The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1914-04-24
THE RIGHT RING

Upon reaching Spokane on his return
trip from the Okanogan country Louis
w. Hill, of the Great Northern rail
road, gave out an interview to the
Spokane Chronicle, a portion of which
is published below. The portion ol
this interview that will especially ap'
peal to and interest our readers is the
reference made to the proposed ir.
rigation project in this part of the
valley, and the unequivocal statement
that it will be the policy of the rail-
road to assist in carrying out the en-.
terpriSe. Quite number residents
of the town and valley were inclined
to be pessimistic over the prospects
after the recent visit of the railroad
officials, notwithstanding that Mr.. Hill
gave the directors to plainly under
stand that the railroad was very much
interested in carrying out the plans
This voluntary declaration of Mr.. Hill
that the railroad officials propose to
aid in getting it started off" is very
encouraging and will remove much OF
the doubt as to the ultimate consuma-
ton of the enterprise. Mr.. Hill said
There are two events in the Inland
Empire this summer which the officers
of the Great Northern are going to
celebrate" he stated. "One is the
opening of the Davenport hotel and
the other is the opening of transporta-
ton facilities to the great territory
north of Wenatchee.
This is great country, wonder
full, undeveloped valley which few peo-
pie, even in Washington, know about.
We are planning to mark the compile
tion of the Wenatchee-Oroville line
with a spike-driving celebration in
July, which will take place either at
Chelan or Pateros, at which time we
expect to be able to start permanent
train service.
CAS- a rule the people of Washing
ton don't know their own state. have
been criticized for making this state
ment, but it is true. The wonderful
resources of this state are little
known to your own people, and this
is true at Olympia, California, Mon
tana, Dakota and other states are In
advance of Washington in this respect.
ut is up to Spokane to get acquaint-
ed with the Okanogan from CONNER
cial standpoint. This apathy is due to
the lack of immigration to this state.
Dakota and Montana homeseeker fig
ures have jumped away up, but in the
case of Washington and Oregon there
is practically no movement. We have
been afraid of Canada up to this time,
as they have been absorbing settlers
in great quantities. The figures now
show that immigration in that country
has stopped and on the other hand the
tide has turned this way.
"The recent movement to organize
a tourist bureau co-Operated in by the
northwestern cities, which l UNDER
stand originated in Spokane, Is the
first great step toward doing some
thing and ! sincerely hope that some
thing definite may come of it.
"The Great Northern is interested in
developing the Okanogan valley, and
there is lot of fine land in that ter
ritory which needs settlers. inspect
ed the government irrigation project
at Omak and Okanogan on my recent
trip and found 5000 acres in this rec
lamation project, divided into 40-acre
units, S5 per cent of which is already
settled. There you have a producing
lies. The possibilities of this valley
are little known, even in Spokane.
eve had an interesting meeting at
OrOville Wednesday night, where they
have a large area of land on either
side Of the river to irrigate. Our en-
gineers and soil experts have tested
it in every way and it reports as fav-
orably as any project we have ever
looked over. We are going to try
and get it started off"