USA > Washington > History of Washington the evergreen state : from early dawn to daylight with portraits and biographies Vol. II > Part 22
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Myron. A. Ferguson
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habitants. Spokane Falls had become a handsome city, with more than thirty squares of business edifices, three systems of street railway, extensive water-works, electric lights, morning and evening papers with associated press dispatches, jobbing houses, and many other metropolitan features were also promi- nent. Few cities could show greater signs of life or more crowd- ed thoroughfares. Trade poured in from a radius of country extending hundreds of miles. All things appeared auspicious for a continuance of material progress, at least for the near future ; but a terrible disaster was at hand. On a quiet Sabbath evening (August 4th, 1889) a cloud of desolation overshadowed the city like a pall, and for a time obscured the sunshine of prosperity. Over thirty blocks in the heart of the city disappeared in flames. Handsome brick buildings filled with merchandise and business offices went up in smoke. The loss aggregated many millions. The blow was as terrible as it was unexpected. Nothing daunted, though somewhat discomfited, the old spirit of enterprise resumed its wonted sway. The débris of brick, mortar, and iron was brushed aside, and within ninety days from the sad moment of disaster new buildings of iron and brick tow- ered many stories high over every portion of the burned area. Not a vestige of the ruins remained. Among the new edifices thus rapidly erected may be enumerated an opera house six stories high with a hundred-foot frontage, a large hotel building of five stories, several brick and granite bank buildings, as fine a post-office building as there is on the coast, and many other splendid structures which would reflect credit upon any city in the world. Following the fire there was renewed commercial activity, a greater energy than ever displayed before. No time was lost by business men. New supplies of merchandise were ordered immediately by telegraph, tents were erected, tradesmen from abroad flocked in with their stocks, shelters were planted all over the burned district, and whole squares of frames were erected just outside the fire limits. In fact, the business centre was expanded to just twice its former size. There was no de- pression in real estate ; on the contrary, property of every de- scription, from choice corners in the old centre to suburban lots, advanced fully twenty-five per cent above former prices. The market was active-in fact, has continued to be so ever since, and with a gradual upward tendency. There are now more
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than one hundred business blocks, costing from $30,000 to $250,000, and presenting a most imposing appearance, standing upon the ashes of the great fire of a year ago. Fine pressed brick compose the material of which the greater number of these buildings are constructed. There are, moreover, not less than one thousand residences costing in the aggregate fully $600,000. Since the early days of spring an army of mechanics and labor- ers have been employed in renewing the city upon a grander scale. It is safe to say that $5,000,000 will be expended during the present year, and no city on the continent will be built more substantially. Many things conspire to make Spokane Falls the wonder of the West. As some writer in the Daily Inter- Ocean of Chicago has expressed it : ' Upon one side lies a vast and rich region of agricultural lands, which is being rapidly populated with the most pushing and intelligent element of the farming districts of the East.' It comprises many millions of acres in extent highly productive of all kinds of grain except Indian corn and affording the finest field in the world for stock. Indeed, these fine ranges on the west and south have been the source of supplies for all the region lying west of the Cascade range and as far east as Central Montana, and yet not more than one fourth of these lands are occupied. Upon the other hand are the timber and mining districts, with inexhaustible forests of pine, cedar, fir, and hemlock upon the foothills and mountain ranges in sight of the city. The lumbering interests are increas- ing in magnitude, and in the near future will rival those of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. The mills in and near the city employ a great number of men the year round, and it is plain that this will become, within a few years, one of the great- est milling centres for grain and lumber in the West. The de- velopment of the mines in Cœur d'Alene, Okanagon, Kortenai, Colville, Chewelah, and the opening of newly discovered placers engage the services of thousands of men. Most of these make Spokane their headquarters and rely upon its merchants for the purchase of their supplies. A smelter will soon be in operation and furnish every facility for the reduction of ores." When we consider these facts, and remember that they were written three years ago, it is easy to perceive that Spokane as an inland city is practically without a rival, at least none nearer than Helena, while the cities of the sound lie fully three hundred miles far-
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ther west. " All of which," as the writer from whom we quote goes on to say, "warrant the conclusion that Spokane is des- tined to become one of the largest and most substantial interior cities in the United States. With four transcontinental lines of railway centring there and radiating to as many points on the coast, Spokane is sure to secure terminal rates, and thereby be enabled to supply the interior trade for hundreds of miles in every direction. Among the principal business firms are a score of jobbers in various lines, and a respectable number of mills and factories in lumber, iron, brick, lime, and dressed stone for building, breweries, a soap factory, tile factory, terra-cotta works, potteries, cigar factories, etc. The presence of so many industries at a point where seven lines of railroads centre must necessarily invite other manufactories, while the utilization of the many thousand horse-power, afforded by the several water- power and electric motor companies, is being recognized by manu- facturers, who realize the great inducements they hold out. The field offers the best advantages for woollen factories and paper mills, furniture factories and mercantile lead works of any place on the continent. It is only a matter of time ere the dull thun- der of Spokane's congregated mills will make itself heard above the roar of the falls and the rattle of the passing train, giving employment to thousands of skilled and intelligent workmen, who will add to her wealth and find homes in the metropolis of Eastern Washington."
Statistics may well be termed the barometer of commerce. If this be true, and to the mathematical mind at least they carry strongest conviction, the following figures may prove not only corroborative but interesting :
Lands taken up for the year ending November 30th, 1889, 28,559,479 acres.
Sales of city property from December 1st, 1888, to December 20th, 1889, $18,756,323.
Sales of city property since January 1st, 1890, $10,870,000.
Grand total of freight received at Spokane for the year end- ing November 30th, 1890, 49,733 tons, for which the railroad companies received about $2,000,000.
The seven regular banking houses-remember, this was three years ago-represent an aggregate cash capital of $857,661.84. Two savings banks foot up $150,000. The total of bank deposits,
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excluding the savings banks, for the month of November alone reached the satisfactory sum of $3,212,832.56.
The assessment on real and personal property for 1889 (county and city) was $15,131,928. The shipment of ore from the Cœur d'Alene mines for a year, 72,000 tons, average value per ton $40, giving a total of $4,320,000.
The output of lumber for the year was 30,000,000 feet. Dur- ing the same period (1889) $2,510,450 was expended in public and corporation works. Add to this $841,000 paid out in sub- scriptions to various religious, educational, and commercial ob- jects, and we fancy that no one will deny to the citizens of Spokane a reputation for enterprise and liberality, which finds few, if any, equal within the borders, wide as they are, of the Evergreen State.
We desire to express our obligations to a very handsome illus- trated souvenir published in Spokane, entitled “ Spokane Falls and its Exposition," in the fall of 1890, from which we have quoted generally Major Routhe's elaborate eulogium upon the city he so well knows and in whose future he so evidently be- lieves. We only regret that want of space prevents us from availing ourselves more largely of the exhaustive information therein contained. Had Spokane the Wonderful required any additional evidence of her growth and material prosperity, her Exposition Building alone would have certified to its verity and convinced the most incredulous.
Another writer speaks of Spokane as " a city of homes" -- cer- tainly the highest and best title which may be applied to any assemblage of human habitations -- a grace peculiarly American, for nowhere throughout the world, except, perchance, in Eng- land, whose happy homes Mrs. Hemans eulogizes so feelingly, is the home so all important a factor for influential good as in this favored land we proudly call our own. He says :
" Spokane Falls is essentially a city of homes. Let the vis- itor cast his eyes upon the hills or the valleys surrounding the business centre of the town, and he will be amazed at the number and extent of the handsome and happy homes in which the city abounds. They are homes in the fullest sense of the word ; not mere tenements rented and occupied, but built and owned by those who have grown with the city. From the humble abode of the laborer to the palatial residence of the capitalist and mill-
WBBogly MD
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ionaire these castles represent the results of their owners' toil and business sagacity ; they are not the temporary dwelling- places of a transient people, but sacred precincts, where the fam- ily ties are respected and honored. Moral and religious influ- ences pervade them, and it is a matter of public record that Spokane harbors a smaller amount of the criminal elements than any other city of its size."
Of public improvements the same writer adds : "They have been steadily inaugurated since the fire, and its thorough sewage . system will place Spokane Falls on a better sanitary basis than any city west of Chicago. A full-paid fire department has succeeded the volunteer corps which existed a year ago, and they are provided with an apparatus and personnel amply suffi- cient to cope with any fire that may visit us. A reservoir will be added to provide an additional water reserve large enough to meet any emergency, though the present city supply, taken from the Spokane River, with three pumps in operation, give an average of twenty million gallons per day."
Climatic conditions seem equally satisfactory. There is, unless exceptionally, neither a condition of extreme heat nor cold, with an average annual temperature of 47º and a total ab- sence of that distressing humidity so terribly trying during the summer solstice on the Atlantic coast.
Among the multiplicity of magnificent edifices belonging to Spokane, it is impossible to particularize public buildings ; we will, thereore, select one only, as a fit exponent of the many splendid structures which add beauty to the streets of the inland city of the West. Her Temple of the Muses, the elaborate opera house built by A. M. Cannon and J. J. Browne, is the most complete and best-appointed building of its character to be found in the entire Northwest. Its owners are to be congratu- lated upon their selection of so elaborate a plan, which they have carried out at an expense of not less than $300,000. In point of decoration, in completeness of stage arrangements, and perfection of general details, it will have but one superior in the Northwest or on the Pacific coast-the California Theatre in San Francisco. It is patterned after the Broadway Theatre of New York. The entrance hall is ninety feet long and twenty wide, and is reached through a high stone archway ; the corri- dors are provided with niches, in which handsome statues are
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placed ; the walls are hung with beautiful paintings, and the ceilings frescoed in the highest style of art ; the foyer is carpeted with handsome Turkish rugs ; the auditorium, being 70 × 90 feet, is furnished with eight hundred upholstered opera chairs of the latest design ; four fine proscenium boxes and stage boxes flank the circle.
We have lingered longingly, regretting our inability to quote more fully an exhaustive description of the rise and prog- . ress of her influential newspaper press and the literary career of its accomplished scribes from the first issue of its inaugural sheet, published, perhaps, with many misgivings of ultimate suc- cess, to the numerous papers of to-day, whose offices are replete with every modern aid known to progressive journalism, and whose proprietors number their subscribers by the thousands. This much of commendation we must find room for :
" The newspapers published in Spokane are a credit to the city and speak volumes for the intelligence of its citizens. They are conducted in a spirited, fair, and unbiassed manner, and show that their management is in able hands. They are metropolitan in character and appearance, and the two morning daily journals contain eight pages of the highest and best news to be found in any Eastern city. The progress and development of Spokane are in no small measure due to their efforts, and it is a cause of congratulation to the citizens of so prosperous a town that they have a press in their midst so strongly and honestly conducted."
Of the original attraction, and, later on, one of the most potent influences, in the success and upbuilding of Spokane we find her wonderful water-power thus prominently alluded to :
The one great factor which has made Spokane the active, prosperous, and growing city it is has been the water-power in the centre of the city. It offers great inducements for the loca- tion of manufacturing industries and for the purposes of fire protection. The magnitude and mechanical value of this water- power depends not only upon the fall, but also upon the quan- tity of the water. In making an estimate of the amount of power available from a stream, the only proper basis upon which to figure is the extreme low water flow ; and taking this as our minimum, we find that the lowest record'ed flow of the Spokane River occurred in the year just past, and amounted to 2000 cubic
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feet per second. The city of Spokane is situated on the eastern margin of the broad Washington prairie. This prairie has an annual rainfall of about twenty inches, but the watershed of the river above the falls is chiefly a mountainous area sloping toward the west. These mountain slopes condense more moist- ure, borne by the prevailing westerly winds from the Pacific Ocean, than does the plain. The depth of the annual rainfall upon the watershed of the river may safely be estimated as aver- aging twenty-four inches for the whole year. This watershed embraces part of Washington, part of Idaho, and a small area of Montana, and measures about forty-five hundred square miles. The beautiful Cœur d' Alene Lake, in Idaho, receives the greater part of its drainage from the St. Mary's, St. Joseph, and Cœur d' Alene rivers, and it acts as an unfailing reservoir to equalize the rate of flow of the river during the entire year, storing up the vast volumes of water brought down by the melting snow in the spring to feed the flow of the river during the succeeding months when the rainfall on the lower part of the watershed is very light. This lake has an area of about sixty-nine square miles, according to the survey of Lieutenant Haydens, of the United States Army. This natural storage is a very important factor in determining the value of the water-power in the Spokane River, and should the time come when the demands for power exhaust that which can be furnished by the present natural low-water flow of the river, a dam placed across the mouth of the lake would greatly increase its storage capacity and so increase the minimum supply very materially. The water-power of the falls has also natural divisions, made by the several islands which break the stream, thus making its develop- ment a comparatively easy proposition, and, moreover, dis- tributing power sites over a larger area of territory, thus giving ample space for the construction of mills and factories desiring to utilize it. The total fall of the river between Division Street and Monroe Street is one hundred and thirty feet, divided into two main falls-that between Division Street and Post Street, and the large cataract between Post and Monroe streets. The upper fall is sixty feet, and the lower or main fall seventy feet in height. A very fortunate characteristic of the Spokane River, and one which is due to the vast quantity of water in the Cœur d' Alene Lake, is that the temperature of the water varies through
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a very short range during the year, being quite cool in summer, and in winter never becoming so chilled, even in the coldest weather, as to form anchor ice, which on some Eastern streams offering water-power is a source of much annoyance and ex- pense. The amount of power available within the city limits of Spokane at extreme low water is thirty thousand gross horse- power. It will, therefore, be seen that the advantages derived from this source are practically inexhaustible, and as compared with the water-power so far developed in any country is almost the peer of them all ; and as its development proceeds and this immense force is more fully made available its financial value will be something enormous. When we consider that to replace this power with steam would necessitate an expenditure of $10,000 per day for fuel alone, the immense natural resources with which the city of Spokane is blessed will be more fully real- ized. An idea of the actual money value of this water power may be obtained when it is known that the cost of producing one horse- power for a year by steam is $50, and as the lowest available force of Spokane Falls is thirty thousand horse-power, a very simple calculation will show a total of $1,500,000 added to the prosperity of the city.
And now, leaving the mere monetary view of this bounteous gift of a generous All Father, and forgetting for a time that spirit of gain which would utilize every force of nature to achieve financial results, even to the harnessing of Niagara or the paint- ing of their trade banners, if such were possible, upon the bow of promise itself, let us consider the æsthetic beauty of these tumbling, tumultuous waters of Spokane Falls. Born of the far- off mountain rills or nearer lakes, dropped from the open hand of the spring-tide rains, dissolved from melting snows or con- densed from the misty veils that shroud the cliffs of the pine- clad Cascades, they gather their forces and creep reluctantly to their doom. There is a ripple of disturbance, a secret premoni- tion, as it were, of the strife so near at band. They chafe the opposing shores and move with quickened feet, they cling to tangled root and stranded log, yet all in vain, the wild leap of the wave-worn precipices must be made. A moment of hesita- tion, as if they feared and would fain nerve themselves for the final shock, a pause of indecision, and they go madly plunging to lose themselves in the foam clouds that hover over the pools
емости.
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below, while young Iris, robed in rainbow hues, dances lightly over the abyss where they are engorged, and from whence they emerge after a period of struggle to find a calmer flow, and sink like mortals weary of the strife, no more to rise beneath the all- grasping billows of Pacific's distant sea.
As a diamond is most exquisitely set when encompassed by kindred gems, so this jewel of the Valley of Waters, the city of Spokane, is the fitting centre of an assemblage of towns and vil- lages, many of them already standing upon the threshold of civic dignity, which cluster about her so nearly that some of them, as the superior planet attracts the lesser star, may one day become suburbs of Spokane. An enthusiastic orator says, in dwelling upon the manifold charms and excellencies of the Evergreen State : " The eloquence of Demosthenes could not do it full jus- tice ; even a Henry Clay would find it hard to picture the grand possibilities of our State, and none but an Ingersoll is capable of portraying the beauties and glories of our natural scenery and material wealth." And the surroundings of Spokane might well deserve his eulogium. They are not only replete with evi- dences of natural advantages wisely applied to remunerative ends, but many of them are rich in historic memories, legends of Indian attack and foray, wild tales of massacre and fierce re- venge, for these hills and wooded glens have echoed the war- whoop of the Nez Perce and his savage allies, and been the silent witnesses of many a treaty, unreal and evanescent as the smoke of the peace pipe smoked at its council fire. Above all, they have beheld the daily unmurmuring endurance of its hardy pio- neers, patiently waiting mid the gloomy trials of the present for the coming of brighter days.
As we look back upon this varied and troubled past, from the standpoint of 1893 it seems a matter of astonishment that a man holding the position of General Wool should, to gratify a personal animosity, have so far stultified himself as to issue an order virtually closing this magnificent region of Eastern Wash- ington to the settler, and thereby delaying its civilization by a decade of years. It is well that the more patriotic Clarke, be- lieving that the claim of the white was superior to that of the Indian, had the good sense to perceive that the Almighty in- tended Spokane and its beautiful environs, its wonderful water- power, and wheat fields yet to be cultivated for the occupation
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and sustenance of the home-making American rather than for the reservation and the hunting grounds of its aboriginal people. Let us glance at the map and consider the surroundings of Spokane geographically. To her north lie the Colville mining and timber districts, with the towns of Colville, Marcus, Spring- dale, Kettle Falls, Deer Park, Chatturoy, Chewlah, and many another. To the east the Cœur d'Alenes, rich in mines, lively in camps, and studded with growing settlements. To the south we find the rich farming county of the Palouse, with such thriv- ing places as Farmington, Rosalia, Rockford, Fairfield, Latah, Tekon, Garfield, Spangle, Colfax, Palouse City, Pullman, Ritz- ville, Spangle, Winona, and others no less flourishing, whose names we lack space to record. Then looking toward the sun- set, we observe the rich grain fields of the Big Bend, the grazing lands roamed over by innumerable herds, and the sites of Wheat- dale, Almira, Davenport, and their numerous sisters, all rich in promise, which only asks to gauge the future by the achieve- ments of the past.
And now, having written but a tithe of the words of deserved commendation we had meditated for the City of the Falling Waters, this gem of Western Washington, sitting crowned with her chaplet of wheat, amid the roar of her falls and the whir of her busy factories, surrounded by treasures of the mine, fields white to harvest, and the cattle upon a thousand hills, we will, ere we pass to the consideration of Tacoma, "The City of Des- tiny,'' interpose a somewhat substantial barrier between Spokane and her ambitious sister of the inland sea in the shape of the lat- ter's grand old namesake, gray with the storms of centuries, white with the snows of years long dead, sitting solitary and alone, encircled by the icy arms of her myriad glaciers, yet car- peting with flowers the network of glens that nestle at her feet -- the peerless " Mount Tacoma."
CHAPTER XXXVI.
THE GLACIERS OF MOUNT TACOMA-THEIR WONDERFUL EXTENT -ITS NAME AND ORIGIN.
" A rock-ribbed dome, crested with sheltering snow, 'Mid glaciers set, whose fountains westward flow, Mountains of ice, where melting torrents sweep The vales that link them with Pacific's deep, And strange attraction, clothe each crystal base With buds they woo to bright their chill embrace What wondering eyes are theirs who slowly climb, To see fierce winter with sweet spring combine,
Stooping to gather blossoms fresh and fair, Rarer in bloom than Alpine valleys bear, Or verdant moss within the crater cave, Whose sides no more the molten lava lave, Leaving the 'Park of Paradise ' below To scale the heights where Arctic breezes blow."
-BREWERTON.
THERE is, perhaps, no better authority on the subject of Mount Tacoma, the mighty snow mountain of Western Wash- ington, and considered in all its bearings the most interesting peak within the federal borders, than Mr. Fred G. Plummer, the Secretary of the Washington Alpine Club. Mr. Plummer is a resident of Tacoma, and a civil engineer of remarkable ability. He has made the mountain. its name, altitude, general features and surroundings an exhaustive study, and we consider our- selves fortunate in being enabled to give our readers the benefit of his researches. He says, writing from Tacoma, under date of June 1st of the current year :
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