History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889, Part 37

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe, 1832-1918; Victor, Frances Fuller, 1826-1902
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: San Francisco : History Co.
Number of Pages: 880

USA > Idaho > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 37
USA > Montana > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 37
USA > Washington > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 37

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

In a review of the market for ISSO it was stated that the capacity of the Puget Sound mills was about two hundred million feet a year, and the ship- ments about eight million feet under that. Walla Walla Statesman, Jan. 27, 1883; Commercial Herald, in La Conner P. S. Mail, Feb. 12, 1881. The

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RESOURCES AND INDUSTRIES.

capacity of these mills is given in 1883 as 1,306,000 feet daily, or over three hundred millions annually.

An interesting feature of the lumber business is that part of it known as ' logging,' which is carried on by companies, on an extensive scale. Wilkeson's Puget Sound, 13-14; Rept of Com. Agriculture, 1875, 332; Evans' Wash. Ter., 41-2; Dayton Dem. State Journal, Nov. 17. 1882.

The second most important article of export from Washington is coal. The first discoveries were made in the Cowlitz Valley in 1848, whence several barrels were shipped to Cal. to be tested, but which was condemned as a poor quality of lignite. Lewis' Coal Discov., MS., 8, 13; S. I. Polynesian, v. 2, 7; Morse's Wash. Ter., MS., ii. 57. About that time, or previous to 1830, a Frenchman named Remeau discovered coal on the Skookum Chuck, which created considerable interest at Olympia, and was the motive which inspired the first idea of a railroad toward the Columbia, a survey being made by J. W. Trutch in the autumn of 1852. In 1849 Samuel Hancock, while trading with the Lummi, was told that they had seen black stones at Bellingham Bay. Subsequently he found coal on the Stillaquamish, but was forbidden to work it by the Indians who told him of it. Hancock's Thirteen Years, MS., 145-9, 174; Olympia Columbian, Oct. 16, 1852.

In 1850 H. A. Goldsborongh explored several affluents of Puget Sound and found croppings of coal on a number of them, of which an analysis was made in Feb. 1851, by Walter R. Johnson for the secretary of the navy. About this time the P. M. S. Co. employed agents to explore for coal in Oregon and Washington, one of whom, William A. Howard, afterward in the revenue service, together with E. D. Warbass, made an expedition from the Chehalis up the coast to a point north of Quinault. Meanwhile William Pattle, an English subject, who was looking for spar timber among the islands of the Ilaro archipelago, found coal at Bellingham Bay in Oct. 1832, and took a claim on the land just south of the town site of Sehome as subsequently lo- cated. Two other claims were taken adjoining by Pattle's associates, Morri- son and Thomas. They succeeded in negotiating with a company called the Puget Sound Coal Mining Association. From 1860 to 1879 there was an average annual yield of thirteen thousand tons. Another coal deposit was discovered in 1862 on the Strait of Fuca not far from Clallam Bay, by J. K. Thorndike, and in 1867 was organized the Phoenix Coal Mining Co.

The earliest attempted development of coal west of Admiralty Inlet was by Dr R. H. Bigelow, who partially opened a coal vein on Black River, known as the Bigelow mine, lying about ten miles south-east from Scattle. There was no means of getting coal to navigable water without expensive ini- provements in roads and barges, and the mine was abandoned. About 1867 S. B. Hinds & Co. of Scattle purchased the claim, and sunk a shaft to the vein, a distance of 70 feet; but the mine never became productive of market- able coals.

East of Seattle several discoveries were made about 1859, some of which have proved valuable. David Mowery, a Pa German, found coal on his claim in the Squak Valley, fourteen miles east of the Sound. With W. B. Andrews, he took out a few tons, which were disposed of in Seattle. At a later date, William Thompson also mined in this coal to a small extent, when it was abandoned. Lewis' Coal Discoveries, MS .. 1. A claim of 160 acres of coal land eleven miles south-east of Scattle was taken up in 1863 by Philip H. Lewis, and work begun upon it in the following year. Lewis was born in Ill. in 1828, and came to Or. from Cal. in ISSI. His example was followed by Edwin Richardson, who took a claim next to him, while Josiah Settle claimed another quarter-section adjoining. Richardson changed his location more than once, finally fixing upon the one later worked by the Seattle C'oal and Transportation Co. Tho original owners opened a road in 1867. and brought out one hundred and fifty tons in wagons, which was sold for ten dollars a ton at the wharf in Seattle, and burned on some of the steamers that plied on the Sound. The mine was then sought for, and a company consist-

34]

COAL MINES.

ing of Daniel Bagley, George F. Whitworth, P. H. Lewis, Josiah Settle, and Salucius Gartielde, called the Lake Washington Company, was formed. Bag- ley purchased the Richardson claim and a portion of each of the other two, Whitworth owning a part of Lewis' claim. Clarence Bagley and Garfieldle took up some additional land, which weut into the company organization. The object of the new arrangement was to get a rail or tram road from the east side of Lake Washington to the coal heds. A company was formed, and an act passed by the legislature of 1866-7 incorporating the Coal Creek Road Company. Wash. Stat., 1866-7, 202-3. The road company was composed of W. W. Perkins, John Denny, Henry L. Yesler, John J. McGilvra, C. J. Noyes, C. H. Hale, and Lewis C. Gunn. Capital stock $5,000, with power to increase to $500,000. In Aug. following the mining company incorporated as the Lake Washington Company, with a capital stock of $500,000, with the privilege of increasing it to a million. Lewis withdrew from the mining or- ganization, after which it sold out, in 1870, to Ruel Robinson, Amos Hurst, and others, residents of Seattle, for $25,000, all the land that had been put in being included in the sale, the new organization styling itself the Seattle L'oal Company. Under the new management there was a tramway built from the minc to Lake Washington, and a wooden road on the west side of the lake to Seattle. A scow was built for transportation across the lake; a small steamer, the Phantom, was constructed for towing. Iu 1872 Robinson sold to C. B. Shattuck and others of S. F. for $51,000, and capital put in; since which the Seattle mine has produced well, and been a profitable investment. The company had steam tow- boats on lakes Washington and Union, the Clara and Chehalis, connecting with the tramway from the mine across the isthmus between the lakes, and from Lake Union to the wharf in Seattle. The flat- boats were run upon trucks across the isthmus, and thence across the secoml lake, to avoid handling. Meeker's Wash. Ter .; McFarlan's ('oal Region .; Goudyear's Coal Mines, 106-7; Seattle Intelligencer, Sept. 11, 1871.

The discovery next in point of time and importance to the Seattle coal was that of the Rentou mine. David Mowery first made the discovery, but not thinking well of the coal, sold the claim to Robert Abrams about 1860. It was not until 1873 that it was again remembered, when E. M. Smithers, on his adjoining claim, found pieces of coal in a small stream on his farm, an l following up the indications, tunnelled into the hill where they appeared, striking at the distance of 100 feet two horizontal ledges of pure coal extend- ing into it. Having demonstrated the contents of his land, he sold it for $25,000 to Rucl Robinson, who also purchased the adjoining lands of Abrams and McAllister. A company was at once formed, with a capital of $300,000.

A number of mines have been prospected, and a great abundance of coal foundl to exist on the east side of the Sound. Among others was the Cedar Mountain mine, on the same ridge with the Reuton; and near the junction of Cedar and Black rivers the Clymer mine was discovered at an early day on the land of C. Clymer. On the Stillaqnamish, the Snohomish, and the Skagit rivers, coal was known to exist. La Roque's Skagit Min s, MS., 21. It had long been known by some of the early residents of the Puyallup Valley that coal was to be found there. Eastwick's Puget Sound, MS., 3. The first actual prospecting was done by Gale and two half-breeds named Flett. This small company took a mining claim in 1874, drifting in about sixty feet, on a vein discovered on Flett Creek, a tributary of South Prairie Creek, which is a branch of the Puyallup. During the same season E. L. Smith of Olympia, a surveyor, discovered coal about half a mile north of the Gale mine, on land belonging to the Northern l'acific R. Co., which led to an examination of the country over an area of twenty-five square miles in the coal district.

It is conjectured that the region abont Steilacoom is underlaid with a coal deposit. But it is farther south than this that the actual discoveries have been made. In 1863 a vein was found upon the land of Wallace and P. W. Crawford opposite to and two miles above Monticello. The construction of the Northern Pacific railroad from the Columbia to the Sound revived the interest in the coal-fields of the region south of Olympia. J. B. Montgomery,

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RESOURCES AND INDUSTRIES.

contractor upon that road, in 1872 purchased nine hundred acres of coal lands near the Chehalis River between Claqnato and Skookum Chuck, and two miles west of the road. It was proposed to clear the obstructions from the Chehalis sufficiently to enable a steamer to tow barges from Claquato to Gray Harbor for ocean shipment, hut this scheme has not been carried out.

In 1873 the Tenino mine, within half a mile of the Northern Pacific road track, was prospected by Ex-gov. E. S. Salomon and Col F. Bee of S. F. The Olympia and Tenino R. Co. took shares, and called it the Olympia Railway and Mining Co.

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A mine known as the Scatco, situated on land owned by T. F. MeElroy and Oliver Shead of Olympia, near the Skookum Chuck station, was opened in 1877. In the autumn of 1879 it had a daily capacity of fifty tons.

Coal-oil has been discovered in some parts of these extensive coal regions. George Waunch, of pioneer antecedents, sent samples to Portland, in 1868, from the Skookum Chuck district. It was also found in the Puyallup Valley near Elhi in 1SS2. The annual production was estimated in 1880, for the whole of Washington, to be 161,708 tons.

Gold and silver mining is still carried on in Washington, although as an in-

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GOLD AND SILVER.

dustry it is comparatively small. For the year ending in May 1880, the total value of the deep mine production was reported at $22,036, the principal part of this being from the Peshoston district in the Yakima country, and of placer mines $120,019. In 1881 the yield was not much if any more, and in 1883 the production of the precious metals had fallen off from former figures, not reaching to $100,000. This is not altogether from a poverty of resources, but is partly due to the more sure and rapid returns from other industries which have been enjoyed in eastern Washington for the last decade. The Yakima country was the first to give any returns from quartz-mining. The gold is free-milling, and it is believed will give place at a greater depth to silver.

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EASTERN WASHINGTON.

The total amount of land surveyed in Washington down to June 1880 was 15,959,175 out of the 44,796, 160 acres constituting the area of the state. For many years the fortunate combination of soil and climate in eastern Washing- ton, whereby all the cereals can be produced in the greatest abundance and of the highest excellence, was not understood. The first settlers in the Walla Walla Valley went there to raise cattle on the nutritious bunch-grass which gave their stock so round an appearance with such glossy hides. The gold crusade carried thither merchants and settlers of another sort, and it was found that people must eat of the fruits of the earth in the country where

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RESOURCES AND INDUSTRIES.

their tents were pitched. This necessity led to farming, at first in the ereek valleys, then on the hill-sides, and lastly on the tops of the hills quite away from the possibility of irrigation, where to everybody's surprise wheat grew the best of all. It then began to be known that where bunch-grass would naturally grow, wheat especially, and the other cereals, would flourish sur- prisingly. The area of wheat land in eastern Washington has been estimated as capable of yielding, under ordinary eulture, more than a hundred million bushels annually, 50 to 60 bushels to the acre being no uncommon return. Messige of Governor Ferry, 1878, 4-6.

The soil which is so fruitful is a dark loam, composed of a deep rich allu- vial deposit, combined with volcanic ash, overlying a elay subsoil. On the bills and southern exposures the clay comes nearer to the surface. The whole subsoil rests on a basaltic formation so deep as to be discoverable only on the deep watercourses. The climate is dry, with showers at rare inter- vals in summer, with fall rains and brief winters, during which there is usually soine snowfall, and occasional hard winters when the snow is decp enough to fill all the streams to overflowing in the spring, which comes early.

The first wheat-fields of western Washington were those cultivated by the H. B. Co. in the Columbia and Cowlitz valleys, which yielded well, the Cow- litz farm producing from 30 to 50 bushels per acre of white winter wheat. The heavily timbered valleys about Puget Sound furnished tracts of open land well adapted to wheat-growing, but taken as a whole this region has never been regarded as a grain-producing country. The reclamation of tide- lands about the mouths of the rivers which flow into the Fuea Sea, opposite the strait of that name, added a considerable area to the grain-fields of western Washington.

The first settlers upon the tide-lands were Samuel Calhoun and Michael Sullivan, who in 1864 took elaims on the Swinomish River or bayou, which connects with the Skagit by extensive marshes. Sullivan made his first en- closure in 1865, and three years afterward raised a erop of 37 acres of oats. Ile sowed five bushels of seed to the aere, intending to eut it for hay, but allowing it to ripen, obtained 4,000 bushels of oats. Calhoun raised 21 acres of barley in 1869 with like favorable results. From this time there was an annual increase of reclaimed land. Its productiveness may be inferred from the statement that on 600 acres at La Conner, belonging to J. S. Conner, about 1.000 tons of oats and barley were produced annually. Morse's Wash. Ter., MS., xxii. 13. There were in 1875 about 20 settlers on the Swinomish tide- lands, who had 100 acres each in cultivation, and raised on them 40 bushels of spring wheat, 80 bushels of winter wheat, 75 bushels of barley, and 80 bushels of oats to the acre. Morse's Wash. Ter., MS., xxii. 15.

In 1881 the experiment was tried of shipping cargoes of eastern Wash- ington and Oregon wheat by the way of Puget Sound, instead of via Port- land, Astoria, and the mouth of the Columbia, to avoid the risk of the bar and a part of the expense of pilotage and lightering.

No elimate in the world is more suited to the growth of nutritious grasses than that of Washington. The bunch-grass of the eastern division is, how- ever, from being dry a large portion of the year, not so well adapted to the uses of dairymen as the lush growth of the moister climate of Puget Sound, where the rich bottom and diked lands yield from three to four tons of hay to the aere. Dairy products have not yet been counted amongst the articles of export, because farmers have preferred to engage in other branches of busi- ness. Up to 1877 there was no cheese in the markets of the territory except that which was imported. In that year two cheese factories were started, one at Claquato by Long & Birmingham, and another at Chimacnm, in Jef- ferson county. The former made over 28,000 Ibs the first year. The North- ern Pacific cheese factory, at Chimacum, nine miles south-west of Port Towns- end, was a gradual growth, William Bishop being a pioneer of 1856, who settled in the Chimacum Valley and cleared and improved a farm. When he had 60 eows he began cheese-making for the market abroad, producing 1,500 Ibs of cheese and 50 Ibs of butter per day. A third factory was established

345

FARMING AND FISHERIES.

in 1879 by Long & Birmingham on the Maddox farm, in White River Val- ley, the prospect being that the Puget Sound farmers would convert their grain-fields into hay-fields to a considerable extent, and that dairy-farming would become the chief business on the valley and tide lands.

The experiment of hop-farming was first tried in 1864 by Jacob Meeker, who planted a half-acre on his farm in the Puyallup Valley. The yield was 200 pounds, which sold for 85 cents per pound. Thompson & Meade estab- lished the first hop-yard in 1872. The following year Ezra and J. V. Meeker and J. P. Stewart followed. The desire to encourage agriculture has led to the formation of agricultural societies in several counties of the territory, Walla Walla taking the lead, by a few persons calling a meeting in Feb. 1865, to be held April 22d, for the purpose of organizing. It was not until 1867 that a fair was held, the address at the opening of the exhibition being pro- nounced by Philip Ritz. In 1869 the Washington Agricultural and Manufac- turing Society was formed and incorporated under the laws of the territory. Land was purchased, buildings erected, and the first fair of the new organi- zation licld in Sept., from the 21st to the 25th, 1870. A pomological and horticultural society was also formed this year at Walla Walla. Clarke county organized, in July 1868, an agricultural aud mechanical society, and held a fair the following Sept., the opening address being by Governor Salomon. Whatcom county organized an agricultural society in 1866, and Lewis county in 1877. This being the oldest farming region away from the Columbia, the society was prosperous at the start, and the first exhibit a good one. C. T. Fay was chosen president, and L. P. Venen delivered the opening address. Vancouver Register, Oct. 1, 1870; Olympia Transcript, Oct. 12, 1872; Olympia Wash. Standard, June 2, 1877. In 1871 a meeting was held in Olympia in the interest of agriculture by a mutual aid society, or farmer's club, which displayed specimens of productions. The meeting was addressed by Judge McFadden at the close of the exhibit, and steps taken to organize a territorial agricultural society, under the name of Western Washington Industrial As- sociation, which held its first annual exhibition in Oct. 1872 at Olympia. The second annual territorial fair was held at Seattle, in the university grounds.

One of the great natural resources of western Washington which has been turned to account is the fish product, although as yet imperfectly understood or developed. The whale fishery is prosecuted only by the Indians of Cape Flattery and the gulf of Georgia. Among the species taken on the coast are the sperm whale, California gray, right whale, and sulphur-bottom. Up the. strait of Fuca and in the gulf of Georgia hump-backs are numerous. For- merly the Indians took more whales than now, their attention being at present turned to seal-hunting. With only their canoes and rude appliances the Makahs of Cape Flattery saved in 1856 oil for export to the amount of $8,000. Olympia Pioneer and Dem., March 5, 1856; Stevens' Northwest, 10; Wash. Topog., 15, 31; Rept Com. Ind. Aff., 1858, 232. Cod of two or more varieties are found from Shoalwater Bay to Alaska and beyond. They are of excellent quality when properly cured. The climate of Alaska being too moist, and the air of California drying them too much in the curing process, rendering them hard, it is believed that in Puget Sound may be found the requisite moisture, coolness, aud evenness of climate to properly save the cod for export, hut no systematic experiments have been made. It was the practice as early as 1856-7 to pickle cod instead of drying, and for several years 200 barrels annually were put up. In 1861 cod were very plentiful in the strait of Fuca, so that the schooners Sarah Newton, the Elizabeth, and other Puget Sound vessels picked up several thousand pounds. In 1869 cod brought from $16 to $20 per barrel. Iu 1864 Thomas H. Stratton fitted out the sch. Brandt for the cod and halibut fisheries. Morse's Wash. Ter., MS., xvii. 47-8. In Jan. 1866 the legislature memorialized the president, asking that arrangements be made with Russia to enable U. S. fishing-vessels to visit the various ports in the Russian possessions to obtain supplies, cure fish, and make repairs; also to enable Puget Sound fishermen to obtain the same bounty paid to those of

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RESOURCES AND INDUSTRIES.

the Atlantic coast, and that ships be sent to survey the banks to Bering Straits. The same year Crosby took the forty-ton schooner Spray to the fish- ing-grounds, leaving Port Angeles June Ist, and returned in October with nine tons of codfish taken in the Kadiak Sea, 1,000 miles north of Puget Sound. In 1869 two schooners, the Ada M. Frye and Shooting Star, arrived on the North- west Coast from Roekland, Maine, with full erews, to engage in eod-fishing, other vessels following. Nineteen vessels sailed from S. F. the same season for the Okhotsk Sea on a fishing expedition, and returned with an average of 55,000 fish each. The ensuing year the catch amounted to 1,000 quintals. As late as 1878 Sloeum, of the schooner Pato, advised the Portland board of trade concerning the existence of codfish banks off the coast of Washington, from Shoalwater to Neah bays, and solicited aid in establishing their existence.

Halibut grounds were known to be located nine miles west of Tatoosh Island, in 56 fathoms of water, and these fish abound in the Fuea Sea and Bellingham Bay, but are not found in the Sound or Hoed Canal. Strong and Webster put up 100 barrels in 1857. In 1874 halibut was furnished to the S. F. market, packed in ice, and again in 1879, the fish arriving in good condition. The schooner Emily Stephens was built for this trade with ten ice compartments. Port Townsend Argus, Sept. 5, 1874; Hesperian Mag., iii. 409; Portland Oregonian, April 5, 1879; Hittell's Commerce and Industries, 359. The average size of the halibut caught on this coast is 60 pounds, the largest weighing 200. They are taken with a hook and line from March to Angust.

Herring have for several years been an article of expert from Puget Sound. E. Hammond and H. B. Emery established a fishery at Port Madison about 1870. The herring, though of good flavor, are smaller than those of the At- lantic, and are caught with a seine. A thousand barrels of fish have been taken at a single haul. This fishery has put up 10,000 boxes, of six dozen each, of smoked and dried herring in a season, and delivered them on the wharf for 30 cents a box. Seattle Rural, March 1877, 36. This establishment has pressed from herring 2,000 gallons of oil per month. Other herring fish- cries were on San Juan Island and at various other points on the Sound.

The enlachan, or candle-fish, so called because when dried it burns like a candle, is another marketable fish of the coast from Cape Blanco to Sitka. It resembles smelt, is very fat, and of fine grain and delicate flavor. It appears in shoals, and is caught with a scoop-net or rake. The Indians formerly took them to make oil, but the H. B. Co. salted them down in kegs for eating. They are now dried like herring.

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History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889, Part 37

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe, 1832-1918; Victor, Frances Fuller, 1826-1902 Publication date: 1890 Publisher: San Francisco : History Co. Number of Pages: 880

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe, 1832-1918; Victor, Frances Fuller, 1826-1902
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: San Francisco : History Co.
Number of Pages: 880