USA > Washington > History of Washington the evergreen state : from early dawn to daylight with portraits and biographies Vol. II > Part 15
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Of the prairies of its southern border but little good can be said, the soil being gravelly and for the most part worthless, un- less they lie near enough to a " city" to blossom into "addi- tions," in which case their staked-out " lots" produce a larger harvest to the fortunate possessor than the most prolific yield of the richest loam ; yet even here it has its hills bristling with tim-
Eng aby F. G. Kernan, N.Y
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ber-giving pines, veined beneath with iron and coal, and well equipped with such means of transportation both by land and water as few localities enjoy. Of Tacoma itself, Evans very justly speaks as follows : He likens her to Minerva, “ springing full armed from the Jupiter brain of modern railway develop- ment." But the City of Destiny, as well as her queenly sister of Seattle, are too large subjects to be handled under a generic head, so we reserve them for more elaborate and specific treat- ment in the special place which we propose to allot to them ; and withal, considering the difficulty of equally doing justice to the charms of both these jealous beauties (though we by no means propose to emulate the unwise example of Paris by giving the apple, sure to prove one of discord, to either), we are almost in- clined to echo the old legal prayer for a good deliverance in so doing. It is a pleasant thing, nevertheless, to chronicle in this connection that as " one touch of nature makes all the world akin," so times of trial and disaster bear good fruits in forget- fulness of rivalries and the jar of conflicting interests. This was well exemplified in that dark hour when the " Queen City" literally sat in the ashes of her desolation, swept by the unspar- ing flames, amid the ruins of the business heart of her most pros- perous streets. Tacoma, with an open hand and sympathetic heart, came nobly to the front and raised some ten thousand dollars among her citizens for the sufferers by this baptism of flame, sending, at the same time, the companies of her well- drilled and soldierly national guard, under the leadership of their accomplished commander, the gallant Captain Fife, to protect the burned district from the inroads of the thieves and thugs ever ready to gather, like carrion birds over a battlefield, to take advantage of any great disaster.
Pierce County also claims the coal towns Carbonado and Wil- kinson. The insane asylum is located within its borders at Steilacoom. Puyallup, with its fine orchards and large hop- growing, is another noticeable place. The population of this county, as given by the census of 1890, is set down at 50,940, but has since then been largely increased. It is one of its high- est ambitions to excel its rival, King-perhaps we should rather say elder brother-quoted at 63,989. After all, few things ex- cite effort and induce healthy growth like good-natured, ardent competition.
11
CHAPTER XXXI.
THE TWELVE LAST COUNTIES OF WASHINGTON GRACEFULLY CONCLUDE THEIR LONG PROCESSIONAL REVIEW.
" What hath God wrought of glorious change, Where once the savage sought his range ? See homesteads smile, hear childhood's song, Or merry reapers' chorus borne On breeze too soft to wake the flowers Or sway the woods that shade their bowers. See marts of trade where grew the pine,
Tall spires that tell of faith divine ; Great ships that to their anchors swing
Where but the wild duck spread his wing ; Vast solitudes, where once the gale Would vainly seek an answering hail, Now vocal with each sound that tells Where Commerce's strident call outwells With roll of dray and chime of bells. All this man's enterprise has done In western wilds of Washington."
-BREWERTON.
OUR final division, twelve in all, now take up their line of march to pass in due order the reviewing-stand. And first and least to head the procession of the counties we will summon little San Juan.
SAN JUAN COUNTY
again takes us almost literally to sea. This county, whose name, born of Castile and Leon, recalls the days of old-time Spanish discovery, is an outlying archipelago, a cluster of islands more numerous, yet of much smaller dimensions, than their neighbors of Island County. They are little fellows, either singly or collectively, but have, despite their diminutive propor -. tions, played no minor part in the early as well as in the later events of Northwest Pacific coast history ; for it was there that that unfortunate pig was slaughtered whose untimely decease
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almost brought the cloud of war to break in thunder over two great nations, and finally took his bacon to be cured by no less a personage than William of Germany himself. Who knows but the memory of that pig has something to do with the Teu- tonic rejection of American pork. But we digress. The islands of San Juan are geographically known as the Archipelago de Haro. The names of the larger are Lopez, San Juan, Orcas, and Blakeley-a mingling of the Spanish and English nomenclature- the three first being evidently of Castilian origin, while the last smacks strongly of Admiral Blakeley, of British naval renown.
The beauty of these islands, the softness of their summer cli- mate, rivalling that of Rhode Island's far-famed Newport or England's Isle of Man, with their accessibility to the various cities of the sound, will certainly one day bring about the condi- tion of things which Evans predicts when he suggests that the future will see them studded with ornate villas, the homes and resort of Washington's " four hundred," where the retired mer- chant and the successful speculator will secure a resting-place and dream away his final years in a climate unequalled for salubrity in the world. But all these good things are in the yet to be. At pres- ent their chief source of revenue is confined to the rather prosaic burnings of the lime-kilns of San Juan Island, whose industries in that direction supply the coast. It gives to its county-seat, situated on the island last named, the generally counted unlucky appellation of Friday Harbor, which, however, does not appear to affect it unfavorably. The united area of the islands of San Juan is variously quoted, but is of limited extent ; the census makes it 600 square miles ; the same authority puts its popula- tion at 2072. The other towns are Orcas and San Juan. It was formed into a county in October of 1873.
SKAGIT COUNTY,
the next on our alphabetical roster, is heavily timbered, has re- sources of buried coal, valleys that invite the labors of hus- bandry, and with its outlying islands and many-harbored shores possessing commercial possibilities the greatness of whose ulti- mate value it is difficult to compute. Like its neighbors on the same range, it is backed-perhaps one should rather say bordered -by the crests of the Cascades, whose ruder features are gradu- ally lost as they approach Puget Sound. The Skagit River with
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its tributaries irrigate its centre, and its county-seat, Mount Ver- non (name so closely linked with the Father of his Country), finds a resting-place upon its banks not far from its many-chan- nelled terminus in the sound. Its people are noted for their en- terprise and energy, qualities whose development cannot fail sooner or later to bring Skagit into the front rank. Its area is put down by the last national census at 1916 square miles, with a population of 8747 souls. It is recommended as a good coun- ty for a poor man to go to. Outside of the county-town, the chief places of note are Fidalgo, Skagit, and La Conner. In shape it is long and narrow, perfectly straight as regards its northern and southern boundaries, but broken by the meander lines of mountains on the east and indentations of the coast on its western border.
SKAMANIA COUNTY.
The name of this county, like its predecessor, Skagit, is too evidently of Indian origin to require explanation. It was formed into a county in April of 1854. Evans speaks of it as " the least in population of any in Washington, having but 600 inhabitants to 1200 square miles of territory. The census of 1890 somewhat modifies this, though considered relatively, the proportion of people to miles shows even greater discrepancy. The popula- tion as given by census is 774, leaving Franklin, with its 697, the smallest in this respect in the State ; but later surveys make the area of Skamania 1636 square miles, showing in reality a smaller occupancy to the square mile than before. Its property valuation is also inconsiderable. But for all this Dame Nature, not always so considerate as she should be, is to blame. It would seem that in forming Skamania she gave herself up to the inspiration of her wildest moods, sacrificing fertile valleys and the deep soil of the prairie to occupy its almost entire area with mountains grand, gloomy, and sublime, rugged steeps and snow- fed, foam-flecked cascades fighting their way to the sea, yet ever hindered by a thousand obstacles. She has made it the land of the poet and the painter, but bars with her fast-sealed portals of rock and bleak elevations the pathway of the hard-handed, prac- tical emigrant, who cares little for æstheticism, and would give more for a level wheat field than for "all the scenery in the world." Still, even from a utilitarian point of view, there is the
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ubiquitous timber, and, furthermore, a mountain chain always suggests buried treasure. Gold seldom dwells upon the plain unless brought there by washings from above. No; the most precious of metals is, so to speak, mountain-born. God prepares the secret processes of its alchemy in the laboratories of His ever- lasting hills, in the deep recesses and rock-ribbed caves of soli- tudes such as these. Who shall say, it may be that it is forged and purified by the eternal fires which philosophy tells us rage and roar as they vainly strive to escape their thraldom within the hol- low of this terrestrial ball upon which we mortals float through space as we fill the span of our appointed days ? Be this as it may, if the steeps of the Cascades are indeed destined to prove caves of Aladdin, yielding to some fortunate prospector's " open sesame" a great treasure house, as well they may, then will Skamania rejoice in wealth beyond compare, and new-fledged Washington rival the placers of well-worked California.
SNOHOMISH COUNTY.
Quite as Indian in name as its predecessor, Snohomish has not as yet entirely shaken off its primitive savagery, but is far better equipped to do so than the county last described, having the advantages of an eastern border, with its harbors on Possession Sound, while the Cascades, holding sternly to the east, are marked here and there with such pleasant suggestions to the miner as silver and lead. It is well watered, too, by many interior streams. In the west the sound, as if anxious to take a step or two to welcome the influx of the Snohomish, strongly indents the coast, leaving quite a bay between it and the opposite island of Whidby. There are rich lands on the rivers, many of which still await improvement. This county was organized in January of 1861, with Snohomish City for its county-seat. It possesses the finest timber in the State-gigantic pines, which for many a year to come will prove a source of affluence. The axe is ever busy in these, comparatively speaking, unbroken forests. Evans says of this that "it surpasses any equal area in the world in the production of timber. It is estimated that not less than a hundred million feet were produced in 1888, while probably not less than a billion feet of logs have gone down the Snohomish River during the last twenty years." It is evident that in this respect Washington will be able to supply the world for a gen-
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eration or two to come. The area of Snohomish is 1720 square miles, with 8514 inhabitants.
SPOKANE COUNTY
involves a long leap from the seaside district just described, be- side which we have been lingering, to the extreme east of the State boundary. Here we find Spokane County, flanked by Idaho on her right, lying almost mathematically divided from its fellows save where Stevens cuts irregularly into its northeast corner. It has Whitman to the south and Lincoln for a left-hand neighbor. And now, upon the very threshold of this outline sketch of one of the noblest and most affluent counties of Wash- ington, we pause to endorse Evans' assertion that "any one who would attempt to describe Spokane County within circumscribed limits should be executed for presumption." He calls it " Spo- kane the Wonderful," and regards its metropolis as the most extraordinary place in the whole Pacific Northwest, an opinion in which, were it not for fear of arousing local jealousies, we should be strongly inclined to concur. The county was organized in 1880. It is as magnificent in its broad farming lands, where wheat seems to reign monarch of the cereals, as in its natural' wonders-wonders most emphatically emphasized in Medical Lake and the wild and romantic scenery of its falls-the Niagara of the Far West-cascades which the cunning of man has so thoroughly utilized, making even its "laughing waters" sub- servient to his will, that he not only delights his eye with its beauties, but amplifies his bank account as well. The city of Spokane, now abbreviated from Spokane Falls, is too large a theme to be treated save under its own appropriate head. We reserve it, therefore, for fuller justice. It is, of course, the head centre of law, fashion, and trade of Spokane County. Outside of its metropolis there are many towns, some of them sadly asso- ciated with the Indian troubles of the past, which might well be remembered ; we will name Cheney, Medical Lake, Rockford, Spangle, Marshall, and Waverly, being for want of space obliged to omit others equally worthy of notice. The Indian origin of the name Spokane is quite poetical. It is derived from the native word for " sun," these Indians, the Spokanes, being originally sun-worshippers. It is suggestive, too, of that brighter sun of a purer religious civilization, whose dawn in this once
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wild region was so dim and troubled, but whose orb, having sur- mounted the clouds of its early morning, now promises so bright and effulgent a day. The area of Spokane County is but 1680 square miles, while its population as recorded by the last cen- sus was no less than 37,487. Since then its increase has been great-larger in proportion, possibly, than that of any other sec- tion of the State, the fine farming lands of its southern country attracting immigrants, who came not as speculators, but " to farm it"' and stay.
STEVENS COUNTY
bears the thrice-honored name of Washington Territory's first Governor, a man who left the impress of his strong personality upon every official act-a pilot who stood at the helm of her ship of state through many dark and stormy days, guiding it ever on- ward through mists of doubt and difficulty and amid breakers of danger which might well have appalled a less fearless soul.
This county, immense in extent, fills the whole northeastern corner of the State. It was created in April of 1854, yet with all its years of possible growth it is, comparatively speaking, unin- habited. Originally it was little less, as they count space in the Old World, than an empire in area, occupying all of Eastern and Middle Washington. Neglected as it is, it is not without re- sources, but they need both capital and its servant, Labor, to de- velop and render them remunerative. Both have so far, unfortu- nately, seen fit to pass Stevens County by, being attracted elsewhere by more apparent natural facilities ; but as action and reaction are ever equal, and as it is the peculiarity of the Ameri- can pioneer to press on with a restlessness which seems part of his nature still farther into the wilderness till the ocean cries, " So far and not a step beyond" to his adventurous progress, so when the far west of Washington shall have been thickly settled up, the undertow of this human flood will reverse its tide and flow backward. Then will the wealth of minerals which are supposed to hide themselves beneath its broken surface, people its moun- tain-sides with miners, send axemen to invade the sanctuaries of its forests, and herders to feed their flocks upon its thousand hills ; then will it realize the blessings which a higher power ever bestows upon persistent effort since the day when He ordained labor for the employment of fallen man ; and then, too, will its wildernesses, now so desolate, rejoice and blossom as the rose.
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Its county-seat is Colville, situated in the valley of the river of that name, where fine land and many opportunities await the settler who shall decide to cast in his lot with the people of Ste- vens. It divides with Okanagon a large Indian reservation. Its area is 6194 square miles, being only second in size to Okanagon. Its population -- 4341-according to the census of 1890, indicates about two thirds of a man to the square mile.
THURSTON COUNTY
owes its name to the Hon. Samuel R. Thurston, the first delegate to Congress from Oregon. Created in April of 1852, it became a charter county of Washington in 1854. Affluent in forests which shade a sod too poor for husbanding, which is even more evident on its occasional gravelly prairies, it is nevertheless strong in its timber interests, though in a less degree than its neighbors far- ther north ; it has also manufacturing interests at Tumwater, a place associated with the first settlement of Puget Sound. It may well hold up its head among its fellows, for it boasts within its borders the capital of the State, the yearly consensus of its legislative brains and most eminent law-givers. A city, too, that rejoices in a beautiful natural site and all those social advan- tages which naturally cluster round the State capital. Shall not the Olympia of Washington have its " lobby," its State halls, its wrangles, its " personal explanations" and "desires to be in- formed," as well as that older Washington on the banks of the classic Potomac ? Thurston, Tumwater, Temio-we love to be alliterative-and Yelm are also places worthy of mention. The area of Thurston is 768 square miles ; its population, 9675.
WAHKIAKUM COUNTY.
Evans pretty much covers the ground in that pregnant sen- tence which tells us that " from the standpoint of a disinterested observer, it might seem that the best thing that this county could do would be to effect a matrimonial alliance with Pacific or Cow- litz." Be this as it may, even if Wahkiakum should reject the suggestion and continue to sit lonely and alone in her corner by the Columbia, with her long arm dipped in the Pacific, " in maiden meditation fancy free," she is, like many another old maid, not without some personal attractions. Among other charms she is dowered with timber, with some land which, when
Eng Buy F. G Kernan NY
Eng by F. G.Kernan NY
L. H. Rhoades
Catharina Rhoades
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cleared and cultivated, will undoubtedly prove rich and tillable. She has even now great lumber mills, whose whirling saws ad- monish the neighboring forests that they too must greet the ground. Cathlamet, once her county-seat (meaning in the Ind- ian tongue "a stone"), sulks beside the Columbia, mourning, perchance, for her departed glories-for the maps now indicate the more central location of Skamokawa (named after a famous Indian chief) as its official headquarters. Another town is Brook- field, noted for its salmon-curing. Its area is but 244 square miles, while the aggregate of its people foots up no less than 2526.
WALLA WALLA COUNTY,
still Indian, and, alas ! but too suggestive, as we turn the pages of Washington's blood stained history, of the war-whoop and the scalping-knife, comes next under review. Its Astoria, Walla Walla, and Vancouver are household words in the story of ter- ritorial strife and struggle and indelibly associated with the dark- est of her early days. They are to the native of Washington " to the manor born" what the Tower of London is to the Eng- lishman-the repository of dreadful deeds and by-gone sorrows- for we make history more rapidly in our days than in those vaunted " good old times." As we breathe the name, the sylla- bles of Walla Walla trip glidingly over the tongue with the musical step of many another Indian appellation, as, for in- stance, Minne-ha-ha ; it is appropriate, withal, for as the latter means " Laughing Water," so Walla Walla signifies " Valley of Waters," which is even better, for we have seen Minne-ha-ha in the arid season when it laughed not at all. It is derived from " walatsa," meaning " running"-for it carries both the interpre- tations-but this is the less mellifluous Nez Perce, the " Walla Walla" or "Wallulu" meaning the same thing, being taken from the language of the tribe whose name it bears-the Walla Wallas. This region is indeed well named "the Valley of Waters." From whence, we wonder, does the "Siwash" get his poetical inspiration, for it would ofttimes puzzle the pale face to better either the beauty or appropriateness of his nomen- clature. It cannot be inherent, still less inherited. It is, we fancy, unconsciously absorbed from the surroundings (natural, we mean, not artificial) of his every-day life. However he gets it, it may not be denied that the divine afflatus is held in most
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repulsive vessels, the filthy, unwashed jar of the red man's human clay. Of a surety poor Pegasus was never prisoned in a filthier stall. To return to more prosaic themes, Walla Walla County was admitted in 1854, the only one of the Southeastern Washington counties created with the establishment of the Ter- ritory. It then embraced all the valley of the Columbia east of the Cascades, an area of nearly 200,000 square miles-an impe- rial domain, as it has very properly been called. It has, how- ever, suffered successive curtailments till reduced to its present dimensions of 12,224 square miles. " What is left," says Evans, " is the oldest, best-cultivated, and in every respect the most ad- vanced part of Washington." Yet this grand expanse of exceed- ingly desirable country in all its original fulness and fertility was shut out from settlement for an extended season through the foolish or vindictive action of General Wool, who endorsed the equally short-sighted policy of his subordinate, Colonel Wright-a policy that protected the Indian, neglected the white, and practically relegated to its primitive savagery this mighty and most productive domain. The original empire of Walla Walla, we are told, was recognized as a garden-spot even long before some other regions, where the soil was equally good, were deemed eminently desirable. It is said to produce more money's worth of grown products than any other county of the State. Walla Walla digs its wealth out of the ground. So enriched is this county by nature that it is not improbable that her recorded population of the last census-12,224-will be doubled within the next decade. It is well watered, being bounded on the north and east by the Snake and Columbia rivers, while its southern border is irrigated by the Walla Walla and its tributary streams. Its county-seat of the same name is well supplied with transportation, being located on the Union Pacific. Take it all in all, it is a lively, progressive region, an example to all good counties in the State, prospering and likely to prosper. "So mote it be."
WHATCOM COUNTY.
Whatcom, not entirely guiltless of " booms," is a long, nar- row county of the far Northwest, with British Columbia for her very near neighbor. She is barred on the west by the Strait of Georgia, but owns an off-lying island or two, with the military.
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reservation of Point Roberts, which forms the extreme end of an English peninsula, which, as our line cuts its terminus about equally, should have been called after the Briton's favorite bever- age-" Point Half and Half." The Cascades, with Mount Baker for their grand central figure, guard her on the east, while Skagit fences her southern border. We have in this county the same generic natural features so often described as the characteristics of her sisters, a great extent of her area being occupied by steeps so bleak and rocky that their hope for future income must rely mainly upon the possible discovery of mineral wealth. It is a land over which the artist would go into raptures, but where, were it not for the ameliorating influences of soil and climate in the lower lands, the agriculturist, labor as he might, would cer- tainly starve ; but leaving the dark, surly Sierras to their frowns, we find as we turn toward the coast enough to justify both exultation and expectation. Bellingham Bay is her strong- hold. It has New Whatcom, the county-seat, and such towns as Sehome and Fair Haven, between which we do not desire to particularize or compare their relative advantages. If real estate prophets are to be believed, each and all of them expect within a lustrum to put New York and Boston to the blush. It may be so-who can tell ? Did not Dean Berkeley, afterward Lord Bishop of Cloyne, write in his day, " New York bids fair to rival Newport," and has it not come to pass even as he pre- dicted ? With an area of 2468 square miles, Whatcom need not enlarge her borders, even though she should multiply by a hun- dredfold her census credit of 18,591 souls.
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