The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1911-11-17
AS It WAS, AND IS NOW
a GLIMPSE OF THE WENATCHEE
VALLEY TWENTY YEARS
AGO.
COMPARED WITH THE PRESENT
What Has Been Done There Can Ens-
lily BE Duplicated in the OrO-
vile Country.
vile Country.
BY FRANK M. DALLAM.

To the stranger visiting Wenathcee
there is nothing particularly striking
excepting the natural surprise, flat
tering to the community, to find such
an apparently hustling, thriving and
progressive little city, charmingly To-
| Gated, evidently built upon the backing
of single resource-fruit. To the
writer, however, this change that has
taken place in the valley since he first
! saw the country is marvellous trans
formation, one difficult to realize, and
almost beyond understanding. The
readers of the Gazette, the greatest
number of whom are living in the
midst of surroundings of the same
general character as those about We
natchee may be interested in an eX-
tended description of Wenatchee and
the Wenatchee valley as it was a
score of years ago, and as it is today
1t will convey some idea to them of
what they may expect to see take
place in the Okanogau valley and Oro-
vile within the next decade, for with
the present impetus given to fruit
growing by the success that has fol-
lowed the industry in other sections
will result in a more speedy develop
ment of the country farther north than
has marked the growth and develop
ment of the Wenatchee territory No
effort will be made to indulge in en-
agerated word pictures, merely plain
statement of facts, with the invitation
to look upon this picture and then
upon that.
Let us go back twenty years. The
writer could date the reminiscence
farther back, and even shorter per-
iod might answer to draw compari-
son between what was and what is,
but twenty is an even number, and
that is not so long a time in the life
of locality. True, twenty years ago
Wenatchee, as a town, was without
existence, and the general aspect of
! the valley, now a panorama of beauty,
was repulsive to the eye. There is not
a more desolate prospect throughout
| the length and bredth of the state than
the Wenatchee valley score of years
ago 1t was sand, rock, and sage
| brush. 1t was an eXpanSe of desOla-
ton. Arid and ugly, it had no attrac-
tion for the settler,an was apparently
| doomed to remain desert for all time
to come. In summer the hot sun over
| head and the hot sand under foot
it's ugliness was covered by a mantle
of snow, hiding it's defects, yet adding
nothing to it's attractiveness. In sum-
mer the heat scorched the scant vege-
tation, and the wind drifted the sand
| backward and forward as it switched
around to different points of the COM
pass. Such was the general appear
ance of the valley at that time, and
only a few houses were to be found in
the large extent of territory now sc
thickly settled.
| but lIeTe were TWO OT lHEtt OdSlScs
in this large expanse of desert, tiny
Edens made more delightfully."- move
by their repulsive surroundings. The
Millers and the Freers We're old set
tiers in the valley, even so far bach
as this story is dated. By infinite labor
water had been diverted by the mos
crude means from the small streams
and conveyed to the land held by the
pioneers. No effort was made to re
claim any extent of ground. Onl!
enough water was obtained to irrigat'
small alfalfa and orchard tracts. Blu
these experiments We're magical in re
suits. 1t was demonstrated that waite
was all that was needed to make tn
apparently useless soil produce in tn
greatest abundance the best that sol
is capable of producing, and ultimate
ly giving to the land a value almos
equal to a gold mine. Miller was al
Industrious, plodding mortal, a quain
old German, who lived in primitiv