Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1891-04-09
SUBSTANTIAL ABERDEEN.
tFrom the Tocoma Ledger.l,

Ite CildfdCttI iStiCo VI tiic uCW tO"h -,
Aberdeen, the SUPPORT entry Of Grays
h..rbor, which is attracting today vide
spread attention the length and breadth
Of the country Would-ba investors and
home sc, kers saw ''the picture you give
Of the town is very pleasing. 1t looks,
OH paper, like a very desirable place
wherein to spend my money, or it seems
just the place for me to settle if things
are really us you describe them. But
have you, Mr.. Ledger man, looked be-
meath the surface of these things? Is
there any reason why Aberdeen should
be any more Of town a year hence than
she is today?" Yankee-like, I .nswer
the questions with a question. If Aber-
deem became busy manufacturing town
Of 5000 souls without railroad does it
seem probable that with direct franspor-
tation facilities to and from the wheat
and coal fields of the eastern part IT the
state, u railroad that will shorten the
route to the markets of the world by
hundreds of miles, and by saving time
ave money, is it probable, 1 re. eat
hat Aberdeen, at the head Of harbor
navigation, with room at the wharves
for = hundred ships, will retrogade in
stead of going forward?
Glance at the map Sc" the six rivers
that empty into Grays harbor. Follow
their winding course to the very sources
Il their being. Trace line about them
xhicI, will include all the territory that
hey drain, and then say to yourself that
-ountry is directly tributary to Grays
harbor, for is it not tapped by the rivers
entering into the harbor. Then measure
he country within your tracings. Meas
ire it AS carefully as possible and com
,ute the amount of land these rivers
Train, and you will find that the
answer to your problem looks something
like this: 1929 900 acres. Estimate the
AMOUNT of timber on this land and the
figures will astound you. Nearly So ,000,-
10000 feet of uncut timber ready to fall
and roll into these six rivers that flow
20 placidly into Grays harbor. So much
has been written about the forest growth
Of Washington that there is little new to
add. To these who have not seen it the
figures seem incredible.
According to the census OF 1880. there
was standing in the three states of Wis
consin, Miz nesota and Michigan, "a, 17O,-
JO0, 900 feet of timber An expert puts
he amGant Sut in the same states during
the past tel sgears at 74,463, 054 $40 feet,
which would leave still uncut less than
10, 900, 0O0, 900 feet OF white pine in the
three states, about one-eighth Of the
amount of merchantable timber which
is directly tributary to Grays harbor.
Captain Ainsley. a settler on the Che
pals prairie, has quarter section in
township 10 north, range II, west, one
acre Of which he recently cleared for
building purposes. Upon that acre
there were twenty-three fir trees which
will cut feet inches square for a
length of $50 feet. On that one acre
there were more than 100000 feet #
Understandable lumber, to say nothing of
posts, piling and firewood. This is an
average acre Of the entire quarter. SO
that there must be about 80, 00O, 900 feet
Of timber an Mr.. Ainsley's land.
1t is not claimed that all this vast
tract OF country is tributary to Aberdeen
alone, but it is ali around about Aber-
deem, and with more mills ard wood
working factories than any other town
on the harbor she can well lay claim to
the supremacy in the industry, which is
now and for many years to come will be
the chief industry of the new state. The
manufacturing and marketinting of this
vast amount of timber can alone create
at Aberdeen city larger than any in
the state today.
With constantly increasing population,
requiring vast amounts Of food products,
tho farms along the ,hehalis and to the
north of the harbor must be brought
to the highest state Of productiveness to
SUPPLY this new demand. Chehalis
county presents a strange blending of
the old and the new. In the Valleys and
over the prairies are farms that have
been worked for forty years, andpeople
living in moss-covered houses who were
here before Washington was territory.
The next neighbor to these settlers is
perhaps new conner who lives only a
quarter of mile away, but in the woods.
His house is new. of rough lumber, with
a little cleared spot around it. Year
after year he chops and burns, and the
new settlers land will in time be as
valuable as the farm of the old timer.
His old time neighbor got the land that
needed no clearing, but in the early DAYS
Of his life the products were worth but