The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1903-04-08
NORTH YAKIMA AS VIEWED
BY AN OLD RESIDENT
Present and Future of the City Look
Bright to Him--NOrth Yakima
will be an Inland Metropolis.

The following article is from the pen
of Ex-Mayor o. A. Fechter, than whom
no one in the northwest is better equip
ped to treat such a subject
Through the medium of the magazines
and other periodicals of the northwest,
the name Yakima has become fam-
liar throughout the length and breadth
of the land; much has been said in
these columns of the Yakima valley, its
large irrigation system, its attractive
climate, its enormous production of farm
products, its splendid people and its
magnificent development, and much has
been said of the beautiful little city of
North Yakima, proclaiming it one of the
most enterprising and prosperous COM
munities on the Pacific Coast.
1t is therefore the intention of this ar
ticle merely to briefly set forth the
growth OF the city during the past two
or three years and to point out the rea-
sons for it and for the belief in the con-
tlnuatlOn tnereO1.
The tide of immigration to the Pacific
Coast during the last two years has been
of especial benefit to this city. The num-
Der of immigrants was so large, that not
only was the number of settlers in the
older districts largely increased, but all
of the lands under entirely new. irriga-
| fob
new arrivals from the eastern and
middle states, who in the short space Of
two years and less, have developed these
lands into productive, profitable, home
like farms; the result OF this is, that
many OF the larger farms have been di-
vided and sub-divided into smaller
tracts those lands that lie within four
or five miles of this city have undergone
this process many years ago, and it is
now the outlying lands that are being
treated in similar way. As conse-
quence of this the population of the sur
rounding country is very large to the
square mile, milling in this respect,
the thickly settled countries of Europe.
70 illustrate, one section of land within
three miles of the city is occupied by
| forty-eight families, and this is not an
extreme case. Thee small farms, sub
jected to intense cultivation, yielding
large, profitable and readily marketable
crops, ard supporting large numbers of
prosperous, homecoming, progressive
farmers, are the foundation stone of
the growth and prosperity of the city of
North Yakima.
And the number of these farms is con-
stantly increasing, the government is
about to begin work on ditch to cover
1000 acres of land on the Indian res
ervation, and government engineers are
now Investigating a project which will
cover 10000 acres of especially fine land
to the westward OF the city. These lands,
under irrigation will make thousands of
homes similar to those referred to.
| The federal census of 1900 gave the
city a population of a little more than
5000. There can be no doubt that this
|
more than 100000 was expended in
the erection of Is business blocks and
100 residences, $50 900 dollars was ex-
pended during the same period for pub
| lie Improvements, the bank deposits
during the year referred to increased
! $500, 200, and now exceed 81 500, 900 I;
the Cascade Lumber company estab-
| lished the largest saw-mill plant in
eastern Washington, prompted thereto
by the enormous demand for lumber in
the city and tributary country; the
capacity of the North Yakima Canning
company's plant has been more than
doubled; A. 4. Howard erected sash
and door factory; several fruit dryers
were erected; an additional creamery
was established and other enterprises
were inaugurated. Three hundred and
seventy-five feet of frontage of business
blocks are now in process of erection, as
well as constantly increasing number
of dwellings, many of which are beauti-
full homes
The four main business streets of the
city are now macadamized. This together
with the modern and commodious blocks
that have been erected on these streets,
and the large number of people with
which they are generally thronged, give
the place very citified air. On pleas
ant day Yakima avenue (the main