Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1892-08-04
ABERDEEN, WASHINGTON.
As Seen Through the Eyes of the I'll
herman.


AS Seen Through the Eyes of the Tim
herman.
The Timberman, one of the best of the
lumber trade journals, devoted page
last week to illustrations of saw-mill,
ship-building and logging scenes in and
around Aberdeen, and accompanied the
illustrations with these comments:
"Those who have not visited the young
state of Washington, Witnessed the OPP
peration Of its mills and penetrated its
forests, have but a feeble conception of
what those resources are and to what an
extent they are being utilized.
Washington is usually thought of as
the Puget Sound country, that beautiful
and extended system of interior channels
by which Seattle, Tacoma and other i'm
portant Washington cities are reached
from the Pacific ocean through the long
passage of the straits of Juan de Fuca,
but there is one other first class harbor
and one city which lies for natural out
let of the products OF southwestern Wash
ington. This is Grays Harbor, and the
city is Aberdeen. The city is at the head
of Grays Harbor and at the mouth of the
Chehalis river, and through it flows the
Wishkah, which comes in from the north
with deep and steady flow. Aberdeen
is sixteen miles from the bar on which
the depth OF water at low tide is 90
feet, but as the rise of the tide is from
eight to fourteen feet, the heaviest vessels
that float find an easy entrance to this
magnificent land locked bay. At Aber-
deem, the water is itself from 80 to 20 feet
in depth and the double river frontage
gives ample wharf and dock facilities.
The timber supply naturally tributary to
Aberdeen or its neighboring towns is so
great. and yet accurate figures are SO
difficult to obtain, that one hesitates in
stating estimates made. One is that this
timber directly tributary to Aberdeen
| amounts to S0,000,000,0 900 feet. This
wonderful forest wealth. whatever its
actual amount may be, is still practically
untouched and promises, perhaps for
generations. to supply through this nat
ural outlet and by this short and direct
route foreign markets and California.
The saw mill business has been carried
on for some time past at Aberdeen in a
small way but it is within the last four
years that the city has come into COM
mercial prominence and that its saw
mills have attracted attention.
The largest plant is that of J. M.
Weatherwax & Company, the production
of which is about $4,000 feet day.
The firm owns about $4,000 acres of fine
timber land close at hand, which has
hot yet been touched by the ak. With a
river frontage of half mile this firm is
wonderfully we'll situated for both receiv-
ing logs and shipping the product OF their
mill. A ship yard is one of the Aber-
deem industries and from this place was
sent last fall a fine three masted schooner
which was given the name OF the 81. M.
Weatherwax," which name is even more
familiar in Michigan than in Washington
or Oregon.
Aberdeen, while not doomed in as ex-
travagant manner as have bee some OF
the other cities of Washington, has had
remarkable growth in population and
in municipal improvements and its gen.
eral trade. So advantageously located
with a virgin forest on one hand and a
natural harbor and the Pacific ocean
close on the other, Aberdeen, blessed
with such magnificent public spirited
citizens as have pushed it to prominence,
seems bound to be one of the leading
cities of the Pacific coast, and certainly
with it's immense timber resources,
brought cheaply to its mills by two fine
rivers and its exceptionally fine shipping
facilities, Aberdeen lumbermen should
occupy a constantly increasing place IN
the lumber trade of the coast"