The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1908-02-04
Frank VI. Dallam Comments on We.
natchee's Growth.

The new wagon bridge across the
Columbia river at Wenatchee is COM
pleted and open for traffic. 1t is the
only exclusive wagon bridge that
spans the great water way in the
state. The structure is Of STEEL, and
has been in process of construction
many months. Its completion marks
a new epoch in the history of We
natchee. and should be a powerful
facsor in increasing the growth of
that important and growing place.
Not only does it bring a large agri-
cultural country in close and easy
touch with the city, but the bridge is
used for conveying pipe lines across
the river, the water from which will
reclaim many acres of waste land.
This area of present desolatiOn will
in a few years be covered with bear
ing orchards, adding to the already
vast fruit output of the Wenatchee
country, and the lands will be as val
liable as those under orchard on the
west side of the stream. So far as
the water can be made to reach the
country will become prolifically pro-
ductive and vastly valuable. In not
ing this important event, and con-
sidering the changes that will follow
low this consummation of a long
cherished object on the part of the
residents of Wenatchee, we are given
an opportunity to refer to the magi-
cal changes that a comparatively
few years have wrought in that par
1nv 0c -%a :. l.,
only one example of progress that
has its counterpart all over Washing
ton. Twenty years ago, aye, less
than that period of time, there was
nothing apparent to the human eye
in the valley at and near the mouth
of the Wenatchee river that gave
promise of the beautiful oasis so well
populated that exists today. With
two or three exceptions the land was
unoccupied, and presented about as
uninviting an appearance as the des--
ert of Sahara. Sage brush and boul-
ders covered the present townsite of
Wenatchee, while the east side of
the river was and still is, shifting
xpanse of sand. The wind in sum-
mer seems to blow perpetually, and
a cloud of real estate, that will soon
be valued at hundreds of dollars per
acre, fills the atmosphere. The
homesteader Stunned the country,
and the land was looked upon as
valueless. with no prospect of ever
being utilized The railroad, that
great factor in commonwealth up
building. came. people commenced
trickling in to locate in a new place,
evidence was present in a few isolat-
ed spots that water only was needed
to feed soil that under the stimu-
lous of that fluid produced the best
fruit grown, capital was forthcoming
to supply that water, and as a con-
sequence within decade there
innumerable orchards that have
brought wealth to the individual
and the community as a whole.
There are few sections in the west
where a few years have worked such
wonderful transformation. And
in passing we may add that the pro-
jects of furnishing water to large
areas of land in this county, notably
in the Methow valley, around Brew
ster and in the Okanogan valley that
are now just about reaching the
point where water in abundance can
be depended upon, will in a very
short time work the same notable
changes that have taken place in and
about enatchee.-Frank NJ Dallam
in the LOOMS Prospector.