, 1884-02-28
WILDLY ISLAND

Communicated.l
WILDLY Island is one of the largest
islands on Puget Sound, and one of the
trst places settled, aud is less known To-
day than most of the new places thar
nave sprung into prominence lately on
account of the great rush of immigrants
TO the government lands of this great
Northwest.
WILDLY is surrounded by good nayi-
gable waters; all steamers from Seattle to
Port Townsend have to pass along one
side of it, while the steamers from Seat
tie to Sehome run nearly half of their
whole distance on the other side; and
yet settlers, who are anxious to get as
near to water outlet as possible, will
go from ten to twenty miles back into
the woods and take claims that are as
hard to clear, as those lying vacant
on this grand old island. People travel
on the boats looking at tie country.
ana are not aware of the excellent
opportunities held out to settlers by this
island; that the many rare privileges for
settlement have never been publicly set
forth by old WILDLY, is too true. Look
ing from the decks of the steamers they
see nothing but woods until they reach
Coupeville; and SO, they naturally come
to the conclusion t hat it is a desert
place as far as being inhabitable by man
Is concerned. From Coupeville the
prairies of Penn's Cove can be seen; a
portion of Oak Harbor shows finely from
the boats, and Crescent Harbor can he
viewed nearly in full, from there until
the boat leaves the island. After going
through that narrow cut in the rocks
known as Deception Pass, the wilderness
is nearly unbroken; but let the stranger
leave the boat after going through the
pass and travel the few roads the island
has, and he will be surprised at the pleas
ant homes and cultivated farms that he
will see, and this, most unexpectedly.
At Dougulla there are several peat marsh
farms; and it is one OF the finest dairy
sections in the world. Oak Harbpr is
composed mostly of natural prairiGs and
peat marsh. Coveland is natural prai-
rie One mile back from Coupeville
commences Ebey's prairie, the richest of
the island, and the largest body of agri-
curtural land therein contained. This
prairie produces abundantly of hay. oats,
barley, wheat and potatoes. South of
Ebey's is Smiths prairie. the place where
the best wheat for -four is grown on Pu-
get Sound. From there south to Skagit
Head many of the old settlers know but
little of, and that little only by hearsay
A few new settlers have lately gone into
Useless Bay country, and no doubt they
will be the means of bringing many of
their friends also; but that is but drop
iii the bucket. Scattered along the
whole length of the island are small
marshes, alder bottoms, spruce bottoms,
&c, that would make great many com
Portable homes for hundreds of poor
mortals who would be willing to work
hard and live cheap if they could get
away from six months frost that are SO
terrible that the life of man and beast
alike are not only made burden to
them, but the brittle thread is often
snapped asunder-irozen short off as it
were; and then four of the remaining six
months are so filled with heated air and
blistering suns rays, that which did not
freeze to death is in imminent danger of
being struck dead if il 5a-c to be so fool
hardy as to show itself out of doors.
God is to be thanked for the cool sum-
mers and warm winters of old WILDLY.
The question will be naturally asked
why then, if you have such opportuni-
ties and fine climate, is your land still
unsettled? We answer, because there is
curse resting on us, tat was PLAGUED
there by Uncle Sam % years ago, in the
shape of 81 % an acre entry by corpor-
ations. Land companies, &c. ,gobbled US
up, and here we are and likely to remain
SO in great measure, unless We should
be favored by the God of politics so as
to get legislatures composed of men wise
enough (or women) to pass law that
makes tax title good enough to permit
the owner to hold the land after it had
been improved and become valuable.