An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 73

Author: Interstate publishing co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: [Chicago] Interstate publishing company
Number of Pages: 1146

USA > Washington > Kittitas County > An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington > Part 73
USA > Washington > Yakima County > An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington > Part 73
USA > Washington > Klickitat County > An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington > Part 73

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).

DUDLEY.

A flag station on the Northern Pacific railroad between Thorp and Bristol.

SWAUK.

Twelve miles by stage from Cle-Elum is a small settlement bearing the name of Swauk. It lies on Swauk prairie.

GALENA.

This townsite was platted by County Surveyor A. F. York in May, 1890, on land at the junction of Camp creek with Cle-Elum river, in the Cle- Elum mineral district. Galena was intended to be the metropolis of the upper Cle-Elum region and is the terminus of an old Northern Pacific survey into the mining country. Thirty-five blocks were surveyed and a great number of them sold, but as yet Galena exists in name only. It is a govern- ment townsite.

KITTITAS

was platted in April, 1884, on land near Ellens- burg by the Kittitas Improvement Company, of which J. D. Dammon was president and Austin Mires secretary. The project was abandoned.

TUNNEL CITY

is another townsite project which did not mature. J. S. Wisner, in March, 1886, laid out Tunnel City at the eastern end of the Stampede tunnel.

PART V.

SUPPLEMENTARY

PART V. SUPPLEMENTARY

CHAPTER I.

YAKIMA, KITTITAS AND KLICKITAT COUNTIES-DESCRIPTIVE.

The three counties whose history forms the sub- ject matter of this volume occupy a position in south central Washington between the Columbia river on the south and east, the majestic Cascades on the west and a spur of that rangt, known as the Wenatchee mountains, on the north. The area of this territory is 9,300 square miles, divided among the three counties, as follows : Yakima 5,500 square miles, Klickitat 1,800, Kittitas 2,000. In local cir- cles the region is often loosely referred to as cen- tral Washington, and the term has been adopted by the writer for convenience, though it is admit- tedly inaccurate because it may properly be and doubtless frequently is used to include several counties in addition to the three under considera- tion.

The topography of the region presents many interesting features. The man of a scientific turn is impelled after surveying it even superficially to inquire into its geological history, and fortunately the record has been at least partially prepared for him by scientific parties in the employ of the United States government. According to the report of Messrs. Jensen and Olshausen on their soil survey of the Yakima area, the whole of central Washing- ton and perhaps much of Oregon and Idaho were once covered by an immense inland sea, known as Lake John Day.

"Into this lake," say they, "streams carried the land and mud held in suspension in their waters, while volcanoes in times of violent eruption threw into it vast quantities of volcanic dust, ashes and lapilli. The lake beds are hence composed of alter- nating strata of volcanic dust, gravel, sand and

finer soils, and are also interstratified with a widely spread sheet of basalt, as well as a number of mere local sheets. This formation is known as the John Day system. The same formation is found on John Day river, in Oregon, and was studied there.

"Since the deposition of the beds above men- tioned the underlying Columbia lava, together with the superimposed John Day beds, has been raised and broken in various places, giving rise to the present relief of the area. Most of the soft beds have been removed from the tops of the ridges and hills by erosion, bringing into bold relief in many places the underlying basalt.

"On the invasion of the icebergs from the north, long after the John Day beds had been raised, the lake drained into the Pacific and the present physiography established, another lake was formed in the central and eastern portion of Wash- ington, known as Lake Lewis. This was not so extensive as the Tertiary lake and was probably not of long duration, as very little lake sediment accumulated during its existence and the lake shores are not generally well marked, although one may be quite plainly seen from the ridge form- ing the north boundary of the Ahtanum valley, near the western limit of the area."

It appears, then, that four ages in the geolog- ical history of central Washington have been dis- covered. First, the age of fire, when "flood after flood of molten rock, which covered the vast area between what is now the crest of the Cascade mountains on the west and the mountains of Idaho on the east, and between the mountains of north- eastern Washington on the north and the Blue

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mountains of Oregon on the south," was poured out; second, the age of the John Day lake, when all central Washington and vast areas beside were covered with water; third, the glacial age, when that tremendous flow of ice, thousands of feet in deptlı, moved over the face of the land, materially influencing its general physiography, and, fourth, the Lewis lake age, when an inland sea of great extent, though small in comparison with its prede- cessor, spread its waters over the area of which our section is topographically a part.

We should expect to find in a country with such a geological history a soil rich in the elements of crop production. Plenty of basalt, plenty of vol- canic aslı, plenty of ice and water for pulverizing and erosion, broad lake areas over which the ashes and basalt dust might be precipitated, plenty of streams to supply alluvium to be mixed with the volcanic sediment-all these forces ought to pro- duce a soil of unexcelled richness, and the experi- ence of the agriculturist is that they have not failed to do so in this instance.

But from the geological history of central Wash- ington we should expect also to find a topography less rugged and sublime than in those localities where the work of the volcano has not been so rad- ically metamorphosed by the gentler agencies of later days. This too we find to hold in the present instance. Many parts of the area in their natural condition are not specially charming to the aesthetic eye. There are large stretches of almost level land, which by reason of aridity of climate support no vegetation save bunch-grass and sage-brush and greasewood. The great plains of the Columbia certainly have a somewhat monotonous topography, yet by a mysterious touch of her artistic hand, Na- ture has added a certain charm to the most cheer- less and uninviting scenes in this enchanted region. Here are the glorious sunrises and gorgeous sun- sets always beheld in desert lands, while the distant scene is ever clad in a robe of deepest blue, the color of beauty and of mystery. In many places the dearth of vegetation, which results from the drouth alone and not from any barrenness of soil, has been overcome by art, nor will the work of the irrigation engineer and agriculturist be discontin- ued until every irrigable acre of desert in central Washington shall have broken into verdure. Nowhere in the wide world, perhaps, do the labors of such men accomplish more in the way of beauti- fying as well as fertilizing the country.

And indeed it must not be assumed that the ter- ritory embraced in Yakima, Kittitas and Klickitat counties ever was an unbroken and unrelieved des- ert. In no part of the area are hills and uplands and rolling plateaus very far distant, while along its western border extends one of the most sub- limely grand mountain ranges on the continent, many spurs of which penetrate far into the region to the eastward. It has never been the writer's privilege to explore this wonderland of giant peaks,

and colossal crags and huge glaciers and deep ver- dure clad depressions; nor has he ever been privi- leged to even visit its most sublime retreats; but those whom fortune has treated more kindly in this respect are not slow to compare the scenery they beheld in the heart of the Cascades with the most famous pictures in the great gallery of Nature. After an outing in this majestic mountain range, the editor of the Yakima Herald, writing in the summer of 1889, said in substance :

The coast papers are often filled with glowing ac- counts of the beauties of the Yosemite, or the natural wonders of the National park. We hope that some com- petent, inspired pen may be found to suitably portray the sublime wonders of nature almost at our very doors. Within fifty miles of North Yakima, easily accessible, at the heads of the north and south forks of the Tietan, near the icy crest of Mount Kaye, are scenes and natural wonders that rival Yosemite or the Yellowstone park.

A trip from North Yakima to that Bethesda of central Washington, the Yakima Soda Springs, thence on horse- back over a romantic ridge, by a pathway leading through forests of fragrant fir and pine trees, brings the tourist to the crest of Darland mountain. Immediately before him lies a scene of unparalleled grandeur. Apparently almost at hand are the mighty mountain peaks, Ranier, St. Helens, Hood, Adams and the older Mount Kaye, all glistening in the summer sun, whose noonday rays are reflected back from their burnished glaciers. Streams of water are to be seen resembling silver threads as they dash down the mountain sides from their source in the ice fields. We may mark also the course of the avalanche as in the winter storms it has torn down the precipices, sweeping away hundreds of acres of forests in its mad career, while almost beneath us, but miles away, is Wiley's beautiful valley which is to be our camp for the night, and where we shall arrive after a few hours' ride down a safe and comfortable mountain trail. Here almost at the head of the south fork of the Tietan is one of the most charming spots imaginable for a summer resort,- a large, wide valley, rich in luscious grasses and dotted with groves of fir trees, giving it a parklike appearance; a valley full of babbling brooks and gushing streams, chiefest of which is the joyous, rollicking Tietan; its beauties walled in by the mighty monarchs of the Cas- cades and old Mount Kaye, with its eternal glaciers stand- ing at its head like a stern, silent sentinel.

A short ride the next morning through this valley and up a sharp, backbone ridge that again divides the south fork, then up the branch on the right, the branch on the left leading to the well known Cispus pass, and we come at last to the very feet of the glaciers. Here are innumerable grassy camps, supplied with living ice cold water, for strange as it may seem, in the summer we find rich, succulent grasses in these mountains, far above the timber line, flourishing and growing luxuriantly by the side of the rivers of ice. Turning the horses loose to graze and taking up iron-shod staves we can now have Alpine climbing to a surfeit. Around the sightseer are thousands and thousands of acres of ice. You can find, along the edges of this glaciated area, icy caves in which a whole train of saddle horses and riders might camp. You can travel over the ice fields, jumping mighty crev- ices, throw rocks down into the dark, impenetrable depths, listen to the rush of streams far below the range of human vision, study the effects of the grinding ice ort peak, hillside and ledge, look upon the thousand tons of rock that have tumbled from the towering ledges above to the bosoms of the glaciers, crawl along the sharp, two-foot ridge dividing the summits where a single mis- step or a giddy head will precipitate you downward through a thousand feet of space, walk over on the glacier

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DESCRIPTIVE.

to the north fork and view the entrancing falls of the "White Swan," where the water dashes into an abyss fifteen hundred feet deep; or if sufficiently venturesome you may climb high above the snow on to the sharp, rocky peak of Mount Kaye, where one false step will send you into eternity. If the thirst for the hunt is in you, you may pursue the mountain goats that inhabit these soli- tudes of ice, snow and rock, and test your skill and nerve in an attempt to take one. You may, also, if you wish, visit on your return Lion falls, where the waters of the Tietan leap over huge columns of basalt, or the Devil's Head, where earth seems determined to pierce the clouds with a rocky pillar, or the wonderful Tietan chalybeate spring, reputed to possess great curative powers. All this and more one may do if he will but take the trouble to pay a visit to this gigantic region.

The task of describing the wonderland above referred to once also engaged the pen of the late J. M. Adams. In a masterly monograph in the Spo- kane Falls Review he endeavored to construct a vivid pen picture of the Tietan park. A paragraph or two from his article may add to the reader's appreciation of the scenery of the Cascades. He says :

"Clambering up the side of some great, tower- ing crag and looking down over this wonderful region, one gets a view that is grand and appall- ing beyond all description. Far as the eye can see, this rugged rim on which he stands may be traced by the tourist circling around the basin or park that lies thousands of feet below. The whole region is heavily timbered and the great moss grown rocks rising here and there in wild confusion, one above the other, suggest the castles and towers and de- serted cathedrals of some enchanted fairy land.

"Surely no earthly scene could be fraught with more awful grandeur than the sunset of a summer's day when viewed from one of those towering crags. Winding through the great expanse of woods be- low, the Tietan river and numerous small streams appear at such depths as to resemble so many shin- ing threads of silver on a dark blue background, while the little spots of wild meadow here and there seem like tiny points of gold. The sombre shades of towering peaks fall in deepening black across the forest, and the rugged rocks on the heights above suggest a troop of monster shapes stealing down into the valley. The sun itself, suspended in a sea of golden clouds, presents a scene of monar- chial glory and gorgeousness such as no brush or pen could picture."

That part of the Cascade range contiguous to Yakima and Kittitas counties doubtless presents many scenic poems scarcely inferior in sublime power and wild picturesque grandeur to the Tietan basin and its environs, but the value of the moun- tain range does not begin and end in its attractive- ness to the tourist and pleasure seeker. Besides their effect upon the climate of our section and their vast utility in furnishing summer range for thousands of head of cattle and sheep, the Cascades are of vital importance to the agriculturist for they form the brewing place of that life-giving

fluid which fertilizes his desert acres, causing them to bring forth in their season with lavish abundance. In the western part of Kittitas county are three magnificent mountain lakes, Kitchelos, Kachees, and Cle-Elum, all of which receive tribute from streams having their source in the Cascades near the angle formed by that range with the Wenatchee mountains. In Kitchelos lake heads the Yakima, the master stream of this entire area, into which the two other lakes soon pour their waters through the Kachees and Cle-Elum rivers. In its southeast- erly course to the majestic Columbia, the Yakima receives many other tributaries, among them the Teanaway river, and the Swauk, Reeser, Tanum, Manastash, Wilson, Nanum and Cherry creeks, from the north; and Boston, Tansum, Umptanum, and Wenas creeks, Naches river, Atanum river, Simcoe creek and Satas river, many of which are themselves fed by numerous tributaries from the east. The area drained by the Yakima river sys- tem forms the major part of the entire territory under consideration, but there is another well defined watershed in the territory separated from that of the Yakima by a narrow divide, namely, that emptying its waters through southerly flowing streams into the Columbia. Chiefest among these is the Klickitat river, which rises in the Cascades, and takes a comparatively straight course to the Columbia, receiving a great many tributaries from both east and west. White Salmon river west of the Klickitat, also traverses Klickitat county for a portion of its course though it belongs in part to Skamania county. Between it and the Klickitat river is Mayor creek, while to the further east are Rock, Wood, Pine, Alder and other streams, all rising near the divide and flowing directly into the Columbia, which lordly and beautiful river conveys all the water of the region and that from hundreds of thousands of square miles besides to the bosom of old ocean.

The Cascades also exert an important influence on the climate of central and eastern Washington, by obstructing the passage of rain clouds from the Pacific and precipitating their moisture upon west- ern Washington. Thus it happens that the coun- try between the mountains and the sea is covered with dense forests, while that to the eastward is in many parts a desert of sand and sage brush. But the influence of the warm ocean currents cannot be so readily confined. It reaches to every part of central Washington and far beyond, giving a mild- ness and brevity to the winter seasons which, un- der other circumstances, we should not find in so high a latitude. Indeed some of the valleys of Yakima county are blessed with a semi-tropical cli- mate, and in no part of the area embraced in our three counties, except perhaps high in the environ- ing Cascades, will one ordinarily experience much inconvenience from extremes of heat and cold. While the thermometer may, in some parts of the country, occasionally show a below zero tempera-

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ture and while its indicator may rise above the hundred mark in summer, yet the cold weather is usually of short duration and the warm never canses sunstroke or the extrenie inconvenience with which a like temperature would be attended in many parts of the east. "At Sunnyside," wrote George N. Salisbury, United States Weather Bu- reau official, "the mean annual temperature of Jan- uary is 30.3 degrees, that of July is 71.7 degrees. The highest recorded temperature is 108 degrees in August, 1898; the lowest, 23 degrees below zero in

November, 1896. At North Yakima the average number of days with rain or snow is sixty- two per annum. The mean January temperature is 29,9 degrees, and that of July 70.9 degrees. The highest recorded temperature is 108 degrees in Au- gust, 1897, the lowest, 22 degrees below zero in November, 1896. At Ellensburg, in the upper part of the valley, eight hundred feet higher than Sun- nyside, the mean annual precipitation is 9.52 inches, and the mean annual temperature is 46.4 degrees. the average number of days with rain or snow is fifty-three per annum. The mean Jan- uary temperature is 25 degrees, and that of August, 66 degrees. Highest, 102 degrees, Angust, 1895; lowest, 29 degrees below zero, November, 1896."

YAKIMA COUNTY.

Whatsover may have been the chief source of wealth in Yakima county when the wild In- dian was lord of the land or when the hardy fron- tiersman first entered it with his flocks, it is clear that its present greatness and hope for the future are centered in the utilization of the drainage system of which mention was made in the foregoing pages. As the people express it, "irrigation is king." Logic therefore demands that any dis- cussion of its various industrial activities and its contribution to the wealth of the country should be prefaced by a brief résumé of its irrigation sys- tems. The history of some of these has been tonched upon already. It remains buit to outline the present status of irrigation, and in doing so, free use will be made of the government reports upon the subject.

Had some of the earliest irrigation schemes materialized in the form and to the extent pro- posed, they would have embraced both Yakima and Kittitas counties in one immense system. In the early nineties the Northern Pacific, Yakima & Kittitas Irrigation Company undertook to dam the outlets of lakes Kitchelos, Kachees and Cle- Elum, and so create immense storage reservoirs wherewith to swell the volume of the Yakima during the irrigation season. This company went to far as to prepare timbers and pile them at the mouth of Kitchelos lake, but the plan was not carried out, and the irrigation of Kittitas val- ley was never linked with that of the Yakima. As

it is the former valley is irrigated by local ditches, of which more anon.

The first irrigation stream in Yakima county as we travel eastward is Wenas creek, which drains an area south of the Manastash drainage. It pursues a general southeasterly course to the Yakima, which it enters about two miles above the city of North Yakima, watering a broad, fertile valley, which was early settled on account of its being on the old stage road from The Dalles to Ellensburg and be- yond. "Irrigation along the stream has, therefore, been developed to a considerable extent, and the ditches built effected so complete a diversion of the water during the dry seasons that lawsuits have been brought to determine a proper division of the water. The courts have ordered a more or less equitable division, but this solution of the problem is not wholly satisfactory, and attempts have been made to devise a system of storage." These at- tempts took the form of examining and surveying for reservoirs the natural basin in sections 2 and 3, township 15 north, range 17 east, and the so-called O'Neill reservoir site. Efforts were also made to divert waters tributary to Naches river around the southern slope of Bald mountain to the north fork of Wenas creek.

Of much greater importance is the Naches river, which, indeed, is said to be the most important stream for irrigation purposes in the state of Wash- ington. Says George Otis Smith :

It reaches Yakima valley at a point where its waters are immediately available for irrigating extensive areas of the best agricultural land. Already a number of irri- gation systems take water from this river, and in view of new irrigation projects its storage possibilities have been investigated by the hydrographic division of the geo- logical survey.

In the summer of 1897 Mr. Cyrus C. Babb made a survey of a reservoir site at Bumping lake on Bumping river. This lake, which is in the Mount Ranier forest reserve, lies close to the crest of the Cascade range and . is surrounded by high peaks. Its shores are covered with dense forests. On August 26, 1897, a measurement of the discharge at the outlet was made, giving eighty-three second-feet. At that time the water surface was one hundred and fifteen feet wide. The water marks around the lake show an annual fluctuation of about three feet. Its height may reach seven feet during exceptionally wet seasons or after a winter of heavy snowfalls. At a height of ten feet the water surface would be about one hundred and fifty feet wide. The length of the proposed dams at a height of twenty-five feet above the bed of the river would be four hundred and eighty feet. The area of the lake is six hundred and thirty-one acres; the area of the twenty-five-foot contour, the height of the proposed dam, is one thousand one hundred and fifty-three acres, giving a reservoir capacity of twenty-two thousand three hun- dred acre-feet. The Northern Pacific, Yakima & Kittitas Irrigation Company surveyed the site in September, 1894, and prepared for construction by hewing in the imme- diate vicinity, tamarack timbers for the dam. These are now piled up at the outlet of the lake.

Tietan river, which enters the Naches about fifteen miles above its mouth, is an important stream, and being in greater part fed by glacier streams it maintains a large discharge during the hot months of summer, when its waters are most needed for irrigation purposes.

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DESCRIPTIVE.

The North Yakima region is the most extensively irrigated of any district in the state of Washington, and the importance of Naches river is shown by the canals which take water from it. Some of the principal of them may be here mentioned.

The Selah Valley irrigation canal is on the north side of Naches river, its intake being just above the mouth of Tietan river. It is about thirty miles in length and irrigates (1901) about three thousand acres, under cultivation in the Naches and Selah valleys. Below this, on the north side, head the Wapatuck and Naches canals, seventeen and seven miles long, respectively, which irri- gate the bottom lands of Naches valley.

On the south side the Yakima valley canal heads about twelve miles from North Yakima. For the first ten miles of its course it is in a flume. At the high point known as Pictured Rocks, it is carried around on a trestle about seventy-five feet high, and then crosses Cowiche canyon in an inverted siphon, thence it con- tinues in flume and canal around into Wide Hollow, but it has not been found expedient to extend it farther into Ahtanum valley, for the reason that the canal is not high enough to cover much of the valley, and because it carries hardly sufficient water for the land now under it for which water rights have been sold. The length of the canal is sixteen miles, and it irrigates three thousand acres.

The Hubbard ditch heads close to Pictured Rocks on the south side of Naches river, just below the bridge crossing that stream. This ditch, with the Yakima Water, Light and Power Company's canal, and the Schanno, Broadgauge, Union and Town ditches, which head be- tween the Hubbard ditch and the lower highway bridge, in the order named, serve to water the land in the im- mediate vicinity of North Yakima. The Yakima Water, Light and Power Company's canal discharges into the reservoir, whence a drop of twenty feet is obtained, de- veloping sufficient power for the city pumping plant and the electric lights.

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An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 73

Author: Interstate publishing co., Chicago, pub Publication date: 1904 Publisher: [Chicago] Interstate publishing company Number of Pages: 1146

Author: Interstate publishing co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: [Chicago] Interstate publishing company
Number of Pages: 1146