The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-02-29
ALONG EACH VALLEY.
Sound Country to Be Grid
ironed With Railroads.
CHANCE LOST BY LAKE SHORE.
A Plan to Build Branches Up Each Main
Stream Rejected-Now Being Car
ried Out in Detail.

The railroad to be built from Hartford on the
Lake Shore road, to the Monte Cristo mines bids
fair to be the first OF a series of roads running
up to the heedwaters of the streams which rise
in the Cascade mountains and flow into tho
Sound on the east side. Beginning at the south,
the Northern Pacific has occupied the upper
Green river valley above Palmer and
is quietly doing good deal of
prospecting for coal up there. The Columbia &
Puget Sound runs from tide water ct this city
to franklin, on Green river. within three miles
OF the Northern Pacific at Palmer. The Lake
Shore road runs to the headwaters of the Sno-
qualmie The Great Northern occupies the
valleys of the snohomish and the south fork of
the skykomsh. The Monte Cristo road will run
up the south fork of the StiIlagua-
mish. 1t is understood that one of the
objects OF c. J. smith, general manager of
the Oregon Improvement Company, is to ar
range for the extension of the Seattle & North
ern road further up the Skagit valley and it Is
probable that this line will be built this sum-
ner, If he is successful The construction of
these lines would leave unoccupied in the coun-
try north of Seattle the valleys of the north
fork of the stillagunmish, the Sank and the
three forks of the Nooksack.
The extension of the Seattle & Northern
might take either of two routes after reaching
the confluence of the Skagit and the Sauk--up
the Sank to the Monte Cristo district, or up the
Skagit and the Cascade to the Cascade mining
district 1t is not likely that the Sank route
would be chosen when the main business to be
reached by it would be matter of competition
with the Monte Cristo road, and the Cascade
district, which is probably more ac-
cessible, is unprovided for. The lat
ter route also has other merits. A line from
the mines could be extended through the Cas-
cade pass to the Ruby mining district in Okan-
ogan county. The Northern Pacific already has
tr1fY ta ,-N,k
find 1t paying speculation to buy il, ii it is for
sale. An extension across the Cascade pass
would not only tap the Ruby district, but could
reach out still further to a connection with the
Washington Central. By carrying out such q
plan, the Northern Pacific would secure q
shorter line than that of the Great Northern
across the state, and would cut right into the
territory which President Hill eontemplates oc-
cupying
Two years ago it was perceived that the weak
ness of the Lake Shore ROAD to the north was
that it cut across the valleys, which are the nat
ural lines for the development OF a new coun-
try. instead of following any OF them. Conse-
Quently it could not alone draw to itself the
productions OF the country. Itself feeder of a
great system, it needed other feeders reaching
up and down every valley which cuts
through the rugged forest land between the
Sound and the Cascades, and drawing to it
the minerals from the mountains, the lumber
and agricultural products of the valleys 1t
was proposed to the financial hackers of the
road to occupy each one of these valleys, from
the Snoqualnie to the boundary, with feeder,
and thus secure the whole business OF tho
country between the Sound and the mountains.
They were not prepared to take up the propo-
sition, and when the Northern Pacific acquired
control of the Lake shore it was submitted to
that company. The Northern Pacific was not,
however, in a position to carry out
such an extensive project, and it was
laid on the shelf Had it been adopted
the Great Northern could not have secured the
favorable route down the skykomish south fork,
and the line to Monte Cristo would not be in
the hands of an independent corporation.
Though this programme was not followed out
as a whole by one company, it is being followed
in detail by several different companies, and the
result will be practically the same, far as the
public is concerned.