The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1903-11-11
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER IL, 1908.
A MINNESOTA EDITORS
IMPRESSIONS OF YAKIMA
Interesting Write-Up of What He Saw
On a Recent Visit to
This City.

MlHHeSOld l%dhe, MILL, was u NlSlloT 10
the Yakima valley short time ago,
and gives the following impressions of
his trip:
During our travel to the Pacific coast
this month we visited great many diff
lerent cities and towns along the line
of the Northern Pacific but of no place
that we visited can we give better de-
scription and recommendation to those
that would like to live in the western
states than we can of the city of North
Yakima. Although we were there only
a short time. what we saw that was
done there we liked very well. OF
course things are much different there
than they are in Minnesota and other
places that we have resided in, but after
one gets accustomed to the ways of the
people he will think that there is no
place like this.
There are many things in that city
of 5000 people that impress a stranger.
He steps from the platform onto a &C.
ment platform 900 feet long, is confront
ed by park with green trees, green
grass and fountains, and walks toward
one of the most attractive depots on
the line of the Northern Pacific railroad.
Leaving the precincts of the station he
Is impressed by the generous width of
le streets and their well kept condi-
ton. They are macadamized in the
business portion of the town. Walking
towards his hotel he sees an imposing
monument erected by the Red Cross
society to the memory of the soldiers
of the local company who We're killed
during the late war with Spain.
His gaze is also directed to large
substantial. handsome business blocks,
many of which would be creditable to
a much larger city than this. To
illustrate this, during the year 1902
the total cost of the buildings erected
in the city and immediate suburbs was
in excess of $350,000; included in the
number were sixteen business blocks,
and nearly 200 dwellings, besides many
other buildings. In further elabora-
ton of these figures may be said that
$50 cars of building lumber, valued at
$375,OOO, were received and sold by
North Yakima lumber dealers during
the year of 1902.
All the farming in the Yakima val
ley is done by irrigation. The average
rainfall is from six to eight inches. The
valley is about so miles long. 1t runs
down through the foothills to the CO.
lumbia river from northwest to south
east 1t varies in width from two to
forty miles. Entering it at varioua
places are the valleys of smaller streams
tributary to the Yakima, the Naches,
Cowiche, Ahtanum and Wenas. Some of
these, though narrow, extend back for
thirty miles. There are probably sew
enty-five or more million acres of arid
land in the west that can be irrigated,
but generations will pass away before
this vast area will be reclaimed. Most,
of course, will always remain arid and
waste, and will still be the home of
the skulking coyote, the omnipresent
sagebrush and the domain of silence and
desolation.
On account of the favorable condi-
tions irrigation in the Yakima valley
has reached very high state of devel-
opment; beginning with small bitches
dug by the individual farmer or by a
small number of land owners who COM
bined for that purpose, intending to ir-
rigate only a comparatively small por-
ton, lying in the river bottoms or adj
jacent thereto. In time large companies
were organized, more extensive works
were undertaken and larger areas were
reclaimed that lay in higher levels, until
corporations with hundreds of thous-
ands of dollars of capitalization entered
field of profitable investment although
some of these companies failed) and ex-
cavated canals that made fruitful miles
upon miles of what was but desert
waste, covered with sagebrush and
bunch grass and utilized only for cattle
range.
Nearly all kinds of products are rails
ed in the Yakima valley. 1t has the
advantage of our own state of Mime
sofa on account of the winters being so
short. One of the most remarkable
crops produced in the valley is alfalfa.
II is claimed that one acre of this will