Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1899-03-31
GROWING GRANGEv|LLE.
The Coming Commercial Metropolis
Of the Clearwater Country.

Grangevilie becoming one of the
most important mining centcrs in
United States.
Tributary to Grangeville and
almost at its very gates, no matter
from which way you may enter the
city, there is II mineral belt the
extent and richness of which is
fast opening the eyes of he mining
world to its vast possibilities Of
mineral production. Unlike Den
yer, Spokane and other mining
cente,s, Grangeville is almost the
scene of mineral wealth, and one
does not have to 60 hundreds of
miles away to find the camps from
which the stream of golden wealth
pours.
! Grangeville is a hub around
which mineral belt circles that is
fast growing to be the wonder and
admiration of the world.
In five years Grangeville will be
the largest city in the state Of
| Idaho, and the output of the mines
of old Idaho county will reach into
the millions annually.
We have not only the mines, but
the agricultural lands of the great
and fertile Camas prairie immedi-
ately surrounding us, upon which
prodigious crops of every farm
product native to the temperate
zone can be grown in prodigious
quantities and of the finest quality
without irrigation. These vast
acres of fertile sol have lain dor
mant since the dawn of creation,
and it is now a certainty that they
will be taxed to their fullest pro-
ducing capacity to supply with food
products the great population COM
ing into our mountains by the
rapid development of the mines.
The possibilities are SO great as to
be beyond the power of the human
mind to estimate
Grangeville, as the central point,
the head of navigation, as it wer..,
occupies a wonderful opportunity
for commercial advancement, and
in the very near future will occupy
a position in the commercial world
not very far below that occupied by
Portland, Seattle, Spokane and
Helena.
At the outbreak of the Cpur
d Alene excitement in the fall of
1888, Spokane was in much the
same relative condition and had
about the same population and
business which we have in Grange
vile today. The Northern Pacific
railroad was completed that sum
mer, but without the wealth of the
CGur d'Alene mines which has
poured into her lap, it is problem
atical if the giant young metropolis
OF the north would ever have
amounted to much. The great
mines of the Cmur d Alene gave
Spokane her start in the world and
led to the prospecting and exploita-
ton of other mining districts which
still further enriched her. True,
Grangeville has not yet got her
transconiinental railroad. neither
have we the magnificent water
power as a basis for manufacturing
industries. But in every other
particular the advantages of
Grangeville can be compared with
those of Spokane in 1883.
II space permitted we could
particularize as to details. but it
must suffice for the present to state
that Grangeville and Spokane are
equally distant from lidewater and
that both are situated within
convenient outfitting istance of
their respective tributary
mining districts. We are
proud of Spokane. She has
grown to wealth and greatness out
of Idaho money, and SO far as w
are concerned she is welcome to
every dollar OF it. She has our
permission to monopolize the t.nde
of all the country north OF the
Clearwater river. But this is a
country of magnificent distances
and even more magnificent POSSIBLE
tiles, and we see in the near future
another great mart of trade growing
up at the feet OF the Bitter Root
and Salmon river mountains, on
the south side of the Clearwater
river, which will be a worthy sister
Of the commercial metropolis of
the North.
This has been our dream for
years and years. We realized from
the start that it was bound to
come, and while it has been long
delayed there is more than a good
prospect of our seeing it fully
reaching maturity in the prosper
GUS and ambitious young metropo-
lis of Growing Grangeville.
Rigley i'm Town.