Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1898-09-02
THE YAQUINA APPROPRIATION.

Inc prospect Tor the letting of
the long-delayed contract for the
Improvement of Yaquina harbor is
getting very bright these days. In
last Sundays Oregonian there ap-
peared halt page of special corres-
pondence relative to the improve
ment of the harbor and the extern
sion of the railroad. Accompany
ing this article were three very COM
prehensive maps, one showing the
proposed extension of the jetties,
another the entrance to the harbor,
and the third a birds-eye view of
that portion of Oregon and Idaho
that will find an outlet for their
products at Yaquina when the rail
road is extended. From that arti.
Gle we take the following interesting
extracts:
Secretary Alger in his dispatch
to Hon. Thos. Tongue says, about
the time the plans for this work
were approved, May 9, 1898, the
officer in charge of the district was
ordered to report to San Francisco
to accompany the first troops to
the Philippines. de transferred
his duties to Major Fisk, who took
them additional to his own, but
who was obliged at time to proceed
to the mouth of the Columbia river,
where he has been for the past two
months experimenting the con-
struction of batteries and submarine
mine defenses. AS Major Fisk has
no military assistant he has been
obliged personally to do the practi-
cal work, and has not had time to
attend to the Yaquina bay improve
ment. have, however, this day
directed that the work be advertised
without further delay
This dispatch was dated some two
weeks ago, and the advertisements
for bids appeared August IS, in sew
eral leading papers of the Union.
Regarding the appropriations for
the Improvement of Yaquina hArbor
the board of engineers in 1895 sub
mitted the following estimates:
Main jetty, 400 feet long, at $50 7ss,OOO
Seven groins 100 feet long, at 500 per it, 10000
Inside spurs, 500 feet long, at $50 10000
wards, at $12 $4,000
For contingencies, 10 per cent 132, 800
Total s1,O25, 800
This is the estimated cost of 4Ioo
feet of jetty at place where the
rock is within 20 miles, and of wa
ter transportation.
J. G. Holcomb, the resident en-
gineer in charge of the Yaquina bay
harbor Improvements, says the esti-
mate of 81 900 is about one
third higher than the actual cost OF
the work will really be. Mr. Hol-
comb has made a study of Yaquina A
harbor and is recognized as an auth
ority upon engineering, hence when
he shows by estimates based upon a
careful study of this subject that
5000, 900 will be sufficient to COM
plete the work, and that when COM
pleted the largest of the tramp type
of steamers may enter the harbor-
for at high tide there will be full 25
feet of water over the bar-one may
safely rely upon the information.
The fact has been exploited but
sparingly that Yaquina bay is the
key to the development Of interior
Oregon east of the Cascades and
that vast empire beyond to the
Snake and Owyee valleys. The
old Eastern Oregon & Central rail
way, reorganized last March as the
Corvallis & Eastern, controls the
only passes through the Cascades
into Eastern Oregon and the blue
mountains into the Snake river val
ley and Idaho. The railway peo.
pie not only have located but have