An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 75

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 75
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 75
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 75

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).

acres of land in order to do this, and must have the equipment and the skill to perform all the work with the best economy.

Another natural resource of the county of some importance is its timber. While the eastern side of the Cascades is not covered with a forest growth comparable with that which extends from their summits to the shores of the Pacific, yet there is a very valuable stand on their sunrise slope and east- ern spurs, a considerable portion of which is in Yakima county. Part of this timber is, to be sure, within the Ranier forest reserve, but the area thus placed beyond the reach of the lumberman of this generation is small, only one hundred and thirteen square miles, as compared with that not included in the reserve, seven hundred and twenty-three square miles. Of the latter area only ninety-five square miles had been logged in 1900 and thirty-three square miles had been burnt, leaving the total area covered with standing timber at that time five hun- dred and ninety-five square miles. According to United States geological reports prepared three or four years ago, the amount of timber in the county then was as follows: Fir, 434,838,000 board feet ; pine, 320,900,000 ; hemlock, 77,100,000; cedar, 60,- 000,000 ; total, 893,438,000. A number of modern sawmills of large capacity and some smaller ones are engaged in cutting up this timber.

While Yakima has never been a mining county, its citizens have always manifested considerable in- terest in searching for mineral wealth. Even in the earliest days, pioneer stockmen and prospectors sought among its sage brush hills and bordering mountains for traces of gold, silver and other metals, nor was their search always wholly unrewarded. But the mining interests of the county have always remained insignificant compared with agriculture, horticulture and stock raising. However, Yakima county shares with her neighbors, King, Pierce and Kittitas, the extensive and important Sum- mit mining district, situated at the head of Moore's creek, a tributary of American river. The district is approximately twenty miles square, half on the eastern and half on the western slope of the Cascade range, but the greater part of the mining is carried on on Gold hill, an eastern spur of the great divide. Moore's creek, Union creek, Ranier fork and Amer- ican river furnish the district with an abundant water supply, and though it is within the Ranier forest reserve, the government permits the taking for mining purposes of necessary timber. Silver creek, a tributary of White river, is the principal mining stream of the western slope.

According to the sworn statement of H. V. Bon- niwell, the properties in Summit mining district, with the amount or value or both of work done on each, January 21, 1903, were as follows : Two claims (on Silver creek), owned by Thomas Farrell, of South Tacoma, three hundred dollars; five claims (on Silver creek), James Forrest and L. Height, of South Tacoma, two thousand dollars; three

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claims (on Silver creek), owned by William Far- rell, South Tacoma, forty-five feet of timbering, six hundred dollars; six claims, on head of Silver creek, owned by Forrest & Farrell, South Tacoma, sixty-two feet of shaft, one hundred and four feet of tunneling, seventy feet of open cuts, six thousand dollars; one claim (on Silver creek), owned by Forrest & Farrell, thirty-eight feet of tunneling, twenty feet of open cuts, five hundred and eighty dollars; five claims (on Silver creek), owned by Forrest & Farrell, one hundred and five feet of tun- neling, seventy feet of open cuts, one thousand dol- lars; six claims (part of them on American river and the rest on Moore's creek), owned by the Dia- mond Hitch Company of Tacoma, one hundred and fifty feet of tunneling, one hundred feet of open cuts, two thousand five hundred dollars; twelve claims (on Gold hill and Silver creek), owned by Addison, Hill & Brown, South Tacoma, one hun- dred and twenty-five feet of tunneling, fifteen miles of trail, five thousand dollars; sixteen claims (on Silver creek), owned by the Medina Gold Mining Company, of South Tacoma, (data furnished by James Addison, manager), seven hundred feet of tunneling, one hundred and fifty feet of shaft, one mill, five stamps, one hundred feet of flume, cook house and store house, $46,000; ten claims (on the east side of Silver creek), owned by the Florence Mining and Reduction Company, South Tacoma (data furnished by Ben Frazier, treasurer), five hundred and twenty-eight feet of cuts, seventy feet of shafting, five hundred and fifty feet of tunnel and unexpired contract for fifty feet of tunnel, two blacksmith shops, powder house, ore cars and three hundred and thirty-five feet of track, $21,000; six claims (located by Thomas Fife), owned by the Blue Bell Mining Company, of North Yakima (data furnished by John Sawbridge, treasurer), one hundred feet of open cuts, six hundred feet of tunneling, one Jackson machine drill, eight thou- sand dollars ; six claims owned by Fife Mining Com- pany, North Yakima (data furnished by John Saw- bridge, secretary), two hundred and twenty-five feet of tunneling, four thousand dollars; eight claims (on Silver creek), owned by J. G. Campbell, North Yakima, four hundred and eighty feet of tunneling, six thousand dollars; fifteen claims (on Gold hill) owned by the Coronation Mining Com- pany, North Yakima, one hundred and forty feet of tunnel, one cabin, five thousand dollars (data con- cerning the last two properties furnished by John Sawbridge) ; six claims on Moore's creek (located in 1902 by Joseph Fife), owned by the Rob Roy Consolidated Mining Company of North Yakima, George Collins, secretary, three hundred dollars; five claims (on Moore's creek), owned by the Fidel- ity Mining & Milling Company, Seattle (data fur- nished by G. H. Hill, vice president), two hundred foot tunnel, several open cuts, eight thousand dol- lars; seven claims owned by Elizabeth Gold Hill Mining Company, North Yakima, seven hundred

and twenty feet of tunneling, one hundred feet of open cuts, one ditch quarter of a mile long, one undershot water wheel, one No. I Sturdevant blower, five hundred and fifty feet of track, ore cars, fifty feet of trestle to ore dump, three buildings, two thousand tons of ore on the dump, twenty-five thou- sand tons blocked out, plans under way for the build- ing of a 100-ton reduction plant during 1903, ex- penditure to date $18,000 (data furnished by Frank X. Nagler, North Yakima) ; twelve claims owned by the Summit Mining & Reduction Company, Ta- coma, three hundred and fifty feet of tunneling, thirty feet of shafting, expenditures, eight thousand dollars.

"In regard to the size of the veins and character of the ore," says Mr. Bonniwell, "the Elizabeth Mining Company's property may be taken as char- acteristic of the district. The matrix of the ore is porphyry, magnesia and lime, carrying values in gold, silver and copper; is amenable to concen- tration in the proportion of five to one; the size of the ledges varies from a few inches to twenty feet ; the Elizabeth ledge in one four hundred foot tunnel has varied from forty-two inches to fourteen feet; the width averages seven and a half feet." It is stated that the ore in the mine assays from $14 to $346.42 a ton, the values being in gold, silver, cop- per and lead.

Of course, it must be remembered that these figures are now a year old and that during the busy mining season of 1903, the various companies have been at work increasing their excavations and de- velopment. Thus the Elizabeth Gold Hill Mining Company has since run two new tunnels one hun- dred and seventy feet and fifty feet in length, re- spectively. It is now preparing to install a reduction plant capable of handling its own output and that of other mines of the district. The great need of this mineral bearing region is a road to some point on the railway. Legislative assistance is being sought for the construction of such a highway and it is hoped that an outlet for the ore of the dis- trict will soon be secured.

In the foregoing paragraphs an attempt has been made to present a brief outline of the resources of Yakima county. It is not claimed to be an ex- haustive one, far from it, but sufficient to show something of the present status of industrial de- velopment and the possibilities of the future. The population in 1900, according to the United States census, was 13,462. To say that it is at least half as great again at this writing, is to estimate the increase very conservatively indeed ; and the trains are bringing in more homeseekers every day. There is room for all who have the energy to grapple with the situation and win a competence from it for themselves. If it is true that at least 690,615 acres of land in Yakima county can be irrigated and are in fact under proposed irrigation canals, as stated by the last report of the Bureau of Statistics, and if every twenty acres under canal can, by intensive

Waptus Lake

Summit Lake near Mt. Stuart-

BIENHIT LAKS

Lake Cle Elum

IN THE MOUNTAIN REGIONS OF KITTITAS COUNTY.

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cultivation, be made to support a family of five, it will be seen that the county has a potentiality of sup- porting an agricultural population of 172,650, be- sides the mechanics, laborers, merchants, profes- sional men, etc., etc., who, with their families, would be required to build their houses and barns, assist them with their work, educate their children, treat their sick, supply them with dry goods and groceries and otherwise minister to their wants. Is it sur- prising that in a county witlı such wonderful pos- sibilities, a present population of perhaps fewer than 20,000 should enjoy an unbounded prosperity ? Is it surprising that the farmers are nearly all well to do and many of them wealthy; that the mer- chants are rapidly accumulating fortunes, that the banks are filled with money and that prosperity abounds on every hand?

KITTITAS* COUNTY.

The most northerly of the three counties of our group is Kittitas, in the central part of the state, hemmed in between the Cascade and Wenatchee mountains on the west and northwest respectively, the Columbia on the east and an artificial boundary following, during a part of its course, the Ump- tanum ridge on the south. As heretofore stated, it contains 2,414 square miles. The surface of the western part is very rugged, possessing a wild beauty greatly enhanced by the presence of four considerable lakes, Kitchelos, Kachees and Cle- Elum and one smaller than any of these, Goose lake. The Yakima river forms the main channel of its drainage, and into it flow numerous tributaries, es- pecially from the north. The basins of this river system, chiefest among which is the celebrated Kit- titas valley, furnish practically all the agricultural land of the county, but they are of sufficient extent and richness to enable it to figure prominently in the agricultural production of the state, while the presence of timber, coal, gold, copper and other minerals gives it distinction for the variety of its re- sources. The presence of the large mining popula- tion furnishes the farmer with one great incentive to exertion, a splendid local market for his products, while the Northern Pacific railway, crossing the county in its richest part, gives him ready access to the larger markets east and west.

In a discussion of agriculture in Kittitas county, the Kittitas valley naturally claims a large share of attention. It is oval in shape and approximately twenty-five miles long, while its greatest width is about twenty miles. On all sides, it is hemmed in

*Charles A. Splawn, who is considered an authority on local Indian dialects, says that the word "Kittitas," comes from "kittit." meaning white chalk, and "tash," place of existence. He states that at the Manastash ford on the Yakima river, below Ellensburg, there is a bank of such chalk. The Indians used this for painting themselves and their horses. The name Kittitash came to be applied by the Indians to the entire valley, and was later corrupted by the whites to Kittitas.

by foothills and mountains. It possesses a rich soil, well adapted to agriculture, and capable of produc- ing almost any of the products of the temperate zone, and while its climate is such as to permit the raising of all the hardier fruits. The upper valley of the Yakima, which is farmed for several miles above Cle-Elum, likewise brings forth a variety of crops, as do also the valleys of all the smaller streams, though of course the altitude increases rapidly as they are ascended, with the natural effect on climate and character of production.

While the Kittitas country is not so completely dependent upon irrigation as are many parts of the Yakima, yet artificial watering of the soil is essen- tial to its highest and most profitable handling, and its inception was almost coeval with the settlement of the country. The profusion of small streams ren- dered a certain amount of irrigation comparatively easy, and made it possible for a considerable acreage to be redeemed by individual farmers or several of them co-operating together. The history of some of these canals has already found place in these pages. From time to time larger projects came up, one of them being that of the Northern Pacific, Yak- ima & Kittitas Irrigation Company, which in 1892 made some surveys looking toward the construction of crib dams at the outlets of Lakes Kitchelos, Kachees and Cle-Elum and of large canals covering extensive areas in Kittitas and Yakima counties, but the scheme was not carried into execution. "Sev- eral years ago," says George Otis Smith, "a canal was proposed to take water from Yakima river at Easton, and portions of it were constructed. It is known as the Kittitas Valley Irrigation canal, and if completed would have irrigated a large portion of that valley. At present (1901) the valley, which comprises a large amount of arable land well adapt- ed to the cultivation of alfalfa and the cereals, is irrigated solely by local ditches, which use the water from the creeks already mentioned (Swauk, Reeser, Tanum, Manastash, Wilson and Nanum). One of these, Reeser creek, receives some water which has been diverted into its channel from First creek, one of the tributaries of Swauk creek. This diversion is interesting, as the water is made to follow the old, abandoned waterway through Green canyon. Some attempt has been made to improve the water supply of Manastash creek, a small dam having been built at the mouth of Manastash lake, so that a small amount of water is stored at that point."

But the day of large irrigation enterprises has dawned for Kittitas county since Mr. Smith made his report. In 1902 the Cascade Canal Company was organized to succeed the Inter-Mountain Irrigation Association. Its capital stock was $150,000 and the object it proposed to itself was the construction of two large canals to irrigate, one 15,000 and one 30,000 acres of Kittitas valley lands. The officers of this association are: President, Samuel T. Pack- wood; vice president, J. H. Smithson ; secretary, Ralplı Kauffman; treasurer, J. C. Hubbell ; manager,

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J. E. Frost. The company decided to build the lower canal first and on August 29, 1903, began its construction. Its intake is on the north bank of the Yakima river five miles west of Thorp. It fol- lows down the north side to Kittitas valley proper, then takes a southeasterly course through it to a point about ten miles southeast of Ellensburg, where its terminus is. At the intake it is ten feet wide on the bottom, has a one and a half to one slope, is five feet deep and has a capacity of 170 cubic feet per second. Between five and six miles of fluming have been constructed, necessitating the use of more than two million feet of lumber. In the eighth mile of its course, a six hundred foot tunnel was re- quired, and directly north of Ellensburg there is another tunnel three hundred and eighty-eight feet long. The company has also built a dam at Lake Kachess, capable of storing a body of water twelve feet deep, covering an area of twenty-one square miles. The Cascade canal, into which water was turned May 13, 1904, is said to be one of the best constructed aqueducts in the state and a credit to Manager J. E. Frost, upon whose shoulders has rested the responsibility of personally supervising the work. Plans are not yet matured for the con- struction of the high line ditch, which will cover 30,000 acres or practically all the irrigable land in the valley except such as could be redeemed only by a very expensive canal.

"The Lower Cascade canal," says the Pacific Northwest, "is strictly a Kittitas county project, and the capital stock of the company is held en- tirely in Kittitas county. The president of the cor- poration is Mr. Packwood, a large land owner and stock raiser of the Kittitas valley. The officers of the Washington State Bank, of Ellensburg, hold a large amount of stock in it, and farmers along the line of the proposed canal are also stockholders."

The completion of this large canal will cause material changes in the general character and quantity of the agricultural production of Kittitas county, but its past achievements have already given it a prominent place among the political divisions of the state. Its oldest industry is stock raising, which here as elsewhere has undergone various changes with the development of the country, the trend of the industry being toward the substitution of well bred dairy cattle for the old range stock so that a greater percentage of profit may be secured. The limiting of the open range by the settlement of the country and other causes have made this neces- sary.

P. Henry Schnebly, a pioneer of 1872, and one of central Washington's leading cattlemen and wealthiest citizens, estimates the number of neat cattle in the county at 15,000 or 16,000, three-fifths of which are dairy stock. The remainder are Here- fords and Shorthorns with some Polled Angus and Galloways, all grade cattle. Among the largest owners are George B. Cooke and Charles Bull, partners, who are pioneers of the valley of the early

seventies. They have between 1,300 and 1,400 head on their Quilameen farm twenty miles east of El- lensburg and on their thirty or forty sections of grazing land in the foothills and on the Columbia.

P. H. Schnebly, whose large ranches lie east of Ellensburg, the first being eight miles out, has 1,200 head and twenty sections of grazing land. His home place, the old Smith ranch, is eleven miles from El- lensburg.

M. D. Cooke, owner of the Fairview ranch, comes next with eight hundred head and the re- maining beef cattle of the county are owned mostly by Nels Cragness, William Erickson, Frank Hart- man and fifty or seventy-five others in herds rang- ing from fifty to three hundred in number. The annual sale of beef cattle in Kittitas county is ap- proximately 3,000 head, worth at present prices about $38 each on the average.

"The cattle industry has maintained an even course for many years," says Mr. Schnebly, "and there is probably as much invested in it now by Kit- titas citizens as ever before. In early days the cat- tle were low grade and herded in great bands; now the majority of the stock is better than the average and considerable is high grade.

"In early times the Kittitas was the great summer range for Yakima stockmen and so was occupied almost exclusively by a class of men whose home was constantly changing. F. Mortimer Thorp was perhaps the first large cattle owner who made his home in the valley and Benjamin Snipes, the cat- tle king, also lived here many years. It is difficult to estimate the largest number of cattle ever gath- er ed in the county, but it would probably be written in six figures, as Kittitas was an excellent and pop- u'ar summer range.

"As the range has been fenced in, the stockmen have bought railroad land and otherwise obtained possession of vast tracts upon which to pasture their herds. The whole Columbia river slope is now in the hands of these stockmen, and there the only range in the county exists, except that found in the foothills. The feeding season usually lasts about three and a half months."

But the greater number of Kittitas county's herds are maintained for the sake of butter and cheese, rather than for their beef. Kittitas ranks second in the state in the dairy industry, King county surpassing it by reason of the fact that great quan- tities of Kittitas cream are shipped there. No good and permanent reason exists why this county should not lead in the state, as for several years it did, for it is by nature better adapted to the industry than its principal competitor.

While more or less butter has been manufactured from the first, the dairy business did not begin to assume a place among the most important industries of the county until 1891, when James Gass brought in the first cream separator, erected a small cream- ery, the Bourbon, just north of Ellensburg and es- tablished skimming stations throughout the valley.

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The inauguration of this enterprise was most op- portune, as the dairy industry proved to many of the farmers the means of salvation from financial shipwreck during the hard times. The industry soon enlisted the attention and energies of the force- ful and enterprising Briggs F. Reed, the present president of the State Dairymen's Association, who had been for years engaged in cattle and horse raising in the valley. He investigated the matter thoroughly, and upon becoming convinced of the splendid field for such an enterprise in his home county, formed a local company in 1894 for the pur- chase and operation of the Bourbon plant. This his association, the Ellensburg Creamery Company, rebuilt on a larger scale. As illustrating the growth of the business, it may be said that the product of the creamery the first year was 40,000 pounds of butter, in 1895, 90,000; in 1896, 126,000; in 1897, 200,000 ; in 1900, 485,000.

The Cloverdale Creamery, at Thorp, was the second in the county, erected by John Goodwin in 1893. It was conducted successfully under his man- agement until 1900, when it was absorbed by the Kittitas Creamery.

The Cloverdale Creamery did not long antedate the Spring Creek Creamery, established by J. P. Sharp in West Kittitas. Its production had reached 125,000 pounds of butter in 1899, when it was ab- sorbed by the Ellensburg Company, by which it is still operated.

In 1898 the Hazelwood Company, of Spokane, established a creamery near Ellensburg, installing what is perhaps the best plant ever built in the county. It passed into the hands of the Ellens- burg Creamery Company a year or two later. Many smaller plants have been started from time to time, all of which eventually passed into the hands of Mr. Reed and his company, which in 1900 con- trolled the entire industry in this county. Soon, however, the Kittitas Company was organized and began building up a large business. Its officers at present are Simon P. Wippel, president and man- ager ; Fred Wippel, vice president. It has a plant on West Fifth street, Ellensburg, and one at Thorp.

A third company, the Alberta Co-operative Creamery Association, of which W. T. Morrison is president and A. E. Shaw, secretary and manager, was organized a year ago last March by about seventy-five farmers. Its main plant is situated about five miles northeast of Ellensburg and it has one skimming station the same distance southeast of town. It ships most of its butter to the Sound.

The dairying industry of the county has declined considerably in recent years, owing to the high price obtaining for hay, which has caused many farmers to reduce their herds of milch cows or to go out of the business entirely. But that the production of creamery butter is still large may be seen from the following statistics, furnished the state dairy com- missioner :

Kittitas creamery, from December 1, 1902, to

December 1, 1903 : pounds of milk received, 3, 971,- 780; pounds of cream received, 106,900; paid to patrons for same, $54,144.10; pounds of butter made, 239,522.

Alberta creamery, from April 10, 1903, to De- cember 1, 1903 : pounds of milk received, 1,745,827 ; pounds of cream received, 9,425 ; paid to patrons for same, $17,793.89 ; pounds of butter made, 83,128.50.

Ellensburg creamery, from December 1, 1902, to December 1, 1903 : pounds of milk received, 6,335,- 000; pounds of cream received, 94,326; paid to patrons for same, $94,622.63; pounds of butter made, 332,71I.

Kittitas county butter has for many years taken a higher rank than any other in the Seattle market in point of quality. It is claimed that it commands a higher price than is obtained for butter in any other section of the United States.

The sheep industry, like cattle raising, is an old business in Kittitas county and one which, in its original form, has seen its best days. It is estimated that the number of wool bearing quadrupeds owned by Kittitas residents at present is between 35,000 and 40,000, though there are four or five times as many in the county during the summer seasons, as numcrous outside sheepmen seek the ranges of the Wenatchee .mountains and the forest reserve during the warm months. The annual production of wool by Kittitas growers is estimated at 340,000 pounds. The leading producers at present are Mal- colm McLennan, whose bands aggregate 7,000 head ; John Smithson, who has 6,000 or 7,000; J. C. Lloyd, with 6.500; and O. K. Kohler, Robert Scam- mon, William Dunsworth, Henry Toner and Ben Hicks, with from 2,500 to 3,000 head each.

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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 75

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