The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-07-31

and when the Northern Pacific railroad
lands are thrown on the market there will
be cheap homes for the thousands in this
rapidly-growing country.
LAUNDERING is yet the chief industry, as
the profits in this business have largely
monopolized public attention. The
amout OF saw timber in Gray's harbor
basin seems fabulous An old-timer, who
! has fingered" carefully on those things,
claims that of the 1000 square miles in
/ the Gray's harbor basin, half or 1000
square miles is good timber, with an aver
| age of 5,000,00 TO the claim or 20,000,000
to the square mile. This would make a
total of 10000, 100000 feet-an amount that
would equal the entire consumption of the
| United States for two and half years.
! There are several great mills on the har-
Dor with an aggregate capacity OF half
million feet per day. Now, should these
4 mills run steadily 500 DAYS in the year, at
/ full capacity, il would take 1873 wears to
/ convert this timber into lumber. Run
! ming as they do now, under tarif-pro-
! lection combination, it would take them
/ 250 years.
| Owing to many rivers, creeks, brooks
| and draws that penetrate nearly every
section of timber in the basin which, dur
/ ing freshets, will float logs to the harbor,
! logging can be done here cheaper than in
/ any other belt in the West. Then the
] logs are secure from toredo or other de-
stroying elements. This, with cheaper
! towage and the difference in the nearness
/ to markets on the harbor gives the mills
/ on the harbor great advantage in COM
! petition for the trade, and VIII aid mate
rally in the development of the lumber
! interests in this section of country. There
! are excellent sites for hundred mills on
I h hi
! where lumber can be made so as to COM
pete in the coast or foreign trade, with
/ about 81 per thousand advantages over
/ any other region.
The fish industry of the harbor prom
! ises to become one of great importance.
! Already there are salmon canneries at
| Aberdeen, Cosmosolis and Montesano,
which turn out $4,000 cases per year. For
halibut and cod, there is hardly better
fishing ground than off the mouth of
| Gray's harbor.
There are now four active and prosper
! GUS towns on the harbor and its tide wa
| tiers. Hoquiam is located at the mouth of
the river of that name on the north side
and some eight miles from the harbor's
| entrance. 1t is an active town of four or
| five hundred population, has fine saw
MILL a large wholesale establishment, car
rying dry goods, groceries, hardware, etc. :;
limited ship-building industry, and in
general a promising future. Based upon
the hope of a railroad in the near future
there is considerable activity IN real estate
business This town has one of the best
local newspapers in the territory. About
four miles east on the same side of the
harbor and at the mouth of the Wishkah
is the town of Aberdeen, prettily built on
the tide lands, with four large saw-mills, a
salmon cannery and a foundry. 1t has
water works and is lighted by electricity,
and is in every way very prosperous and
enterprising town. 1t has two newspa-
pers, and, of course, expects railroad.
Cosmopolis is three miles above Aber-
deem on the south side of the harbor. 1t
has pretty town site, a very fine saw
mill, a good hotel and the best wharfs in
the state of Washington. 1t has popula-
ton OF about two hundred souls.
Montesano is the county seat and chief
town of Chehalis county, and is situated
on the north bank of the Chebalis river,
at the head of tide water navigation on
! Gray's harbor. No city in the West has a
more beautiful location. The site is on an
| open prairie laying back of the river front,
fringed by giant forest ascending by gen.
tie declivities to hight of several hun
dred feet. 1t is beautifully built with
plenty of room for expansion. 1t has five
good hotels, strong bank, an academy,
churches, schools, factories, a tannery,
restaurants, saloons and other western
"conveniences" From twenty-five to
forty houses are being built, but more are
needed Almost within the city limits
there are millions of feet of cedar and
| hemlock being destroyed, which has great
value if utilized, so a shingle factory, a
sash, door and molding factory, another
tannery to use the hemlock bark, would
be good investment. There is also a
great demand for a good saw-mill at this
point, with an excellent site on the water
front just above the wharf. A good mill
here would find good local market for its
products and would save 80 cents per thou
| sand which the booming company below
charges on all logs passing to the harbor.
Large inducements are now being Of
| fered for the establishment of the indus
tries above mentioned, so that Montesano
| promises to be an industrial center of no
small pretentions. There is cash in the
county treasury to pay for the erection of
a fine court house, the contract for which
is let; strong company for putting in
water works has been organized; and in
| side of another month the town will be
well lighted with electricity.
| cannot now express more clearly my
| opinions as to the merits OF MOntesano, as
a commercial and industrial center, than
did some weeks ago in a leading journal,
to-wit:
1t is suggested by the critics and croakers
| that Montesano is ''too far up the river" 'too
far from the broad waters of the harbOr." But
ships that come to other points in the barbor
| can come to Montesano. While the river is not
very broad, it is deep and the channel changes
very little The distance to the mouth of the
| harbor is short and vessels go out single
| tide. The wealth that goes out for the worlds
trade comes from the interior. Water is
| cheaper than land transportation. The laws of
| trade place commercial towns near the in
| terror as can be reached by the cheaper method
Of transportation.
London, the mightiest city ever erected by
| the genius toll of man, is away up the
| Thames, river but little broader than the Che
halls and which requires constant dredging
| Glasgow, one of the worlds great commercial
| centers, is twenty miles up the narrow Clyde
| Cork is twenty-five miles up the river Lee;
Antwerp over thirty miles up the narrow
! Bangor is up the narrow Penobscot and New
Orleans seventy miles up the Mississippi. Al
| most constant dredging is necessary TO enable
the worlds commerce to reach the worlds COM
mercal centers, and ships in the most of these
waters are turned by the aid of tugs. OF course
| this reasoning is weakened when we remember
| that those cities were founded before the heavy
draft vessels; but the Chehalis may be dredged
and made navigable for any ship that now en-
ters Puget sound for small fraction of what it