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About Tillamook headlight. (Tillamook, Or.) 1888-1934 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 3, 1899)
SPECIAL EDITION OF THE TILLAMOOK HEADLIGHT. beef cattle and hogs and very few sheep. The bays furnish fish, principally M|. mon. and several different species of clams, native oysters and crabs. In the fall of the year the bav furnishes fine hunting, ducks and geese being plentiful. All the rivers and streams afford fine trout. Game in the mountains, however, is growing very scarce. The introduction of creameries and cheese factories in Tillamook county has given an impetus to dairying, which, to say the least, is now only in its infancy. It is some six years since the first creamery was erected. Now there are fifteen with the prospect of that number being doubled in a few years. And what with more regular steamship transportation and the prospect of a railroad, the dairying industry of Tillamook county looks exceedingly promising to those who have embarked in it. As has already been intimated, salmon are canned and ship ped to the markets of the world. Lumber must in time and will overshadow all other resources combined, for the county is immensely rich in timber products. Netarts bay is situated 10 miles south of Tillamook bay and is very much like it. This bay is surrounded by heavy timber, rendering the bottom lands a little more difficult of cultivation. Immediately adjoining the bay are very rich tide lands which, when dyked, will lie productive and of great value. This bay formerly furnished oysters and oyster vessels came directly here from San Francisco to get them, but for want of sufficient quantities to pay for regular shipments the busi. ness was abandoned years ago. The’Nestucca country, in the south part of the country, is chiefly valuable for dairying, stock raising, general farming, bee-keeping and cranberry raising, though fruit-raising is proving profitable there also. There is but little timber in this sec- tion, though enough to supply all local needs. The Big Nescucca river has a large area of fine bottom lands along its course, and have several tributaries that hare fine valleys. Sand Lake is a rich region where cranberries grow to perfection, the cultivation of which is becoming a profitable industry. The Little Nestucca country is much the same as the Big Nestucca, with much the same advantages. The two rivers join, forming Nestucca bav. Sketch of (Tillamook. One of the Wealthiest Counties in Undeveloped Timber and Dairying Resources in the State of Oregon. O regon contains 95,274 square miles, or 60,976,000 acres of land. Oregon lias a continuous navigable water front reaching from the Northern boundary line of California northward along the Pacific Coast to the mouth of the Columbia river, thence up the Columbia along the northern boundarv of the State nearly to its eastern limit. Fifty miles south of the Columbia is the bay of Tillamook, which affords a harbor for smaller vessels, such as are always engaged in a coasting trade, Thirty miles further south is Nestucca river, which will not admit coasting vessels fit to navigate the sea. Western Oregon has an average width of 120 miles, and comprises the most thickly populated and wealthy portion of the State. Along the coast extends a range of mountains from three thousand to four thousand feet in height, covered with timber, a great part of which is suitable for lumber. Streams put down from this range into the sea, particularly so in Tillamook county, along which there is a great deal of land fit for cultivation and for grazing purposes. At some points these mountains reach down to the ocean, but for the most part there is consider»- ble country between the mountains and the beach. Tillamook is one of the wealthiest counties in undeveloped resources of Oregon. It has a sea coast of over 60 miles, adjoining Clatsop on the north and Lincoln on the south. It contains six different streams discharging directly into the Pacific ocean ; one of them being the best harbored river, naturally, between the Columbia river and the Golden Gate. We will enumerate them in the order of their respective agricultural and commercial importance. First, Tillamook bay has an average of 16 feet of water at high tide during the entire year. There are times of the year, during heavy rainy seasons, when there is more. This bay is about eight miles wide by 12 long, and has five different rivers flowing into it, namely : Miami, Kilchis and Wilson rivers on the north side, and the Trask and Tillamook rivers at the head of the bay. Each of these rivers flows through a rich timber country, furnishing a large amount of bottom land suitable for agricultural, more particularly for dairying and stock farms on a small scale. 1 he soil is as rich as any that can be found and will produce any kind of vegetables and grass in abundance. From 30 to 50 acres, cultivated, will comfortably support any family, as the soil will never wear out. These remarks are applicable to all the water courses of Tillamook comity that head in the Coast range, each river having its particular advantages, and all of the above being worthy of mention here. 1 he Miami affords a natural pass into the Nehalem River valley, passing through Foley valley, which is being settled up. Kilchis river is of less importance than the above in this respect, but affords more bottom land for agriculture, and will furnish an immense amount of timber, Some of the earliest settlers located here as far back as 1851, when half of the Willamette valley was lying idle, and nearly all of Eastern Oregon was untouched. Wilson river is a stream of great importance. Along its banks is a large amount of splendid bottom land fit for agriculture, and an immense amount of idle bottom land fit for agriculture, and an immense amount of valuable timber throughout its entire length. This river also forms a natural pass from Tilla- mook to Washington county in the W illamette valley, and a wagon road now runs from Forest Grove to Tillamook. 1 rask river is also valuable for agriculture and possesses untold valuein timber. Anv one crossing the present road, the one leading from Tillamook to North Yam hill. over which a stage runs every day both ways carrying the mail, will at once exclaim. “This is the finest timber land I ever saw!” Trees 300 feet high, ns straight as an arrow and enough of them to furnish millions of feet of logs for him- her. Once brought into the market millions of dollars will lie invested and fortunes correspondingly large will lie made. The streams nre all good for logging in the proper seasons. , j ) j , ' ( ! , ’ ! RESOURCES OF THE NEHALEM. ' ' , , \ , jj ' ' ( < i ! / i ' 'j ' H - (i ' ! I ' ! i ' Tillamook river passes through a comparatively flat, low country. It has more farming land than any of those streams mentioned. It heads against the waters of the Nestucca, forming a natural outlet, and, indeed, n good pass to Sheridan, in \amhill county, by wav of Grande Ronde Indian reservation. Tillamook Citv. the county seat, is located above the bav at the head of navi- , \ gallon on Hoquarton slough, and on the edge of a verv fine prairie. Small ocean ' steamers plv between Tillamook city and Astoria. The land around Tillamook City nt one time was owned in large tracts by old settlers. These farms, however, have ' been subdivided. Now numerous prosperous farms are to lie seen This is a beautiful and charming valley, encircled by the coast range on the east and the head of the bay on the west. The rich virgin land is being gradually cleared up by settlers who are going into dairying, for there is no county in Oregon that is better adapted, considering its natural resources, to furnish dairv products of all kinds than ns Tillamook. It is essentially a grass country ; the different grasses and clovers flourish most luxuriously, and the climate is such that only during a short period each year green food cannot lie obtained. Tillamook comity, liesides its lumbering, produces mostly butter, cheese, stock. Twenty Billion Feet of Lumber Waiting to be Manufac tured—Timber Inexhaustible for the Next Fifty Years. There are wonderful possibilities ahead for the Nehalem region as a lumbering country. It is in the north part of Tillamook county, adjoining that of Clatsop, j and, in all probability, it will be from that direction a railroad will tap Tillamook county. The timber resources of the Nehalem are practically inexhaustible for the next fifty years, and would keep a railroad constantly employed in hauling its lumlier to market. The Nehalem river drains a watershed of over two-hundred miles, including the north and south fork of the river, all of which have sufficient water to float logs the whole year. Along this vast stretch of heavily timbered country the axman has not penetrated. No more inviting locations for loggers or millmen could lie found anywhere than along the banks of the Nehalem. Millions of feet could lie logged from its banks with a very small outlay of labor or capital. For a more detailed description of Nehalem and its wonderful resources we give the following letter from a well-known resident of that section ; TO THE EDITOR OF THE TILLAMOOK HEADLIGHT. D ear S ir ,—The Nehalem country is the most northerly part of the county, and is one of the most important and valuable portions of it. The river from which it takes its name is the largest in the county, and is the first navigable stream south of the Columbia. It flows through the finest tinilier belt in the Pacific Northwest, twenty billion feet of lumlier being tribu tary to it, and is one of the best of streams for logging purposes. There are two branches, which unite about eight miles from the mouth, and the river empties directly into the Pacific Ocean. It has a very good entrance except that the bar is a shifting one, and for that reason needs a jetty to confine the channel to one place. Surveys and estimates have lieen made, and one appropriation of $10,000 obtained, and improvements cannot lie far distant, as the ever iticreas- ing commerce demands that it should lie made. The first two miles of the river has a width of about one-third of a mile, when it opens into a bay of about one and a half by two miles, upon which are fine mill sites and booming grounds. There are two saw mills now in o|ieration, cutting about 50 M. per day, and donkey- engines and other modern appliances are being introduced for logging purposes. A third mill burned down and has not yet lieen rebuilt. It stood upon an island, in front of, and connected with Nehalem City, and is an excellent site, and has good booming facilities. Lumlier vessels run regularly, carrying lumlier to Portland and San Francisco. They usually sail in alone, but a tugboat is stationed here for the purpose of towing them to sea. The timber consists of spruce, fir, cedar, larch and hemlock, some tracts running as high as sixteen million feet to the quarter section. Spruce has been the principal lumlier logged so far, as it is in great demand for boxes, kegs, barrels and other packages, being a tasteless and odorless wood. After logging for the saw mills there will still lie millions of feet available for wood- pulp paper mills, besides miles of cotton-wood bottoms. The Nehalem is. par excellence, the fisherman’s paradise; four kinds of salmon teem in its waters in their respective seasons, keeping two canneries running, the catch often exceeding their capacity for packing; besides affording grand sport for the troller. Salmon-trout are also very numerous, and take the troll freely; and above tidewater, and in the tributaries, fine flv-fishing f°r mountain trout may be had. Ducks and geese abound in the fall and winter months, and in the wo«*