The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1892-03-02
Our Washington Letter.
Concluded.

o'clock, this city being l24 miles
west of Spokane, and nearly in the
! center of the "Big Bend" country.
Some idea of the size of the Big
Bend country can be gained by con-
sulting the proper statistics, when
you will find that it includes four
counties; Douglas, with 1000 square
miles, Lincoln with 2,l50 square
' miles, Adams with 1000 square mi,
and Franklin with $50 square mi
Thus it viii be seen that the Big
Bend country contains more square
miles than any two of the New
England States, maine excepted
Coulee Cily is quite business lit
tie town; just a little more than a
year old, with population Of about
500; containing three general mer-
ehandise stores, two hotels, besides
several restaurants, one feed and
grain store, two blacksmith shops,
two livery stables, two. drug stores.
l am sorry to report the remainder
of our industries, but as the bitter
always goes with the sweet, | will
put them down also: Two fine gid
ed saloons and gambling dens COM
bined. Yet it is sad to say, they
have never had church or school
house until now; they are finishing
a splendid school house at cost of
$500, but no prospect of church
as yet.
Coulee City is situated in what
is called "the grand Coulee;" de-
scripti0n of which would certainly
interest your readers. AS this arti-
Gle is longer already than | expected
it to be, / will only hint few of its
many strange features. Its a great
depression in the earth, running
North and South; averaging about
1900 feet deep, 70 miles long and 6
miles wide, with solid rock walls on
each side hundreds of feet high,
then drops back into terraces to the
top. In the bottom of the Coulee,
in various places, are great vaults,
partly filled with water, which
81 makes the prettiest lakes you ever
sasv. Some of them are nearly IA
mile long and several hundred feet
wide; the water is as clear us crys-
tai, and SO far below the surface
that the wind seldom makes a
wave on their peaceful bosoms,
The depth of many of them are I'M
known. One OF them three miles
South of here, measures 400 feet
from the surface to the edge of the
water. There are many different
opinions as to the cause of this Won
derful freak of \ ature; but the most
> generally accepted theory is, that
it is the result of an immense vol
cano, which erupted thousands of
years ago and left chasm, the aw-
fulness of which the mind of men
could not describe, If it could have
been seen before the wear of ages
had wrought such great change
upon it. 1t seems that the lava had
run back into the. chasm at this
place, making a great fill and caus-
ing the walls to slope back gently
to the top, forming what they call a
pass, which is the only crossing
place for distance of forty miles
North and thirty miles South of
here. Conseqi emily several wagon
roads cross at this place and the
, prospects are that several railroads
will soon cross here also, judging
from the number of railroad outfits
that are pouring in here on every
train.
This is certainly a great stock
country. Thousands of horses and
cattle run on the range the year
round without any attention what
ever, and come out in good condi-
ton iD the spring, unless the winter
is severe and the snow unusually
. deep, in that case many of them
die of course, but we are told that
such winters seldom come. This
/, has been so far, the incest winter l
ever saw.
: The whole earth has been cover
-, ed with snow ,abCut.a foot deep ever
since the 29th daXofDecember, and
they are driving in and butchering
good beeves every day that never
was fed bite in their lives. But il
will not be wondered at when you
see some of the famous "bunch
grass" that so much has been said
about, a sample of which will send
! YOU with this article. Twill request
J you to keep it at your office, 50 oul
friends who read this article car
get To see ii.
This is indeed,a strange country il