Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-09-17
IN THE SALMON CITY
"A Place of $4,000 People
Created in a Day.
THE GREAT CANNERIES
LOCATION Is ONE GREATLY FA-
voRED By NATURE.
Enormous Timber Resources of the
Surrounding Country-Excellent
Railway Facilities.
THE GREAT CANNERIES

BY WILLIAM E CURTIS
| 'pec'ai correspondence CT The Evening Star and
Chicago Record Herald.
BELLINGHAM, Wash. August II. 1904.
This might be called ''the uttermost city"
or the farthermost city, because it lies in
the extreme northwestern corner of this
country. where the citizens, If they were so
disposed. could fling a stick over the border
| into his Britannia majestys dominions or
over the bluffs into salt water; but those
| terms have sinister sounds that are not at
| all appropriate to such a thriving, active,
| up-to-date community as Bellingham. A
better name would be the salmon city,
| because the two largest salmon-packing
| establishments are here. They employ 8 .265
| men, Al steamers, Is launches and tugs, 312
| barges and scows to haul the fish and $50
| other boats.
| The other morning we saw on the floor of
one of those canneries pile of 337,G00 salm-
| ON which had been caught the night before
beautiful creatures weighing all the way
| from eight to sixty pounds; and yet they
| tell us that this is a poor season, that
salmon, for some reason or another. do not
| run in presidential years. But l will tell
| you about that surprising phenomenon in
| another letter.
/ The canneries cover acres and acres of
| ground. they represent an investment or
$3.50 800; the average pay roll is S2,ooUU
| a year, and they ship from So0OOoD to
| $6,000.0O0 worth of canned salmon to the
| eastern and foreign markets annually me
! Pacific Packing and Navigation Company.
which has eleven cannerles IN Alaska ana
| five, on Puget Sound. has its headquarters
| here also, and the cans used by the packers
are manufactured in factories which en-
| ploy 1870 persons.
or perhaps 1.-The shingle city" would be
more suitable name for Bellinsham be
| cause you can find here the largest shingte
mill in the world, which turns out an aver.
! a ge of 100000 cedar shingles every one OF
| the six days of the week the year around,
| and in 1903 shipped 542,222, 400 shingles
| Bellingham also has one OF the largest
sawmills in the universe when . s enjoys IbsS
| last year There are seven ssAvmllls IN all,
| and their combined output last year was
| 161, 459.S3s feet of lumber Iney employ 10Y
| / 0f;O men. paid them 1860 900 last year for
wages and loaded 102 vessels with Jumper
| for other parts of the world.
City Made in Day.
rbus Won NAV realiz. that Bellingham
has MANY cl:.ims to distinction for a town
that is less than one month old. They have
a smart lot of people up here, VINO, APP
narently can work miracles. You remem-
Der the story of the Sunday school boy
who declared that God could not create a
two-year-old colt in mirute Dut, never
tkeless, tie people OF Bel!.nsham created
city of 23, 900 inhabitants i'll single DAY.
They did it by merging the former town
Of Fairhaven with the rival city OF What
COM or vice versa. The two municipal cor
porations have lain side by side for
aug rter of a century without an apparent
dividing line. stranger never knew when
he was in one town or when he was IN the
|. 9th r. Political and business rivalry was
Keen and the twin cites were very Jealous
o. each other Last wirter, however, they
concluded to get married. and the cere-
mohy was performed OF, the 23d of July.
The union will be much 10 the advantage of
both in many, ways. and is already being
felt. The combination now appears in the
list as the fourth city CT size in the state
OF Washington 49, 49,. '.t.-S
Whatcom county, of whieh7i it is the seat,
occupies the extreme no, thwestern corner
of the United States ar. has an area of
2.44S square miles. being larger than the
state of Delaware and the District of Co
iumbia combined By nature 1t is one of
the most favored of all the regions we
know of; within its limits are resources of
ircalculable value. The county stretches
east and west from me submits of the
Cascade range of mountains to the shores
Of Puget Sound and comprises a great va
r:ety of wealth: perhaps a greater variety
tran any other county in the United States,
o. any other section oe similar area IN the
world. The sea is full of the fish / have
told you of: the mountains are stored with
coal, gold. silver and othe.' precious miner
ais; their slopes are clothed with the most
hP-
tween them have IS fertile soil as was ever
cultivated. The climate is remarkably even
and the range of temperature the smallest
or any section I'M the United States in
winter seldom being too cold for comfort
while in the summer The thermometer sell
dom rises above so which, with an album
dance of rain and sunshine, makes it an
IDEAL farming country.
The Timber.
BY the latest census there are 41s161
acres under cultivation. The rest of the
county is in timber, 95664D acres having
been withdrawn by the government as a
forest reserve. The timber has scarcely
been touched. Only ITO square miles has
been cleared, leaving 1887 square miles
covered with the finest fir. cedar and other
valuable trees of enormous size-enough 10
keep the SaWmills and shingle mills busy
Tor several generations. The experts estf-
mate an average of 100000 feet per acre
and total of 2.70S, 200 feet of market
able timber still standing in this county:
l.g0o962O0O feet of fir and 596.342 900 feet
of cedar.
These are stupendous figures, and one
unfamiliar with the lumber trade can
scarcely realize their meaning; but if You
viii go out for a day into a forest or visit
one of the sawmills you will have some
conception of what's meant Nowhere
except in one or two forests in California
are the trees SO large. There is nothing
to compare with them in Asia or Africa,
The fir trees each yield an average of 1OGpO
feet of lumber. Many of them produce
logs fourteen feet in diameter / saw ere
twenty-one feet in diameter. A tree is not
considered worth cutting unless it's trunk
is clear of limbs from 100 to $50 feet from
the ground Many single trees have Weld
ed $1,000 feet of lumber and some even
$4,000 and 100000 feet. The sawmiIls never
use anything above the first limb. All the
rest of the tree is useless and is
left on the ground to rot or burn waste
that is appalling and wicked, but there is
no market for any but the most perfect
timber. Fuel is so cheap that it does not
pay to cut the. upper portions of the trees