, 1883-08-23
East Of The Mountains.

Judge j. Il. Lewis has just return
ed to Seattle from trip to the Yak
ina country. He gave a PoSt-Intel-
HgeRcer reporter the following items:
YAKIMA CITY
Is growing rapidly, and number of
buildings are there being erected.
The surrounding country is settling
up at moderate rate. The hop
crop is very good this season, and
the wheat, hay, and oat crops are
unusually fine in the Yakima valley.
The business houses of Yakima city
are all prospering. The First Ma
tonal Bank of Yakima, of which l
have the honor to be president, has
erected very handsome building,
built sandstone vault, and placed
in it 4000lb. burglar-proof safe, of
the McNeale q Urban make. This
building and its fixtures cost $1,000.
Edward Whitson is vice-president
and cashier, and Joseph Fuerbach,
assistant cashier The capital stock
is $4,000, all paid up, and the bank
is very prosperous and doing good
business. which indicates general
prosperity. Yakima City has a
population of about 400 people;
has four churches, a good school
house, and better court house than
King county. The county is very
large, and will be divided at the next
session of the Legislature. The
boundary line generally agreed upon
is halfway between Yakima City and
Ellensburg. The eastern half will
still be known as Yakima, with Yak
ina City for its county seat, and the
western half as Kittitas, with Ellens
burg as its county seat.
Between Ainsworth and the falls
of the Yakima the Northern Pacific
Railroad Company have 200 men at
work on the
CASCADE BRANCH
Driving west toward Snoqualmie
Pass. | learned that the force would
soon be greatly increased, and that a
twenty-five mile section would be
completed this fall. The people now
believe that the railroad company
really mean to build the Cascade
Branch, and are jubilant over the
prospects of SO soon being able to
reach Puget Sound by rail"
THAT DITCHING SCHEME.
"You will remember" said the
Judge, that about two years ago u
number of Seattle business men in
vested largely in lands in Yakima
county, under the United States des-
ert land laws, and are now arranging
to cut ditch sixty miles long from
a point on the Yakima river east of
the lower Yakima gap down through
large section of now unproductive
country. We have an engineering
party in the field running the lines
for the water way. By means of
this ditch we will reclaim at least
25O,000 acres of land which in its
present state is wholly unproductive,
but with irrigation can be made to
raise 35 or 40 bushels OF wheat to the
acre"
The country between Yakima
City and Ellensburg, with the ex-
ception OF the Wenas valley, is of
little account except for grazing. At
Ellensburg you strike the Kittitas
valley, extending along up the Yak
ina river for thirty miles, with an
average width of eight miles. This
is all good land, and d very large
portion OF it is fenced and improved
and will yield large crops this year.
1t is exceedingly we'll watered by the
Yakima river and its tributaries, and
there is excellent timber in the noun
tains from five to twenty miles dis
tant. From Ellensbrg, extending
east and north for a distance of from
ten to fifteen miles, is very extra
agricultural valley, which is remark