The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1908-05-09
CITIES OF The
BIZ; BEND
A Clipping From the OrondO News,
Published 10 Years Ago by
j. Il. Smith.

The following article appeared in
the Orondo News published at !
Orondo by ]. B. Smith The arti-
Gle is prophetic one in regard to
every place except the town in which
the paper was printed. Orondo has
not yet come into its own. The
/ lands there are being developed, like
wise its water power. The article
j follows:
Coming Cities of the Big Bend.
The converging of through transit
lines, the magnificent water power,
the grea mineral belts of the Col
vile and Occur d'Alene regions and
it's adjacent proximity to the great
grain belt of the Big Bend IS destined
to make Spokane Falls a first-class
city of the Inland Empire-a metrop-
oils for the western slope of the
Rocky mountain country and The adj
iacent Palouse and Big Bend regions.
Other cities along the transit liros
j will become places of Importance,
sGch as Davenport, Wilbur, A:mira
and McIntees. On the other hand
there will be cities of importance at
Waterville and Douglas City provid
ed the great transit lines pass
| through. AS these places have not
great water power an essential ele-
ment is lacking in the production of
a first-class city. Ellensburg and va
kima possess fine water power on the
! Yakima, and have the elements of
greatness around them in agriculture,
horticulture and mineral lodes, and
must make cities of more than ordi-
nary Importance. The cities on the
Sound are dependent on through
transit lines and deep water harbors.
Tacoma, Seattle, Fairhaven and 9TH
er cities will be places of great mag
nitude like Philadelphia, New York
and Boston, on the Atlantic seaboard.
These through transit lines (and
there will be at least five of them
between Pasco and the Okanogan
river within five years. all must
cross the Columbia river-the second
river in commercial Importance on
the North American continent. When
this river is opened for navigation or
has a through transit line from the
Canadian river to Portland (and it
will be opened in time) the grain
ore, lime, marble, lumber of the Cas-
c&de tributaries and the upper Col
umbia, and horses, cattle and sheep
% the Big Bend will be fioated down
lie lordly Columbia cheaper than is
possible on any other route to the
great markets of the world. Here
W ii rise up the largest cities in the
! inland Empire wherever they are
! built with locations that command
/ the prime essentials OF first-class
city. In the central belt of this vas5
Iempire we foresee that there will be
an important metropolis near the
mouth of the OkanOgan river The
points that have ample water powers /
are Methow, Chelan, Orondo and the
! Entiat together and the Wenatchee. !
| At these points there is destined to
! be great places, as they have the ma |
! tural resources essential to first-class |
cities 1t is folly to attempt to build /
great city without abundance of
running water for domestic and man
ufacturing purposes. So much the |
| better if navigation is at hand to con-
meet with the seaboard These future |
cities do not necessarily need to be
cities do not necessarily need to be |
on the west side of the Columbia, for |
electric motors have been perfected |
so far that power can be transmitted |
for miles with a small loss-cheaper |
than steam so transmitted. This is /
the case with Orondo, which is now |
laid out to within three-fourths of a |
mile of the Entiat With her own |
power on the east side of the Column /
bia the Entiat can be utilized in gen.
Grating power for electric motors and /
cheaply transmitted through cable
wires laid down on the bed of the |
river to the Orondo side. For that |
matter, Orondo, like Minneapolis and
Mex York, would be q both sides of /
a river-it is only a qda stion of time I
Although one or NOR If these ci les .
great cities may outgr3w the others
fl would be futile to foretel the
leading one as future developments +