Part 21

TRANSPORTATION.

The Northern Pacific railway reaches Willapa harbor, cutting the county centrally east and west. On the long ocean beach from the mouth of the Columbia river northward is a railroad about 20 miles long, made profitable by the extensive patronage of the summer campers. Added to these are the water crafts which frequent the harbor and the Columbia river, and altogether make access to all parts of the county easy.

CITIES AND TOWNS.

SOUTH BEND, the county seat, situated near the mouth of the Willapa river, is a rapidly growing town of 3,000 people and destined to become an important ocean port. The harbor is capacious, well protected, has fine anchorage, and is handicapped only by a few feet of mud at the bottom, which Uncle Sam will soon remove. At low tide there is now from 20 to 30 feet of water in the channel of the river and at South Bend it is 1,000 feet wide. South Bend is the terminus of the Northern Pacific railway. It has electric lights, water works, good schools, fine churches, bank, sawmills, planing-mills, sash and door factories, fish canneries, newspapers, etc., and is about to build a $50,000 courthouse.

RAYMOND, a new manufacturing town on the harbor and railroad, a few miles from South Bend, has 2,500 people and is rapidly growing in importance. Raymond is not yet five years old; has a monthly payroll of $100,000; sawmills and factories representing an invested capital of $4,900,000, employing 1,200 men; an electric light plant; a city telephone system, owned by local capital; a salt-water fire protection system; is about to build two bridges, costing $30,000 each, and is adding new manufacturing plants at the rate of one a month. The city gives free factory sites, and has both rail and ocean transportation from factory locations to the markets of the world.

ILWACO is a fishing post of importance near the southwest shore of the county, with 900 population.

CHINOOK, FRANKFORT and KNABTON are other fishing points on the Columbia river of importance. NAHCOTTA is an ocean summer resort.

Pierce county, though not the largest, is one of the most important counties in the state. Its area of 1,800 square miles occupies much of the upper reaches of Puget sound on both sides and extends southeasterly, taking in the Rainier National Park of 2,225,000 acres, and Mount Rainier (Tacoma) 14,526 feet above sea level and less than 60 miles from salt water, covered with eternal snow, an endless scene of majestic grandeur, giving the county a greater variety of elevations and more beautiful and startling scenery than any other county in the United States. Its northeastern boundary is the White river, its southwestern boundary the Nisqually river. It has about 125 miles of salt-water shore lands, with innumerable bays and inlets and several important islands. Originally one vast forest, much of it now is covered with fruitful fields of grain, grass and orchards.

Its climate is mild and salubrious, its soils of great variety and fertility, and its mountains and foothills full of coal and precious metals.

RESOURCES.

The resources of Pierce county are varied and of great value. Its central part is one great coal field, covered with forests, producing annually about 1,000,000 tons of coal. Gold, silver and copper are among its precious metals, but not extensively mined as yet.

Its rivers possess almost immeasurable water power. One plant on the Puyallup river at Electron has an ultimate capacity of 40,000 horse-power, 20,000 horse-power of which is now in use. The city of Tacoma is engaged in the construction of a plant on the Nisqually for municipal use, the capacity of which will be 20,000 horse-power. The 12,000 horse-power plant at Snoqualmie Falls also furnishes current for city lighting, street railway and manufacturing purposes in Tacoma.

All the cereals are successfully raised; dairying is one of the most important industries; fruit-growing, particularly in small fruits, such as strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, cherries, etc., is very profitable and is engaging a great deal of attention. Fish are caught in quantities and shipped to eastern markets, but Pierce county's greatest natural wealth is in its vast forests. An idea of the value can be had when it is said that $6,000,000 worth of lumber was cut in 1908 in Tacoma alone. In addition to these great natural resources, Pierce county's commercial industries are so great as to place it in the front rank of counties of the Northwest. The great sawmills, woodworking plants and factories of various kinds in the city of Tacoma alone employ 11,800 people, and the value of their output last year amounted to over $43,000,000.00.

TRANSPORTATION.

Pierce county is fast becoming a network of transcontinental railroads centering in Tacoma, which, coupled with the steamboat traffic on the Sound, gives the county splendid traffic facilities. Pierce county [Page 75] for years was a non-competitive railroad point, the Northern Pacific being the only road to enter its vast fields of wealth. Within the last two years, however, the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, the Union Pacific system, and the Great Northern, realizing the wealth of the county and the importance of Tacoma as a manufacturing center, the value of her perfect harbor for shipping, the vastness of her great stretch of level tidelands for factory sites and terminal yards, and the low cost at which freight can be transferred from the rails to the sails or vice versa, have entered the field and are now spending $11,000,000 on construction and terminal work in the city of Tacoma. The addition of these new roads means a wonderful impetus to the trade of Tacoma. The Tacoma Eastern railroad, a beautiful scenic route, beginning at Tacoma, runs in a southeasterly direction through a wonderfully fertile country and vast forests of splendid timber, to Rainier National Park and Mount Rainier (Mt. Tacoma). Several trolley lines are in operation, reaching all the near-by towns and connecting Tacoma and Seattle.

In addition to these lines, many steamboats and crafts of all kinds, plying the waters of Puget Sound and the Pacific ocean, find abundant wharfage and anchorage in the harbor of Tacoma. The products of the world in large quantities pass through Tacoma in process of distribution. A constant stream of small crafts, running about the waters of the county, accommodate the local traffic.

CITIES AND TOWNS.

TACOMA, with a population of about 125,000, is the county seat of Pierce county, and situated on Commencement bay. Its harbor, one of the finest in the world, and its railroad terminals, unexcelled on the Pacific Coast, as already indicated, are the center of a vast commerce by rail and water. At its door is an immense amount of water power, already developed, driving her street cars and the machinery in many of her factories. Coal and coke are in abundance within a few miles of the city, the coal being used extensively for steam and conveyed from the trains to the boats by immense electric bunkers. The coke is largely utilized in the largest lead and copper reduction plant on the coast. The great Guggenheim smelter at Tacoma reduces and turns out annually lead, copper, gold and silver worth about $10,000,000. Along her wharves are immense elevators, grain warehouses and flouring mills. Tacoma yearly ships out more grain than any other city on Puget sound. In and around the city are large saw and shingle mills, which last year cut 527,604,000 feet of lumber and 434,000,000 Shingles. Her factories and shops have $24,000,000 invested and employ 11,800 wage-earners, and her large flour mills ship their products to all parts of the world. Her packing-house products amounted to $5,000,000 in 1908. The largest car shops west of the Mississippi are located here. Her downtown streets are lined by large business blocks; she has 185 miles of street and suburban railway, and over 75 miles of paved streets.

PUYALLUP is one of Pierce county's prosperous towns, having about 7,000 population, in the wealthy Puyallup valley. This is the center or a great fruit-growing district, in which the farmers have combined and market their crops through an association, sending their berries in patent refrigerator cars into far-away markets. It is also quite a large manufacturing center, with a payroll of $45,000 per month.

BUCKLEY, with a population of 1,500, is the center of large sawmilling, farming and mining industries.

ORTING is a town with 800 people, chiefly engaged in gardening and farming. The State Soldiers' Home is located near, and adds considerable trade to the town.

SUMNER has a population of 1,000, is located in the Puyallup valley, and its people form a part of the farmers' association, engaged in fruit-growing, dairying and gardening.

STEILACOOM is one of the most beautiful little summer resort towns on Puget sound and is connected with Tacoma by two electric lines.

SYLVAN, GIG HARBOR, ROSEDALE, ELGIN, LONG BRANCH, BLANCHARD, and BEE are very prosperous villages of Pierce county, and are located on the shores of Puget sound.

SPANAWAY, EATONVILLE, ALDERTON, ELBE, MERIDIAN, KAPOWSIN, and MCMILLAN are villages in the interior, on the railroads.

WILKESON, SOUTH PRARIE, CARBONADO, FAIRFAX, PITTSBURG, and MELMONT are coal-mining towns of importance.

SAN JUAN COUNTY.

San Juan county is a group of islands lying between the waters of the Straits of Fuca and the Gulf of Georgia, off the southeast shore of Vancouver island. It has about 200 square miles of territory and about 4,500 people.