Part 25

Agriculture in all its branches, lumbering and kindred pursuits, and the mining of precious metals and building stones make up its chief sources of wealth.

AGRICULTURE.

The farms in the Colville valley are noted for their heavy hay crops, producing abundantly all the cereals, including corn, the clovers, timothy and alfalfa.

Dairying and stock-raising are important industries. To these the climate and soils are well adapted. Some lands have been irrigated with great benefit, but the bulk of the farming is successful without irrigation.

Fruit-raising is receiving deep interest of late, and the county bids fair to compete for honors with the very best localities in the state for the hardier fruits.

Lumbering and saw-milling engage the attention of a large number of the people, the product of the mills finding a ready market in the farming region, large cities and mining camps.

Mining of the precious metals is a growing and an attractive industry. The ores include gold, silver, lead, copper, tungsten and iron, while quarries of limestone, marble, onyx, fire-clay, etc., abound.

TRANSPORTATION.

In addition to the navigable waters of the Columbia and Pend d'Oreille rivers, which traverse the outskirts of the county, the Great Northern railway through the Colville valley from the southern to the northern boundary, reaches most of the agricultural and mining centers and renders good service. The western part of the county, comparatively undeveloped, deserves much more attention.

PRINCIPAL CITIES AND TOWNS.

COLVILLE is both the county seat and principal town in the county, having a population of 1,600 people, and is a growing town, a distributing center on the railroad, surrounded by prosperous farming communities.

NORTHPORT is the center of much mining activity and has a large smelter for the reduction of ores of the precious metals. It has a population of 1,200.

CHEWELAH is a center of agriculture, mining and lumbering industries in the center of the county, having about 1,000 people.

NEWPORT, in the southeastern part of the county, is an important agricultural distributing center. A dozen other smaller towns offer great opportunities to the homeseeker.

Thurston county is known as having the state capital, Olympia, within its borders, and as including the extreme southern reaches of Puget sound. It is a county of wooded hills and valleys with a few open prairies well watered by mountain streams, chief of which is the Nisqually, which forms its dividing line from Pierce county, and the Des Chutes river, which makes a splendid waterfall of some 85 feet, a few miles south of Olympia. It has an area of about 700 square miles, 100 miles of salt-water shore, a population of about 20,000, and a delightful climate and magnificent scenery of lofty mountains; great expanse of inland salt water, and green-clad islands and fields in every direction.

RESOURCES.

The county is one of the oldest settled portions of the state, and has a great variety of natural resources, among which are its timber areas, its agricultural fields, its coal mines, its fisheries, including clam and oyster beds, gray sandstone quarries, and a great variety of clays.

INDUSTRIES.

The sawmills of the county are still a very important industry and shiploads of lumber are sent out from its wharves. All the cereals and grasses yield abundant crops; root crops are extensive; fruit of great variety and fine flavor is very prominent. Dairying is flourishing, the county having more dairies than any other in the state. Coal mining is in its infancy, but has progressed far enough to demonstrate the existence of vast areas of lignite coal, having some six veins and having a combined thickness of 61 feet of coal. About 50,000 sacks of oysters are annually marketed.

TRANSPORTATION.

The Northern Pacific railway connects Olympia with all the important Sound ports and the east, and all the transcontinental roads coming to the Sound from the south will pass through the county. Together with its salt-water deep harbors, these give the county splendid competition and variety of commercial facilities.

PRINCIPAL CITIES.

OLYMPIA, the chief town of the county, at once the county seat, state capital and county metropolis, is situated on one of the deep-water inlets of Puget sound. Its population is about 12,000. While it has a beautiful sandstone structure, now used for capitol purposes, the state is about to erect a new capitol building, to cost $1,000,000. The foundation is already built. Olympia has one of the U. S. land offices and the U. S. surveyor-general's office. It is lighted and furnished with power for street-car and other purposes from the power of Tumwater falls. The city is a beautiful one of fine homes, shaded streets and parks, surrounded by a very prosperous agricultural community, [Page 86] producing great quantities of fruit, dairy and poultry products.

Several other smaller towns on the railroads are local centers of commercial activity.

WAHKIAKUM COUNTY

Wahkiakum is a small county, having only 275 square miles of territory, located on the Columbia river in the southwestern corner of the state, near the ocean. Its population is about 4,000. The county is heavily timbered and well watered. In many parts of the county the soil is exceptionally fertile. The climate is mild, but somewhat humid. In the northern part are some low mountains, from which the drainage is south through the county to the Columbia river.

RESOURCES.

The resources of the county consist in its timber, its fertile soil, and the fish in the river and ocean.