CHAPTER IX.

A brief description of Eastern and Western Washington, and of the
various sections in each.—Their industries and inducements.—Their
advantages and their disadvantages.

WASHINGTON is the most north-western territory, or state,
belonging to the Union, with the exception of Alaska. It lies
about ten degrees north of Washington City, D.C. Yet the
eastern part is not as cold in winter as New Jersey, the ground
seldom being frozen as much as six inches deep ; and the west-
ern part is not as cold in winter as it is at Washington City on
the Potomac, and it is more healthy.

Irrigation is not absolutely necessary anywhere in the
state, to raise crops; but some sections in the eastern part get
very dry and very dusty, and most anywhere more or less irri-
gation is, or would be, if water was accessible, very beneficial,
and so it would be in the states. Though it rains more in
summer in the states, than it does here, or anywhere else on
this coast. But the soil is such that in unusual dry seasons
half a crop is raised without any rain or irrigation.

The state, as a whole, is separated into two natural
divisions, known as Western and Eastern Washington, the
Cascade range of mountains intervening. It contains, besides
the mountainous regions, which are covered with timber and
wood, nearly 50,000 square miles of pasture and agricultural
lands. About four-sevenths of these are classified as timbered,
two-sevenths as bunch-grass prairie, and one-seventh as alluvial
bottom lands. Over half of the timbered and nearly all the
bottom lands lie in the western section ; while the bunch-grass
prairie lands are all in the eastern part.

The annual rainfall in Western Washington is about
seventy inches, and in Eastern Washington about thirty inches.

Extending far inland from the Pacific ocean into Western
Washington is Puget Sound. Although sufficiently narrow to
admit of both shores being seen at the same time, it is in all
parts of sufficient depth to accommodate the largest ocean-
going steamers, and in places it is a hundred fathoms deep. It

(119)

120 EASTERN AND WESTERN WASHINGTON.

has a shore line about sixteen hundred miles in length, and in-
cludes a series of land-locked harbors, in which the “ navies of
the world” might anchor in safety. Emptying into it on every
side are numerous streams, some of which are navigable for
many miles into the interior. The bottoms of these streams
are very fertile, and some are spacious, nor are they unhealthy,
as is so usual in the states. These, as well as the bottoms on
the streams that empty into Grays Harbor, Shoal Water Bay
and the lower Columbia river, are the best tame-grass sectious
on the Pacific coast, if not in the United States. These bottoms
are from, say, one to six miles wide, and fifteen or twenty of
these streams are navigable—the Chehalis for sixty miles at all
seasons of the year.

But these bottoms are mostly covered with a dense growth
of brush, vine-maple, alder, cedar, spruce and other timber.

Nearly the whole of Western Washington is covered with
a dense forest, composed of fir, cedar, spruce, with some oak,
vine and curley maple, alder and other vegetation, belonging
to a warm, humid climate. Between the Sound and the ocean
are the Olympic mountains, with snow-capped peaks; and
between it and the ocean is the best unsettled section of country
that I know of at this time (1889). Mount Rainier, or Tacoma,
in the Cascade range, is near 15,000 feet high, and its top is
always white with snow. The “Sound Country” has numerous
thriving towns, Seattle, Tacoma, Port Townsend and Olympia
being the largest. The country bordering upon the Sound and
extending back to the mountains, is rich in coal and lumber,
and the soil, when cleared, is more or less productive for hay,
grain and vegetables, also fruits and berries. There are sections
that are most excellent for apples, pears and plums. Coal is
shipped in large quantities to San Francisco. There is quite
a variety of fish in the Sound, and they are abundant; and so
are clams on the beach.

Cedar trees are frequently 200 feet in height, and firs some-
times 300 feet, and 100 feet to the first limb. Spars and other
rare ship timbers are conveyed from Puget Sound to all parts
of the world. Common lumber is shipped principally to Cali-
fornia, Central and South America, Australia and the Sandwich
Islands. It is a great lumber region, if not the greatest in the

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EASTERN AND WESTERN WASHINGTON. 121
world. Some of the mills cut about 500,000 feet a day, each.—
The Sound hawks will ride on hogs’ backs while they root
up clams on the beach, then snatching one will fly high in the
air, and directly over some rocky spot, letting the clam drop,
to break it open.

The climate of Western Washington is warm and wet, the
average winter temperature being about thirty-three degrees
above zero, with lots of rain. During the summer season it
rains less and the temperature is milder, but the climate is
quite even the year round. Flowers are often seen blooming
in the gardens in the midst of winter. The scenery is grand,
especially in summer when the air is free of fog and smoke.

Eastern Washington is as different from Western Washing-
ton as one country could well be from another. Generally
speaking, it is an open, or timberless region, and is therefore
chiefly useful as a farming and grazing country. Its chief
rivers are the Columbia and Snake, which have their junction
near the center of the state. Besides these rivers are numerous
smaller streams, that have their sources in the mountain ranges
— some of them flowing eastward from the Cascades, some from
the Blue mountains, which lie to the south-east, and some from
the Coeur d’Alene mountains in northern Idaho. These
streams, with the exception of the Columbia and Snake, are
more or less wooded. They are all more or less deeply im-
bedded below the farming country, the upper portions being
deep canyons. The Columbia and Snake are bordered with
sand and gravel, and rocky bluffs ; the small streams with rich
alluvial bottoms and rocky bluffs.

Taking one’s position upon some elevated point, and look-
ing over this vast region of Eastern Washington, the general
appearance is that of an endless contiguity of grass-covered,
gently waving hills. Thus viewed at a distance, the color of
the landscape is that of a dull gray. The scene is monotonous;
grand, but not beautiful, and it makes one feel lonesome.
These timberless hills are covered with bunch-grass or grain.
This grass and a mild, dry climate, made Eastern Washington,
Eastern Oregon and Idaho a good stock country. Passing
through the country, especially through the settled portions,
the scene is more interesting, as it has lost its sameness and

122 EASTERN AND WESTERN WASHINGTON.

gained in variety. Nestled in among these timberless hills and
flats, on one stream or another, are towns and villages, and
cities of non-producers; they are about one quarter of the
population of the country ; are organized into secret charitable
(?) gangs, and thrive by ruling and filching the producer,
home-builder and immigrants—they earn almost nothing, but
steal almost everything—the courts being in their control.
They are to the people, what the English and German trader
is to the natives of countries they have conquered.

“For knaves to thrive on—mysterious enough :

Dark, tangled doctrines, dark as fraud can weave.”

“They linked their souls

By a dark oath in hell’s own language framed.”

These towns and villages are surrounded with fertile and
productive farms. The soil is generally a rich, ashy loam,
which is easily plowed and cultivated, and grain, vegetable and
fruit are produced with much less labor, than in most other
countries. But for the reasons heretofore and hereafter given,
over eighty per cent. of the farms are mortgaged, and the whole
country is held under tribute that would make the Egyptian,
the Hottentot, the Sepoy, or the Chinaman rebel in his own
country. Therefore, farms can be bought cheap. “Except the
virtuous, men ought to be slaves, because they are either wicked
themselves, or are ready to crouch before the wicked. A
feeble herd, happy to crouch to a master.”

Eastern Washington is divided up into numerous large or
small districts or sections, usuaily bearing names which they
have derived from streams passing through them. The
oldest of these is the Walla Walla country, which surrounds a
city of the same name. North of this—across the Snake river
—is the Palouse country, the Spokane country, and the Big
Bend country, all lying east and south of the Columbia river,
and west of Idaho.

West of the Columbia river and east of the Cascade
mountain is embraced the remainder of Eastern ‘Washington.
This region is divided into two large districts, known as the
Klickitat country and the Yakima country.

“The Yakima country lies north of the Klickitat, and in-
cludes an area of nearly ten thousand square miles. The western

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EASTERN AND WESTERN WASHINGTON. 123

boundary being the Cascade range of mountains. The Yakima
country is penetrated from that direction by numerous long spurs
which trend eastward in the direction of the Columbia. Between
these long hills or spurs are numerous fertile valleys. By some
freak of nature the Yakima river, which runs southward and
eastward, cuts through these long hills at nearly right angles, and
in this way crosses the several valleys comprising the Yakima
country. The first, and one of the largest of these valleys
through which the river passes, after it flows from the Cascade
mountains, is the Kittitas valley, which is the centre of a county,
with Ellensburg as the county seat. Fifteen to twenty miles to
the north of Ellensburg is an extensive coal region, perhaps the
best in the state. And to the north of this are gold, silver and
other mines. Further down the river, from Ellensburg, south
and east of Kittitas, are numerous smaller valleys, including the
Wenas, Selah, Natcheez and the Ahtanum. In the latter valley,
at the junction of a little stream, known as Ahtanum, with the
Yakima river, is the town of Yakima. Opposite this town (being
like an extension of the Ahtanum valley) is a level, fertile tract of
country known as the Moxee. Immediately south of town, the
river cuts throuth another of the long hills above mentioned, and
enters another valley, the greater portion of which unfortunately
is ineluded within the Yakima Indian reservation. This is the
finest valley or tract of land in Eastern Washington, and if it was
available for settlement, would be one of the most productive [for
tribute| sections in the West. [Of course] an effort is being made
to acquire such portion of it as the Indians do not need [?] for
their own use [?], and if the movement is successful, Yakima City
will at once become an important inland city.”

[There are also other people who have more land (that they
have sfolen), and also more money (that they have stolen) “than
they need for their own use.” Why not take or rather recover
these first?] ‘

“Opposite this reservation is an immense country. From the
Yakima river it slopes back and rises gently until it reaches the
summit of a long range of hills, and then the slope is in the
opposite directicn and toward the Columbia. The general name
given to it is Sunnyside. Below the reservation and on the
opposite side of the Yakima river from Sunnyside, is a somewhat
similar tract of country known as “Horse Heaven.” It being a
good range and largely occupied by horses. The Cascade branch of

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124 EASTERN AND WESTERN WASHINGTON.

the Northern Pacifie railroad is constructed up the Yakima river,
and, like the stream itself, passes through the numerous valleys,
This section yields large crops of grain, hay, hops, vegetables and
fruits, also tobacco, flax, broom-corn and sugar-cane. It has a
mild climate and fertile soil.”

The Palouse, the Spokane and the Colville countries are,
in one way and another, equal to the Yakima. The Palouse
will produca much more grain, but less fruit, and so will the
Spokane. And the Colville country is quite rich in lead and
silver, with some gold, and has much fertile soil, with a superior
stock range.

But the Walla Walla country is naturally the best of all
the sections, it being hardly surpassed anywhere in the world
as a general farming and fruit country.

In the foothills of the Blue mountains the soil was eqval
to the virgin soil of Illinois, and the climate generally much
more congenial in winter. About six weeks is the average
time that the ground is too much frozen to plow. It catches
more of the warm chinook winds than any other section.

Apple and peach trees bear in three years from the seed,
and there are localities where corn, melons, tomatoes and other
vines grow and bear in great abundance.

The Umatilla section in Eastern Oregon is considered as
belonging to the Walla Walla country. The Grand Ronde
valley, in the Blue mountains in Eastern Oregon, will compare
favorably to the Palouse country in Washington. And the
Boise country in Idaho is similar to the Yakima in its climate,
soil and productions.

Western Oregon is very similar, though larger and
superior to Western Washington as a farming country. But
it is older, and its timber and mineral resources are not as
great as those of Western Washington.

Oregon originally embraced the whole region from California
Nevada and Utah to Alaska, and from the Pacific ocean to the
Rocky mountains, and the Columbia river was named “Oregon.”

The water may be said to be universally good throughout
the whole Northwest.

“Where rolls the Oregon, and hears no sound,
Save his own dashings.”

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