Illustrated history of Stevens, Ferry, Okanogan and Chelan counties, state of Washington, Part 93

Author:
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: Spokane, Wash. : Western History
Number of Pages: 992

USA > Washington > Chelan County > Illustrated history of Stevens, Ferry, Okanogan and Chelan counties, state of Washington > Part 93
USA > Washington > Ferry County > Illustrated history of Stevens, Ferry, Okanogan and Chelan counties, state of Washington > Part 93
USA > Washington > Okanogan County > Illustrated history of Stevens, Ferry, Okanogan and Chelan counties, state of Washington > Part 93
USA > Washington > Stevens County > Illustrated history of Stevens, Ferry, Okanogan and Chelan counties, state of Washington > Part 93

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required shelter. Some of the material for the edifices in hand was shipped from the west coast, but most of the lumber and trimmings were procured from local mill men. The amount of labor required and the number of mechanics necessary to do it has the effect of causing a pretty lively stir about the landing. For the good of the country as a whole, and as a recon- pense to the enterprising projectors behind it, we trust Okanogan City will flourish and grow apace."

At Riverside the Okanogan river reached its highest point in years in June, 1903. On Main street people frequently went riding in skiffs, and there was a sufficient stage of water to enable steamboats to land at the rear of the Glenwood Mercantile Company's store. Still, in the face of all this threatened disaster, only one building was vacated in the town, that being the Columbia & Okanogan warehouse. The town is the principal wool shiping point in the county, shipments from this point running up into the hundreds of thousands of pounds an- nually.

Saturday, August 15, 1903, a special meet- ing was held for the purpose of voting $1,500 in bonds to build a school building. The vote resulted 37 to 8 in favor of the bonds. The new edifice was erected and is considered one of the finest in the county, and the course of in- struction is under a competent corps of teach- ers. The clerk of the school district is J. D. Williams.

Riverside is ambitious. Its citizens confi- dently expect to secure the location of the county seat within its limits at an early date. The Great Northern Railway Company has had a survey made for a branch line from We- natchee along the Columbia and Okanogan riv- ers to tap the valley of the latter stream. Gov- ernment engineers have run a survey for an irrigation canal which, considered as a definite underetaking, will irrigate thousands of acres of land in the territory tributary to River- side.

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HISTORY OF NORTH WASHINGTON.

OROVILLE.

Oroville, or as the name is commonly ab- breviated, "Oro," is a town of thirty or forty inhabitants situated at the confluence of the Okanogan and Similkameen rivers in northern Okanogan county. Surrounding the town is a rich agricultural country, and the products of the many farms which are located in the valleys and on the hillsides, find a ready market in the town of Oroville. Twenty-five thousand bush- els of wheat are raised annually in the immedi- ate vicinity, and as yet only a small per cent. of the rich land is cultivated.

It was due to the fertility of the land that the section of the country around Oroville was one of the earliest settled in the country. In the fall of 1873 Alexander McCauley, who still resides here, came to this country and set- tled on his ranch within one mile of the present townsite. He was the only white man within a radius of many miles. Being a friend of Chief Moses, who then claimed jurisdiction over the whole of the Okanogan country, Mr. McCauley was allowed to remain in peaceful possession of his land. A couple of years later a few stockmen commenced driving their herds here in the summer. In the course of time other white men came to the country and settled on land.

In July, 1891, there were quite a number of . them in the valley and Robert Allison brought over a stock of goods from the then flourishing mining camp of Loomis, and established a store. A postoffice was soon secured and a small town began to make its appearance. On June 30 of the following year the town was platted by the Oro Town and Improvement Company. The town continued to grow and several other business enterprises were established.

Thursday night, November 22, 1900, Oro- ville was visited by a disastrous fire, the gen- eral store of the Oroville Trading Comany be- ing completely destroyed, causing a loss on stock and building of $15,000. The postoffice

was in the same building and the contents were destroyed. Prospects are favorable for Oro- ville to become one of the most prosperous towns in the county. An enterprise that is under way at the present time is the installation of a power plant at the Similkameen falls, a few miles above the town, by the Similkameen Falls Power & Development Company, to be used in developing the company's mines, and also to furnish electric lights for Oroville and other towns in the vicinity.

Oroville is connected with Loomis by daily stage, and with Chesaw by stage three times a week. The altitude of the townsite is only 913 feet above sea level, one of the lowest points in the county. Local blacksmiths have been experimenting with a pump for irrigating pur- poses, and lately they have perfected one that will irrigate twenty acres by carrying a stream from any source by means of two 18-inch pipes.

BOLSTER.

In the northeastern corner of Okanogan county, two miles. northeast of Chesaw, and within sight of British Columbia, is Bolster, once the almost successful rival of Chesaw, now a practically deserted village. Being suituated on the Colville Indian reservation, prospectors and settlers were barred out until 1896. When the reservation was thrown open prospectors came to this district. Those who staked claims in the immediate vicinity of Bol- ster were James McEachen, John McNeil, P. H. Pingston, George Tindall and John Schaffer.

Most of these prospectors and others who came later erected their cabins on the spot where the town was afterward located, and by the spring of 1898 there was quite a settlement. At that time William Hamilton, who is now in business in Chesaw, took a small stock of goods to the new camp and opened a store. He was very successful in this enterprise and for a year his was the only business house in town. With the opening of the spring of

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HISTORY OF NORTH WASHINGTON.

1899 Bolster enjoyed a "boom" and within a few months the new town had grown into a very enterprising and wide-awake place, threat- ening to outshine its neighbor, Chesaw. J. W. McBride early in the spring bought up several mining claims and platted the town. A. J. Nickle established the second store the same spring and later in the summer F. S. Evans opened another store. Two saloons were opened out, owned by Brassfield Brothers, and by Oliver Mickle, and the same year witnessed the establishment of a newspaper-the Bolster Drill-to herald abroad the virtues of the new town1.

Early in 1900 a Mr. McDonald, of Green- wood, British Columbia, erected a fine hotel building at a cost of $3,000 or $4,000. During these lively times about thirty houses had been erected in Bolster and the town boasted of a population of two or three hundred souls. In 1900 the "boom" collapsed. Chesaw had won out in its fight to be classed as the principal town in the Meyers Creek Mining District. In time all the business houses closed down and most of the business men removed to Chesaw.

At Bolster there is now a postoffice, a few families and a town full of vacant log cabins- all the buildings being of log except the hotel. There is a daily mail and stage to Chesaw.

MOLSON.

Situated at an elevation of 3.460 feet above the level of the sea, less than a mile from the International Boundary line, and on the stage route between Chesaw and Oroville, eleven miles from the former, and seventeen from the latter town, is the little hamlet of Molson, with a population at the present day of twenty-seven.

Molson was to have been a city. George B. Mechem, promotor, conceived the idea. He had visited the country and found here a very fertile agricultural district which he saw would immediately be settled upon with the opening of the "North Half" of the reservation to home-

stead entry in 1900. Adjacent to the proposed site was a country rich in mineral deposits. Mr. Mechem decided to organize a company and establish a town which was to become a future metropolis. He succeeded in interesting Montreal capital and forming the Colville Res- ervation Syndicate, the officers of which were John W. Molson (after whom the new town was named) president; C. B. Greenshields, vice-president ; D. E. Cameron, secretary and treasurer; and George B. Mechem, general manager. In the summer of 1900, immediately after the opening of the "North Half," Mr. Mechem, as manager of the company, began the construction of the town, and within a few months every building that has ever been put in Molson was erected. Fifty thousand dollars were spent by Mr. Mechem in erecting these structures, among othere a hotel building which cost $8,100, and which would be a credit to a town of several thousand inhabitants. The expectations of the promoters were being real- ized. Mr. Mechem continued to expend money lavishly and all descriptions of business enter- prises made their appearance. Molson soon had a population of three hundred people.

The Chesaw Trading Company opened a general store in the town. A postoffice was established September 17, and Mr. C. A. Blatt, the hotel keeper, was made postmaster. Dr. J. B. Couch started a drug store. E. Peck, an attorney, located in the town. The Molson Magnet, with A. A. Batterson as editor, was launched on September 7. Other busines enter- prises were a bakery, meat market, two black- smith shops, two restaurants, two boarding houses, four saloons, a hotel, livery stable, townsite and assay offices. The buildings which were erected by Mr. Machem were not sufficient to take care of the rush and a large part of the population made their homes and conducted their business in tents. There is generally an explosion to "boom" towns, sooner or later, and the crash to Molson soon came. In less than a year, or in February,

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HISTORY OF NORTH WASHINGTON.

1901, friction arose between Mr. Mechem and the company, and improvements to the town were stopped. The company went into the hands of a receiver and its affairs were looked after by trustees. It is reported that Mechem was the heaviest loser in the deal. He, how- ever, went to Texas during the oil excitement there, made a large fortune and is now a broker on Wall street. Residents of Molson state that Mr. Mechem intends to revisit the town and carry out his interrupted plans of building a city.

The hotel at Molson is still conducted by Mr. Blatt and a few other business enterprises are maintained in the town. The Pacific States Telephone Company has a station here. The Poland-China mine is the principal property adjacent to the town.

LOOP LOOP.

"About eight miles south and slightly west of Conconully is the deserted village of Loop Loop, which was once the scene of more mining activity than any other spot in Okanogan. Millionaires were produced there in minutes, in comparison to the slow and tedious process of the trust or 'combine.' A man with a piece of rock and an assay certificate was in the mining swim, and a man who had a ten-foot shaft with good showing of ore could talk about nothing smaller than millions whenever the subject of price and 'values' was approached. That was fifteen years ago, and Loop Loop, which lies only a couple of miles over the hill and west of the Ruby townsite, was a flourishing town because it was 'where the mines were.' As Loop Loop City it was the first town in Okano- gan to be platted, August 14, 1888, by W. P. Keady and S. F. Chadwick. It had a merchan- dise store or two and a full complement of sa- loons and eating houses, where now the princi- pal thing to attract the eye is ruin. Deprecia- tion in silver marked the immediate downfall of the town. The ores were silver. The miners

were unanimous in the opinion that silver min- ing was impossible; the one large company operating there quit ; the miners left and rapidly the lights were extinguished in the place.

"From 1893, when the sound of hammers and drills ceased, until a couple of years ago, scarcely anything was done to break the silence that had followed the feverish excitement of a few years previous. The worst to be feared was that some one would invade the town and take away a building or some personal belong- ing-some by purchase and some with a lean- ing toward kleptomania. There was one prop- erty mining in the prosperous days-the First Thought. From Loop Loop a gravity tram had been constructed to a reduction plant at Ruby, for conveyance of ores. Even this plant did not escape attack, and the wire cable was cut up and taken away while the tram equip- ment at the ore bins had been torn to pieces for the bolts that it contained. Up to the elec- tion of 1896 a voting precinct had been located at Loop Loop, but at a meeting of the commis- sioners, August 4, 1896, the precinct, once one of the most prosperous in the county, was aban- doned because of insufficient population and the territory annexed to Ruby precinct. For the past two years, however, a new interest has been taken in mining matters in the Loop Loop vicinity, and there is a possibility that some day it will become, instead of the golconda of dreamland, the center of a healthy and legiti- mate mining industry."

Thus writes the editor of the Okanogan Record, of date August 14, 1903.

RUBY.

The records of Okanogan county show no original platting of the town of Ruby. They do show, however, that on January 6, 1891, Mineral Survey No. 67 was added to the town of Ruby by the Ruby Land Company, through its president, W. J. Dorwin.

There are quite a number of deserted towns

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HISTORY OF NORTH WASHINGTON.

in Okanogan county, the principal cause of which was the sudden depreciation in the price of silver. Among these is Ruby. Their his- tories live only in the memories of old timers. Other towns now classed as "deserted" met their doom shortly after their founding, because the mines which were the cause of their up- building did not prove to be so rich in precious metals as had been expected. Today only a handful of ruins marks the spot where once flourished the most important town in Okano- gan county. Ruby, or as it was called previous to incorporation, Ruby City, came into exist- ence in the late 80's. Rich discoveries of silver ore were made in the Okanogan country ; pros- pectors and miners flocked thither in large num- bers. Seven miles southeast of Conconully was started the town of Ruby; within a brief period it had become one of the liveliest and best known mining camps in the northwest. For a quarter of a mile on each side of a single graded street it was built up solidly. Nearly every branch of trade was engaged in by an exceedingly busy population. With the forma- tion of Okanogan county, in March, 1888, Ruby became the temporary county seat. This honor it continued to hold until February 9, 1899, when the voters decided to make Con- conully the capital of the county, at the Novem- ber election of that year.

A large force of men was employed at Ruby during the "good old times." The mines were located on the high ridge that rises abruptly from the town on the south. Those who were not miners found employment in various pur- suits, and Ruby gained a population of several hundred people. A finely equipped and ex- pensive concentrator was built one-half mile east of the town, and a wire tram constructed from the mill to the mines, quite a distance away. The citizens of Ruby decided to incor- porate in 1890. August 4 a petition was pre- sented to the commissioners asking for the privilege to vote on the question. It was pro- posed to include about 611 acres within the

incorporate limits. The commissioners granted the petition and called a special election for August 19, but later this date was changed to Saturday, August 23. W. W. Weeks was named inspector of the election and T. D. Fuller and E. C. Lathrop, judges. The propo- sition for incorporation was carried, and Ruby became a town of the 4th class, the only town in Okanogan county that has attained to the dignity of incorporation. Officers elected to serve the first year were George J. Hurley, mayor; W. J. Dorwin, J. W. Jewett, C. H. Lovejoy, and C. F. Webb, councilmen ; S. Lichtenstadter, treasurer.

The price of silver fell in the fall of 1892. To continue working the mines would be un- profitable; they were closed down. People moved away, leaving vacant houses un- protected ; the once flourishing town was de- populated. For some time the scores of dwell- ings and business houses remained solitary and empty, sad reminders of a town that had seen better days. Then came vandals who stripped the houses of all that could be carried away. Buildings, fences and sidewalks fell into decay and the city presented a decidelly delapidated appearance. About four years ago fire de- stroyed three-fourths of what remained of Ruby. A few buildings, riddled and tottering, still stand-monuments to mark the spot where stood the town.

Adjacent to the old town are a number of claims, such as the First Thought, Fourth of July and the Ruby, and it is not without the range of possibilities that some day a new, will make its appearance on the site of the old, Ruby.

NIGHTHAWK.

This is the name of a postoffice and small town located on the Similkameen river, about one and one-half miles from the International Boundary line, twelve and one-half miles due north of Loomis, and immediately adjoining

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HISTORY OF NORTH WASHINGTON.

the Nighthawk mine, to which the town owes its existence.

When development was begun on the Nighthawk mine in 1899, the town came into being and a general store was opened by the Nighthawk Mercantile Company, whose mem- bers were William T. and Charles T. Peterson. A postoffice was established the same year and Charles T. Peterson became postmaster. In the spring of 1903 the firm sold their interests to the Charles A. Andrus Company, who now conduct the store. Other business enterprises now on foot in Nighthawk are a saloon, con- ducted by M. W. Barry, an assay office by the Nighthawk Mining Company, under the su- pervision of the manager, Myron J. Church, and a boarding house. A telephone system is in operation connecting the office of the Night- hawk Mining Company, the store, the Six Eagles mine, the Golden Zone mill, the Ruby mine, with the other portions of the state, via Oroville.

At present Nighthawk has a population of about fifty people and is already a lively and flourishing town. The townsite, consisting of one hundred and sixty acres of beautiful land adjoining the mine, has been platted by the Nighthawk Realty Company, of which Myron J. Church is president, William T. Peterson, vice-president, and Charles T. Peterson, secre- tary and treasurer. It is an ideal spot for a town, on the bank of a river that is shaded by a luxuriant growth of pines, birch and other trees, in a delightful climate, at an elevation of 1,184 feet and surrounded by a country admir- ably adapted to mining, stock raising, agricul- ture and fruit growing. The Similkameen river, which is from 280 to 300 feet wide at this point, is fed by mountain streams and the water is clear, pure and cold as ice. The town itself is supplied with water from flowing springs just above the camp. The Vancouver, Victoria & Eastern Railroad, now in progress of construction, is surveyed right through the town of Nighthawk.

BREWSTER.

At the junction of the Okanogan and Co- lumbia rivers is located the thriving town of Brewster. The first attempt to build a town in this vicinity was made in 1892. It was named Swansea, and was about two and one- half miles from the confluence of the two rivers. This location was eligible and the town would have been successful had it not been for the fact that great financial depression ensued during the years 1893-4.

Swansea was a great attraction-on paper. Charles Ballard, a skillful draughtsman and engineer produced the plat of the proposed city, which was recorded in 1892. Practically noth- ing was done toward building up the town of Swansea with the exception of the sale of a number of lots, regardless of the fact that the walls of nearly all the real estate offices in the country were decorated with blue prints de- scriptive of its attractions. Streets, alleys and parks were profusely laid out, wharves of great capacity for rail and steamboat traffic covered the water front; the great Columbia was dot- ted with steamboats hastening to unload freight and passengers at the docks. To the brain that conceived and the hand that executed this work too much praise cannot be accorded. Of course, all this was conducive to the sale of quite a large amount of real estate. But ow- ing to disagreement between two partners in- terested in the project the enterprise of build- ing up the town of Swansea was abandoned.

Yet while this might be termed a pro- nounced failure the head of navigation of the Columbia river was not long to remain without a townsite. Prior to 1893 the line of steam- boats that navigated the northern part of the Columbia had their landing on the south bank of the river, in Douglas county, the place being known as Port Columbia. The company oper- ating the steamboats owned, also, the ferries crossing both the Columbia and Okanogan rivers, and the object of having the landing on

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HISTORY OF NORTH WASHINGTON.

the south side of the river was to collect toll from both ferries from parties destined to the northern country.

July 10, 1893, the town of Virginia City, located about one-half mile south of the present town of Brewster, and which today consists of a single house and a barn, was platted, the pro- pectors of this enterprise being "Virginia Bill" Covington and Francis Green. "Virginia BII" was a Virginian, and quite a prominent character in that country. He was one of the pioneers of the Okanogan district, having gone there in the early 60's. Virginia City at once became the port for the steamers of the upper Columbia and a small settlement came into ex- istence which continued to flourish until 1896. At that period a change was made in the pro- prietorship of the steamboat line, and the in- coming management decided to build a new town and change the place of landing. Nego- tiations were entered into with John Bruster, who owned a homestead about half a mile above Virginia City, with the result that one- half of the land was deeded to the steamboat company and the town of Bruster (later spelled Brewster) came into existence. The original townsite was platted by John Bruster, April 10, 1896. April 22, 1901, the first addition to the town was platted and lots thrown on the market by Mr. Bruster. To Virginia City the platting of Bruster was the death knell. Its dis- appearance from the map was a matter of but a short time. Nearly all of the buildings there were removed bodily to the new town.

March 25, 1898, the postoffice of Brewster was established. Although the name of the townsite was Bruster the postal authorities in- sisted on naming the office Brewster, and this fact necessitated the changing of the original name of the town. At this period there were three postoffices within one mile of each other in this locality, Brewster, Virginia City and Toqua, the latter just across the river in Doug- las county. Mr. D. L. Gillespie was made

postmaster of Brewster, which position he still retains.

Saturday, August 8, 1903, the principal business section of Brewster was destroyed by fire. It is stated that this causualty originated from a lighted cigarette, breaking out in Mc- Kinley's drug store. Despite the heroic efforts of the citizens and the use of innumerable so- called fire extinguishers the flames gained rapidly, and in a short time three-fourths of the town was wrapped in flames. Following is a list of the prominent losers, with insurance :

Tony Anderson, of the firm of Anderson & Company, loss, $10,000 with $5,000 insur- ance; Mrs. Crout, general merchandise, $4,000 with $800 insurance ; Dr. Mckinley, drug store $3,000, no insurance; Tumwater saloon, $2,- 500, no insurance; Wilson's harness shop, $1.500, insurance $500. Aside from these the following were losers with no insurance : Lee's boiler shop; Watson's blacksmith shop; Wat- son's dwelling; Red Men's Hall; Brewster sa- loon; Ford's barber shop; Nolan's warehouse; Mrs. Crout's lunch counter; blacksmith shop; three ice houses and several other small build- ings. The aggregate loss was about $40,000 with insurance of $6,300. Not over one hun- dred dollars' worth of goods or furniture was saved from the various buildings in the burned district. The telephone office was attacked and connections cut off for a few hours, but this damage was soon repaired by linemen. Dur- ing the battle with the flames several persons were seriously injured but no lives were lost. Among those injured were Milard Stevens, badly burned about the shoulders and hands; A. G. Gallespie, both hands burned; David Gallispie, severe cut in neck by glass : Dr. Mc- Kinley, scalp wound from falling glass. The only business houses remaining standing were the hotel, Gallispie's store and Bassett's barn. So rapidly did the fire gain headway, owing to the dry materials composing the houses, that many people escaped with only a portion of their

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Illustrated history of Stevens, Ferry, Okanogan and Chelan counties, state of Washington, Part 93

Author: Publication date: 1904 Publisher: Spokane, Wash. : Western History Number of Pages: 992

Author:
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: Spokane, Wash. : Western History
Number of Pages: 992