section of importance. It is only a short while since there was a market for Oregon fruit in quantity, and though many thousands of trees have been set out the past three or four years, the new orchards have not yet reached a good bearing condition. Nevertheless, the older orchaids supply a large quantity of superior fruit and in a few years the product will be enormous. It is destined to become one of the leading industries of the county. Albany is the shipping point. A small fruit canning and packing establishment already existing there, but the opening for a large Industry of this nature is good. Albany is also an important lumber depot, no less than ten lumber yards doing business there. There is a saw mill in the city, but the bulk of the lumber comes from mills further east toward the mountains. The amount of valuable timber in the tributary region is enormous, and this will always be the headquarters of large lumbering interests. In the city are a chair factory, furniture factory and a branch of the Sugar Pine Sash and Door factory of Grant's Pass. The Callpooia and Santiam rivers and the Oregon Pacific supply connection with the timber region to the eastward, and if the proposed Southern Pacific branch from Lebanon to the Santiam mines be built, it will tap great bodies of the finest timber. There are other important industries that contribute to the city's pros perity. An artificial ice factory supplies not only Albany but all the towns in the upper end of the valley. A large woolen mill was put in operation this year, employing about 200 hands and using the superior quality of wool produced in that region. A wire mattress factory, two foundries, a brewery and several other Industries are also located there. A company supplies electric lights tor the streets and for private use. Three good banks, two of them national, are good index of the commercial stability of the city, as are twelve churches, a fine public school, a Catbolio seminary and a Presby terian college of lti moral and Intellectual status. Several of the church edifices are large and handsome structures. The Imposing court house, shown in the engraving, cost $75,000. Near Albany is found the finest building stone yet discovered on the Pacific coast. This stone has been known and used for twenty years, but it has never been pushed upon the market and has not had an opportunity to make its merit known elsewhere. Portland builders are shipping stone from as far as Ariaona, much inferior in quality to this and at greater ex pense. The quarry of fine sandstone belonging to Q. L. Blackman and James Abraham, lies one and one-half miles up the river, and near both the river and railroad. Stone from this quarry has stood the test of time (or twenty years in buildings in Albany. It is now being need in the Centen ary M. E. Church, of East Portland, where It attracted so much attention that Mr. Abraham, a capitalist of that city, purchased a half interest In the quarry. A switch will be put in from the railroad and the quarry worked more extensively in future. Frank Wood, an expert carver in atone and marble, who has made a personal examination of all the chief quarries in the United States, owns a quarry of gray sandstone a little more than a mile from town, that he deems to be superior to any yet known. Experts who have examined it speak very highly of its quality. It splits very evenly In all directions and stands the severest tests of freeilng and heating. It will carve as sharply as marble and can be turned perfectly on a lathe. It was of this stone Mr. Wood made the beautiful Oregon memorial stone for the Washington monument. The merits of tills stone are becoming known, and it will no doubt soon be in great demand for the elegant structures of Portland and other coast cities. The Importance of these large ledges of sandstone to the cities of the northwest can not be overestimated. On the middle fork of the Santiam river, about sixty miles from Albany, and reached by road twenty miles from the Oregon Faciflo, is a mining dis trict that promises to equal the most famous in the country. Surface indi cations show exceedingly rich leads, and development work is proving both the permanence of the ore bodies and their increased richness the greater depth is reached. Both free gold and galena ores are found. The Albany Mining 4 Milling Co. has a five-stamp mill on its claim, which was operated for a time on a trial run of ore, showing an average of $50 to the ton, an ex ceedingly valuable free gold ore, since it Is mined and milled at such a low figure as to leave a handsome profit. Five more stamps will be added to the mill in the spring, at which time three Portland companies, one Salem company, and possibly others, will also erect mills on their properties. The ledges lie In a splendid position for economical working, being ou the side of a hill, so that they can be tapped both by shaft and tunnel, the ore easily removed and the mine kept drained. All the indications point to the Santiam as the greatest free gold district known. There are, also, excellent galena ledgea, upon which development work Is showing good results. Preparations are also being made for extensive hydraulic mining by a com pany owning twenty-five claims of gravel, or placer, ground. The Southern Pacific will construct a branch from Lebanon to the Santiam mines just as soon as they have been sufficiently developed to warrant It, as preliminary arrangements have been made. There are also good mining districts on Blue river and Mackensie river, where development work is revealing ex cellent ledges. Albany is situated so as to profit mora by these mining developments thsn any other city in the valley. On the south bank of the Columbia, about twenty miles from Portland, rise two high, conical masses of basaltic rock, between which runs the track of the Union Pacific railroad. These are variously known as the "Pillars of Hercules," " Twin Rocks," " The Needles," and the " Gateway to the Columbia." An excellent engraving of them is given on the front page. They attract much attention from travelers, both by rail and steamer. This is but one of the many curious shapes the basaltic rocks of the Colum bia have assumed, where they have been subjected (or ages to the erosion of the river and the action of the element. Nearly opposite Is the famous Cape Horn, huge cilfTs of basalt rising abruptly from the river, castellated by the action of cascades that pour over their rough sides during tli winter and spring when the streams above are lull. Another solution of the twenty-one pussle, one that is even more of a gymnastic nature than the one in Homan notation given In Wan Hiiorb Nov. 15, has been sent in. The nines are inverted and called sixes. Three of them make eighteen and three ones added make twenty-one. The puule can not be solved. Calling a nine a six Is not using the figure nine at all, hence the above solution Is far from a correct one, and not nearly so good at the solution in Roman chapters, where the actual numerals In the puule are used. If this is the solution given by the originator of the puule, then it must be admitted that even he can not solve his own puule and he cer tainly can not In any legitimate way. The appointment of a receiver (or Die Oregon Improvement Co., was a surprise to all but a lew Intimately acquainted with Its afUlrs. Too many irons in the lira and the sacrifice of the company's interests to the outside speculations of Its managers were the cause of Its downfall.