Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1890-07-03
A Grand Row Of Volcanoes that Once
LIT Up the Pacific Coast.

tanned the grandest array of llghthous-
es on this coast that the world has ev-
er seen. They were row of grand
volcanoes, beginning with Shasta, il
northern California, IA ,442 feet high;
| then Hood in Oregon IL ,225 feet, St
Heeus $3.50, Adams $3.50, Tacoma IA :
444, Baker TO- 800 feet, all in the new
state of Washington, and Mount ST.
| Elias, II $50 feet in Alaska. All these
| were once volcanoes and their fires H.
| lumined the Pacific for mauy miles,
making a scene grander than aDy wit
messed by mortal eye and equalled only
by the mighty spectacles portrayed In
song and story by the sublime imagin-
| ations of Milton or of Dante.
While these grand beacons were
burning and possibly before their fires
were kindled, mighty forests of frond
and fern grew, and in the progress OF
time and nature were converted into
| coal beds Of vaster extent aud depth
than any found elsewhere. At some
I
nature tore open that great seam III
the side of the continent now known
as Puget Sound, and formed haTbor
more :han $50 miles long whose waters
average from 200 to 700 feet deep and
| whose shores are so bold that an ocean
vessel may tie up to the trees along
| them at almost any point. Later the
fires from the volcanoes became ex-
tinct. Winthrop says he saw an occas-
sional light from St. Helen's in 1859,
and the older settlers on the coast claim
to have seen a blaze from Bakers even
more recently. But as spectacle
these mountains have long since chang
ked from blazing cones to silent, snow
covered peakes-the pillars of cloud of
modern day, instead ofthe pillars of fire
they were IN the darker ages long since
ended.
The volcano and the earthquake, the
sublime and the terrible, have given
place to the grand and beautiful, and
on the same majestic scale which ma
ture has always done business on this
part of the coast. In place of the i'm
penetraole jungles of frond and ferns
which ages ago were converted into
coal beds from ten to twentyfOur feet
thick which now underlie whole town
ships near this city, large part of the
west end of the state is now covered
with forests of fir and cedar. Many
of the trees grow to height of 800 feet
and all are as straight as arrows. In
some places they grow so thickly to-
gether that their scanty tops shut out
the sunlight. Mr.. J. r. Mcdonald, an
old lumberman, says he has counted
100 trees on single acre which would
average 5000 feet of lumber each.
Some of these fir trees are eight and
nine feet through at the stump and
where they stand thickest have no
Iimb bs for the first 100 to 10 feet. A
single beam for the keelson of a ship
was sawed from one of these trees one
day last month by one of the Tacoma
mills, that was 135 feet long and 1oxl2
inches in size from end to end.
Everything else that grows at all in
this part of the state grows on the
same grand scale. The valley lands
are the richest, though the uplands
when cleared Of The timber grow very
fine crops. The valleys, are covered
with a dense growth of alder, vine,
maple and under brush of various sorts
ami when cleared of this yield four
tons of hay, so bushels of wheat or 12O
bushels of oats per acre. Hops are al
so grown extensively and yield from
1900 to 1000 per pounds per acre. But
comparatively little of this land is get
under cultivation, and that near the
cities is largely devoted to fruit raising
and gardening. This is the strawb ber-
ry season and the berries now coming
tern gardener. Many of them measure
four and five inches in circumference
each, and now and again one is found
that measures seven and eight. This
ed any season III strawberry time.
Other berries grow with equal thrift
and in great profusion. Last year j.
p. Stewart banker at Puyalup, nine
miles from this city, sold 100000
worth of raspberries from one and one
sixth acres. The larger fruits are chiefly
pears, plums, prunes, peaches and APP
plies. Pears and prunes especially
thrive here and nearly every tree has
to be stayed up with props to sustain
its load. AS much as $500 worth of
prunes have been sold in one year
from single acre.
Vegeta bles such as grow no where
else are raised here. One gardner near
Tacoma pays $50 per acre per year
ground rent for his garden and still
makes handsome money. He has rails
ed $50 bushels of potatoes per acre.
Last year he sold over S700 worth of
celery from single acre and this year
hopes to get $500 worth. r. F. Rade-
baugh, proprietor the Ledger, says he
picked green peas in nis garden as late
has as Christmas, after having them
all summer. A gentleman
residing on d street in this city has
small garden on lots adjoining his
house. from which he keeps himself
with fresh vegetables ALWAYS