An illustrated history of Skagit and Snohomish Counties; their people, their commerce and their resources, with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 74

Author: Inter-state Publishing Company (Chicago, Ill.)
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: [Chicago] Interstate Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1172

USA > Washington > Skagit County > An illustrated history of Skagit and Snohomish Counties; their people, their commerce and their resources, with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington > Part 74
USA > Washington > Snohomish County > An illustrated history of Skagit and Snohomish Counties; their people, their commerce and their resources, with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington > Part 74

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But long before the first white man had plowed its turbid waters or turned admiring eyes to the beauty of its verdure-clad, forested shores, or cast an envious glance at the lavish, natural wealth,-ages before,-the river had begun its work for man. Joining forces with its parent, the glacier, it has been patiently carrying to the sea the silt and sand and volcanic ash and pul- verized rock of whatever kind; the rich grist of Nature's mill. This it threw into the waters of the sound, which, as if resentful of the offense, attempted to hurl it back at the river. The struggle between fresh water and salt, between tide and current, went on, the river continually proving victorious on account of its superior activity and persistence, until a large domain was won from the sea. Indeed it has been claimed that long reaches of the present river beds of the sound basin were once arms of the sound. Perhaps in the dim past the sea covered the entire area of what is now the valley of the Skagit, laving the feet of the lofty Cas-

cades. Perhaps the impetuous mountain tor- rents, bearing debris in their rushing floods, gradually filled up that arm of the sea, forming the valley we now behold. Certainly such a process has been carried on, is being carried on at the present day, though the extent of its past achievements may be a matter of opinion. Cer- tain it is that not alone the Skagit delta, but the Swinomish flats, the Samish country and prac- tically all the rich agricultural land in Skagit county, along the shore of the sound, werc formed by the Skagit river and its ally in the work, the Samish.

It was not until after the dawn of the sixties that white men came to take advantage of the great beneficial labor of the rivers and to hasten the consummation of their processes The work of these men has been adverted to elsewhere It stands as a monument to their persistency, their ambition and their worth, and none will grudge to the pioneer diker of these flats the splendid reward he is receiving for his patience and his toil. How splendid that reward is will appear presently. The land he thus won from the domain of the tides is so rich and prolific, yields sich abundant returns for the labor bestowed upon it, that the fortunate ones who possess it refuse to set a price upon their holdings. They are wealthy beyond an equal number of agricul- turists anywhere else on the surface of earth. With a soil that will never fail of its annual har- vest of hay or of oats, with a climate that approaches the ideal, with all the refinements of an advanced civilization in their midst, with a market hungry for their products, with the sound at their front door and extending its arins to their granaries, with plenty of means to farm econom- ically and successfully, they are indeed kings and princes in the earth. Protected from the heavy seas of the straits of Fuca by the natural break- waters of Whidby and Fidalgo islands, they have little to fear from damage to their dikes, although occasionally a breach is made and a sec- tion of the country is flooded, entailing great loss. The flat is traversed by sloughs from the sound, navigable at high tide by vessels of moderate draft permitting them to sail up to the granaries, built for the purpose along the slough bank, and receive cargoes of grain. "These steamers, when seen moving through the sloughs. with only their upper works and smokestacks visible, present a very strange appearance, apparently floating on the growing grain."

The Swinomish flat is said to contain between twenty and twenty-five thousand acres reclaimed by dikes and divided into farms. The Samish flat is somewhat smaller in area, though equally pro- ductive. It lies about the town of Edison and extends from the Chuckanut range to within a few miles of Bayview. Beaver marsh, which has been credited with an arca of twelve to fif- teen thousand acres, lies just back of Swinomish

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flats, with which it is connected by a narrow neck extending around the extremity of Pleasant Ridge. It never was tide land, but had to be reclaimed from the overflow of the Skagit by a long levee. It is claimed that Olympia marsh, further north, is of about equal area. Its recla- mation is of more recent date than that of the other marsh land in its vicinity, it having been ditched only about seventeen years ago, and cleared of brush a year later.

The people of these various communities have a soil as productive as that of Holland, and a climate as mild, while they possess a tremendous advantage over their Dutch brethren in that the enormous wealth of their lands flows into the pockets of a comparative few, whereas the popu- lation of Holland is more dense than that of any other country in Europe.

"From the summit of the northern extremity of Pleasant Ridge, a few miles back of La Conner can be seen a landscape of agricultural beauty and wealth unequaled in Washington. The entire Swinomish flats and Beaver marsh are visible from here, stretching out to the right and the left without a rise or a depression, a sea of verdure as smooth as a mirror, dotted with resi- dences, barns and granaries and the light verdure of trees and shrubbery. To the northwest in the blue distance rise the peaks of Guemes, Orcas, Fidalgo, Cypress and other islands, between which the vision extends through endless azure vistas over the Gulf of Georgia. To one used to a landscape clad in the somber verdure of our coniferous forests, this view in the summer time when the face of the country is veiled in the lighter green of growing grain and deciduous trees, or later, when the grain turns to harvest gold, has an effect most novel and charming."

Furnished by sea and sound with the cheapest transportation known, the residents of the flats of Skagit county need pay no subsidies to rail- roads. They are, however, most deeply inter- ested in the improvement of Swinomish slough, and the inner passage. The difficulties in the way of its navigation have long been a menace to their interests. The slough is entered through a tortuous opening aptly styled the "llole in the Wall." and when the vessel is once inside, its difficulties commence. It twists and turns in curious fashion, seemingly executing some occult and intricate design. If the pilot is skilful and the tide high and fortune favors, it will get through all right, but many and many a time have steamers grounded, compelling a long wait for tides and bringing down bitter maledictions from irate passengers on the inoffensive town of La Conner.

Agitation for the relief from these annoyances began many years ago: indeed almost simultane- ously with the inception of settlement in the La Conner country. So far adequate relief has not been afforded, but something has been done by

our generous and vigilant, if sometimes tardy, government. In accordance with the river and harbor act approved September 19, 1890, Captain T. W. Symons made a preliminary survey for a channel one hundred feet wide and four feet deep at low water, from Skagit bay to deep water in Padilla bay. The following appropriations have been made: Act of July 13, 1892, $25,000; act of August 18, 1894, $25,000; aet of June 3, 1896, $25,000; act of March 3, 1899, $20,000; act of June 13, 1902, $30,000. Of this amount $50,000 were expended up to 1896 in dredging the slough from "Hole in the Wall" to Padilla bay. The rest has been spent in dams, dikes, etc., south of La Conner, and has now been nearly all used. In accordance with the recommendation of Inspector Thomas Huddleston an additional $50,000 has been appropriated for expenditure during the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1905. Major John Millis, of the U. S. A. engineers, at Seattle, has just recommended an appropriation of $149,430 for the improvement of Swinomish slougli. Major Millis considers the four-foot channel wholly inadequate and is planning for a much deeper one such as will permit the entrance of moderate draft vessels at any time. A ship canal through the slough would cost, it is esti- mated, between two and three million dollars, but there is a possibility that it will some day be built, nevertheless. At any rate the improve- ment of the inner passage for the accommodation of smaller vessels is a work of great and pressing importance, for the two outer passages between the northern and southern portions of Puget sound are both more or less dangerous and diffi- cult for such craft. The route through Rosario strait and the main sound, to the west of Whidby island and Admiralty inlet, is frequently rendered dangerous by heavy seas. The route through Rosario strait, Deception pass, Skagit bay and Saratoga passage is subject to the same objection and is further rendered objectionable by the exceedingly swift currents during the high tides. It is therefore apparent that the improve- ment of the inner passage, the shortest as well as the safest of the three, is a matter of more than local interest.

In order to provide the mariners of the lower sound with better lighting facilities, the govern- ment is at present erecting a very substantial lighthouse on Burrow's island near the outer entrance of Guemes channel, to cost fifteen thousand dollars This will light the straits, Deception pass, Bellingham channel and Rosario strait, in addition to Guemes channel.

The old Skagit jam, near where Mount Vernon now is, formed the dividing line between what are termed locally the upper and lower Skagit valleys. It conspired with numerous other obvious causes to delay the settlement of the upper valley until the lower was quite generally pre-empted, hence the development of the

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country above Mount Vernon is a number of years behind that below, though the upper country, since the building of the railroads, has been forging ahead at a lively pace. Its length prob- ably exceeds seventy miles; its width varies greatly, the environing mountains approaching sometimes within a few miles of each other and then recede again, until they are ten miles or more apart. While the upper valley does not compare with the Skagit delta and the Swinomish flats in point of agricultural development, it is in many parts scarcely less rich in its possibilities. The writer has seen oats right under the brow of the Cascades which could hardly be surpassed around La Conner or anywhere else. Further- more, the upper valley, when cleared of timber, is suited to more diversified crops than is the tide land nearer the sound. The soil is warm, sandy and rich, -a mixture of vegetable mold and rock sediment from the mountains, easily cultivated and of great depth, capable of producing cereals of all kinds, vegetables, fruits, berries, etc., etc., in abundant quantities, of the finest quality and of many varieties.

But the hope for the future of the valley rests upon more than one foundation. Much of the timber in the river bottom has been removed, to be sure, but on the environing hills and monn- tains are belts of coniferons trees, still untouched, which will yield billions of feet of saw timber, billions of shingles. In some of these same mountains, beneath the roots of the trees, are great ledges of coal and iron. For miles in the mountains across from Hamilton iron may be found almost anywhere. The development of both these industries has long been delayed, owing to a variety of canses, none of which go to the merits of the minerals themselves. Their quality seems to stand the tests of the mineralo- gist. These mines cannot remain idle always, and when their development is begun in good earnest, the Skagit valley will teem with a numerous population.

What has been said of the valley is true in the main of all the tributary valleys; those of Baker, Cascade and Sauk rivers and Nookachamps creek. All are possessed of a great wealth of timber; all have agricultural possibilities as yet undeveloped; some may prove rich in minerals. The topography of the Nookachamps has a charm all its own, arising from the presence of numerous lakes, beautiful as can be imagined, reflecting the dark green foliage of their heavily timbered shores, and withal possessed of great economic value in the facilities they afford for the transportation of timber and its manufacture into lumber. On the shores of some of these lakes considerable towns have sprung up, as Montborne on Big Lake and MeMurray on the lake of that name.

The eastern part of the county is traversed by the Cascade mountain range, which is of

inestimable value for its climatic effect, inter- cepting the vapors from the Pacific and precipi- tating them as rain on their western side. These mountains may be said to be the parents of all the rest of the county. They are the birth- place of the smaller rivers and streams; their pulverized and decomposed rock and ash enter into the composition of the soil; by intercepting and condensing the escaping moisture, they have caused the growth of the vast bodies of timber not alone on their own surfaces and foothills, but on the valley between them and the sound: they are the main hope of the prospector and miner ; while to the sportsman, the seeker of pleasure or recreation and the lover of Nature at her wildest and her grandest, they are a never failing foun- tain of delight.

Of the county's island possessions, Fidalgo is easily the chief. Though classed as an island, it has all the advantages of an intimate connection with the mainland, being separated only by a narrow slough, which has been bridged without difficulty so that one may drive across with a team or ride over safely on a Great Northern train. The island is likewise in close connection with a number of other islands, being separated from Guemes, Cypress, Burrows, Allen, Cotton- wood, Hat, Hope and Samish only by narrow passages, all of which are navigable. During the boom days in Anacortes, property on many of these islands showed a marked upward tend- eney in price, moving in sympathy with the great center of interest, for indeed the scheme of the town builders was comprehensive enongh to embrace a future "Venice of America, " covering not alone Fidalgo, but all the neighboring islands. Had it succeeded, there would be plenty of seats for American doges, a grand new world inviting conquest by American gondoliers.

While there was no warrant for the extrava- gant expectations of the boom days, the reasoning in favor of Fidalgo island as a favorable site for a great seaport town was of undeniable force. It was pointed out in 1987 that "a vessel hound up sound to Seattle must use a tow-boat and waste considerable time. The tow-boat's charge is three hundred dollars; and during the time lost all the officers and crew are on pay, making the total cost seven hundred dollars more for a sailing vessel to go to Tacoma or Seattle then to Ship harbor." This and other arguments in favor of the long-talked-of town have lost none of their cogency with the flight of time. Should the Great Northern extend its Anacortes-Rockport road over the mountains to a connection with its eastern system and make Anacortes its Pacific coast terminal, other roads would be obliged to build into Anacortes and establish terminals there also, in order to compete successfully for the ocean trade. The result upon the town's growth may be easily imagined.

Skagit county can claim high rank among the

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counties of the sound in point of diversity of natural elements of wealth, but its clear promi- nence over all others is in tide-land reclamation and the production of tide-land crops. Its suc- cess in these has gained it a fame which is more than statewide and more than nation-wide. It is claimed that nowhere else on the earth's surface can be found an equal area which will produce equal yields of oats. There is no dearth of authentic accounts of phenomenally large yields. In 18SS, a tract of twelve and one-half acres on the Conner pre-emption yielded one hundred and fifty-six and one-half bushels an acre. The same year a twenty-acre tract on the Sullivan place yielded one hundred and fifty-two and two-thirds bushels. In 1904 ten acres of E. A. Sisson's land yielded one hundred and sixty-eight bushels an acre, counting thirty-two pounds a bushel and this year (1905) eighty-two acres averaged one hundred and twenty-five thirty-two. pound bushels. In 1904, William Arm- strong raised over one hundred and seventy-seven bushels to the acre on a four-acre piece which had been cultivated at least twenty-five years, while on the Conner place, one of the oldest in the county, Lewis Seigfried, produced one hundred and ninety-five thirty-two-pound bushels to the acre, the same vear, on a seven-acre field. Herbert S. Conner tells us that in 1893 twelve acres of his father's land produced one hundred and fifty-six thirty-six-pound bushels an acre, which is equivalent to one hundred and seventy- five and a half bushels according to the present thirty- two-pound standard ; that a portion of this crop, together with a sworn statement of the yield, was sent to the Columbian Exposition at Chicago and won first award for the state. "Another yield of unusual proportions, " says Mr. Conner, "was a recent one on our farm near Stan- wood, under the management of John Hanson. There two hundred and fifty acres produced an average of forty-six sacks to the acre, which would mean about one hundred and forty-nine bushels under the thirty-two-pound standard."

But no section of country can achieve and maintain a lasting reputation on phenomenal yields alone. It takes large average yields over a wide area, repeated through a term of years to form the basis of a permanent renown, and on just such a basis does the fame of this oat belt rest. It cannot be doubted that the entire belt, one acre with another, the results of good farm- ing averaged with those of bad, no allowance whatsoever being made, lias repeatedly returned a yield per acre, which in other communities could scarcely be had on a small patch and under the most favorable circumstances. Perhaps the average for the entire belt, since it was first devoted extensively to oat production, has never fallen below seventy-five bushels. It seldom falls below eighty and often reaches a hundred. Herbert S. Conner says that the average oat crop

for the past few years has been little less than one hundred bushels. It must not be assumed that oats are the only product of this land. It is scarcely less famous for the production of hay as a subsidiary and sometimes as an alternate crop. Indeed most of the farmers of the flats are believers in diversified industry, and in addition to the enormous returns they receive from the sale of their oats, get much additional revenue from the land in the pasture it affords for live- stock. On a recent trip over the Rockport- Anacortes branch, the writer saw several fields of hay in the Swinomish country which could not fail to average at least four tons per acre, and it is said that six-ton yields are not specially uncommon. The Argus is authority for the statement that S. P. Kendall last year harvested one hundred and twenty-two tons from twenty acres. The average price of this hay, which is mostly a mixture of timothy and clover, was ten dollars per ton in 1904. E. A. Sisson says his farm has averaged four tons to the acre for the past ten years. The average, Mr. Conner says, is from three to five tons, generally nearer five than three. T. P. Hastie says he raised a crop of timothy, some of which was eight feet four inches tall. It would completely hide a sixteen- hand team.

An idea of the diversity and quantity of the products of the oat belt may be gained from a perusal of statistics compiled by U. S. Engineer Thomas H. Huddleston for the calendar year 1904. Compiled for the purpose of determining the advisability of appropriating money for the improvement of Swinomish slough, they only include those products which pass through that channel, hence are not complete for the whole tide marsh area, let alone the county. They show an exportation of 25 tons of agricultural implements, value $11,000; 43 tons of butter, $30,000; 18 tons of fruit, $720; 364 tons of fish, $109,120; 25,000 tons of grain, $625,000; 14,000 tons of hay, $154,000; 12 tons of hides, $2,052; 26 tons hops, $15,600; 75 tons live-stock, $16,800; 395 tons merchandise, $98,750; 24 tons poultry, $5,760; 60 tons potatoes, $1,200; 18 tons cabbage seed, $4,650; 3 tons wool, $840; 21,000 dozen eggs, $4,200; 38,000,000 feet logs (board meas- ure), $228,000; 3,100,000 feet lumber, $24,000. From this it will be seen that the value of all the exports exceeds $1,300,000. Imports for the same period according to the same authority, consisted principally of agricultural implements, binding twine, coal, flour, fruit, grain bags, grain, gravel, hardware, iron work, ice, live- stock, machinery, general merchandise, paper, potatoes, paints and oils and wagons, and were valued at $430,352.

From the above it will be seen that the pro- duction of cabbage seed is an important industry of the flats. The well-known A. G. Tillinghast was the one who introduced it into the county.

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He is certainly the leading spirit in this as in other garden-seed production; at the present time and for years he has been widely known throughout Washington and other states as a successful seedsman. Through him Charles E. Wightmen, of Avon, sells to Ferry & Company of Detroit, Mich., a very large quantity of the "Sure Head" variety of cabbage; indeed it is claimed, a quantity sufficient to supply practi- cally the entire market of the United States.

While the Skagit country is not especially noted as a fruit-raising region, yet it produces large quantities of apples, pears, plums, cherries and other fruits indigenous to this climate. A small amount is being exported annually to points on the Pacific. As the bench lands become cleared, horticulture will become a more important factor in Skagit's commerce. In this connection it is worthy of note to speak of the county's pioneer nursery. Albert L. and Frank Graham, pioneers of Fidalgo island, established this ambitious industry on that island in 1SS4, under the name of the Anacortes Nursery. They carried a general stock, grown directly from the seed, utilizing ten acres. One year this firm grafted ten thousand apple trees and their average annual sales during the ten years of the nursery's existence are estimated by A. L. Graham at five thousand trees, in addition to specialties and berry bushes. Mr. Graham is still one of the county's leading horticulturists, having a twelve-acre orchard of mixed fruits. H. R. Hutchinson & Sons of Mount Vernon are the proprietors of a large celery farm which is rapidly becoming widely and favorably known.

As a by-product of fruit raising, the vinegar industry has also made its appearance in Skagit county. David Batey established a factory at Sedro-Woolley in 1598 and is producing a very creditable product, his plant being enlarged year by year.

Reliable statistics of agriculture in other parts of Skagit county are not obtainable. The agri- cultural and horticultural resources are not fully developed outside of the marshland districts, nor inside of them, for that matter, but the amount of land cleared and cultivated is increasing very rapidly. Outside the oat belt diversified farming and stock raising are in vogue everywhere. In places the difficulty of clearing off the timber necessitates the intensive cultivation of lands already cleared, but crops of all kinds yield so bountifully and pay so well, that the farmer usually gets an abundant reward for the cost and labor of clearing. The logger, who has lent so much encouragement to agriculture by furnish- ing local markets for all the products of field and herd, is rendering it a further service by remov- ing the heavy timber, so that the smaller growth can be slashed and burnt off, the land seeded to clover, orchard grass or some other forage plant, and a pasture for cattle, horses and sheep created.

As the process of denudation progresses, the live-stock industries will naturally increase. An idea of their extent at this writing may be had from the assessor's summary for 1904, which certainly possesses one virtue in a marked degrec, the virtue of conservatism. It shows horses, mules and asses in the county, 2,917. value $103,505; cattle, 8,919, value $120,053; sheep, 3,919, value $7, 829; hogs, 1,458, value $4,633.

The lumbering industry in Skagit county dates back to a very early period. It was, how- ever, somewhat overshadowed in interest during the pioneer days by the absorbing occupation of tide-land diking and cultivation, hence never achieved the pre-eminence it enjoyed in Snoho- mish county. However, the business of logging and lumber manufacture has long been a great source of wealth and "the end is not yet." All the activity of the many logging camps, logging railways, saw-mills and shingle mills for more than three decades has not resulted in the remov- al of half the merchantable timber from Skagit county. According to United States government reports, there were in 1902, eleven billion, ninety eight million, one hundred and eleven thou- sand feet still standing of timber considered merchantable according to present standards. "There is no question, however," says the report, "that, as is the case in the eastern white pine, a much larger amount will ultimately be realized, for several reasons: First, the stand- ard will certainly be lowered, so that instead of using only one-third of the tree two-thirds may be used, and many small trees now destroyed by fire in the culled areas will be cut ; second, spe- cies not now used may come into the market; third, areas now considered inaccessible will serve as sources of supply; fourth, the new growth on cut and burned areas will reach merchantable size long before the old growth is exhausted. "

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An illustrated history of Skagit and Snohomish Counties; their people, their commerce and their resources, with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 74

Author: Inter-state Publishing Company (Chicago, Ill.) Publication date: 1906 Publisher: [Chicago] Interstate Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1172

Author: Inter-state Publishing Company (Chicago, Ill.)
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: [Chicago] Interstate Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1172