The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1906-05-31
ALETTER FROM $. b. SMITH.
He Describes in Interesting Manner
Spokane and Its Surroundings.

Spokane and Its Surroundings.
have recently received letters from
friends in Mile Laos county remind
ing me of promise to give my opin
ion of Washington in the Union. I
will now try and fulfill that promise in
part by giving in condensed form a
description of Spokane and what I
have seen in eastern Washington.
My first impressions of Spokane
were that the people were very wise,
for a large part of the city is literally
founded upon rock, so that when
the rains descend and the floods come
it remains firm. This applies to the
central, or business part of the city.
In other portions there are many
beautiful flower and vegetable gar
dens, lawns, and many fruit trees.
The architecture of the buildings is
good, and in many instances very
beautiful, but there is one popularity
about the dwellings that I have not
seen in any other city, that is, a
large proportion of them are but one
story high even in the business part
of the city. There are no sky scrap
ers as are seen in most eastern cities.
The Spokane river runs through near
the center of the city, and the most
beautiful scenery in the city is the
Spokane falls, which are very much
like the St. Anthony falls. There are
fourteen bridges across the river
within the city limits, one bridge be-
low the falls being 208 feet above the
water, and sometime in the past
man committed suicide by jumping
from this bridge. There is foot
bridge outside the city where a young
couple who had misunderstanding
in love matters tied their hands to-
gether and jumped into the river, but
when they struck the water the knot
had united and both were rescued by a
man who saw them jump from the
bridge.
The soil around Spokane and on
the banks of the river, or what is
known as the bottom land, which in
places is several miles wide, is very
light sand and coarse gravel, yet it is
very productive in wet season or
when irrigated. The river is about
the same size as the Rum river at
Princeton.
Four years ago Spokane contained
100000 inhabitants. Now it has over
$4,000 and expects to have 100000
within the next decade, but it is not
wise to count chickens until they
hatch.
The timber in eastern Washington
is yellow pine, bull pine and fir, but
pine predominates. The yellow pine
grows very large and tall and makes
excellent lumber. The bull pine is al
most Identical with the jack pine of
Minnesota and it is used almost en-
tirely for fuel. The fir is greatly su-
perior for all purposes.
There are a number of plots of
lands around Spokane called prairies,
and these prairies have an elevation
of over 400 feet above Spokane, the
ascent being very steep. But I will
speak of only two of these prairies.
Five Mile Prairie is where our Min
nesota G. T. Johnson lives, and in
my opinion it has the best soil, is the
pleasantest and most desirable loca-
ton to be found in eastern Washing
ton. 1t is 464 feet above Spokane.
The land is comparatively level until
we get to the base of the hill, and
then we rise 400 feet in travelling one
half mile. At the top is a plateau of
over 1920 acres of as deep and pro-
ductive soil as can be found in WASH
ington or Minnesota. About 300
acres of this plateau or prairie is
planted to fruit of various kinds, ap-
pies predominating: yet there is
large quantity of pears, peaches,
cherries and plums (prunes), also
raspberries and strawberries. Mr..
johnson has a fine bed of the latter
and has extended the cultivation of
the plot this spring. Mr.. johnson
has a very thrifty orchard of about 10
acres, the trees being all young, as
it is only four years since the first
were set out. The orchards on this
prairie vary in size from five acres to
Is acres. 1t is 20 years since the first
orchards were started and the ground
has to be cultivated every year the
same as corn field. If not thus Gull
tivated the apples are worthless and
the trees soon die. There is no timber
of any kind on this prairie, all of the
1900 acres being under cultivation.
Potatoes are raised extensively and
are of the best quality, but grain is
the principal crop. The barley is all
raised for the grain and small por-
ton Of the wheat and oats, but a
large amount of the latter two are cut