The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1920-06-18
AN ECHO OF THE PAST.

The Waterville Empire from time to
time publishes articles under the head
Big Bend" which are exceedingly in
teresting to old timers, renewing men,
cries of past incidents in the making
OF the Big Bend, almost every one OF
| which is familiar to the editor of the
Gazette. In the last issue of the Empire
is recopied an interview a reporter OF
the Seattle Times had with Judge w.
Lair Hill, under date of May, 1890.
which is here reproduced. Alackaday.
the predictions of the judge as to the
wealth of metals that were to be pro-
duced in Washington within ten years
have not come to pass in thirty years,
although We who knew of the country
thirty years ago and are still in touch
with conditions as they exist continue
to believe the mineral is here and will
time. 1t is not improbable that, like
the judge, we will have been long
numbered with the angels-as we
have every expectation of figuring in
the role of angel someday-before in
telligent and systematic mining will
prove our contention that Okanogan
county is rich in minerals. Here is
what Judge Hill had to say about his
trip east of the mountains:
Judge w. Lair has just returned
from a trip east of the mountains. AS
will be seen by the judges reply to the
question What do you think of that
country over there?" he is enthusiast
tic over it.
Il travelled across the Great Bend
from Moses Coulee by the way of
Waterville to the mouth of the Okla
hogan; thence up the Okanogan and
Salmon rivers to Ruby City and Con-
conully-the great mining center in
the near future-and thence GRO
the COlville Indian reservation to
COndOn's ferry on the Columbia and
over the Great Bend country, in a diff
ferent direction from that before trav-
ersed, to Davenport. The Great Bend
country is a splendid agricultural
country. 1t presents the largest con
tinuOus body of wheat land | have
seen on the coast-not excepting the
iamette valley, o yet the fields Of
the San Joaquin. One may travel a
whole day across the wheat growing
lands of the Great Bend without COM
ing in sight of 10 acres that is not
ready for the pillow. To the east and
monty called scrub land, that is,
land where stony patches are so fire.
quent as to be a serious hindrance to
practical farming. Such a region ex-
tends in a no%rtheasterly and south
westerly direction all the way from
Spokane Falls to Pasco, and, unfor-
tunately, the railroad makes this strip
of land its line so that the magnificent
farming land that lies on either side
of 1.-THE splendid Palouse country
on the east and the equally splendid
Great Bend on the west. 1t is a con-
sentative estimate that there are with
in the Great Bend country 1000 square
miles of as fine a wheat land as ever
lay Of doors-which means in
bushels of grain-well, then compute
it for yourself and assure an average
of at least twenty-five bushels to the
acre. This vast wheat field is rapidly
settling up, and the time Is very lear
when the city that handles it's pro-
ducts will have a wholesale business
that will tide it over any and all de-
pressions of other business. | do no,
desire to obtrude my opinions of COM
mercial policy, but | may be excused
for saying that while | have all the
time thought Seattle was making a
great mistake in not pushing railway
connections to that section, the very
first enterprise demanding the ener-
gies of live, splendid business men,
the magnitude of this mistake was
never fully realized until | made this
double cross-sectiOn examination of
that magnificent country. In the end
the city that the legitimate
trade of Eastern Washington will
distance all competitors. OF this fell
absolutely certain. Coastwise railways
will all be useful and will serve great
purposes in local commerce., but the
Sound city that is to be grandly and
decisively benefited by the railway
is that city into whose lap the produce
of Eastern Washington is to be poured
that city which becomes the market
place of the eastern part of the state.
What about Okanogan mines?"
We'll, there is but one problem to
be solved in that matter. I mean the
problem of milling quartz of the ores.
There are dozens of mines there, rich
in gold and silver, assaying magnifi-
Gently, and the finest looking rock l
ever saw There are, in fact, mines on
every hand, in Ruby Hill, in Mineral
Hill. and many other points in the
immediate vicinity of Ruby City and
ConcOnully, and at Palmer mountain,
which is further north. near the Brit
ish line, most promising lodges Of both
gold and silver. I brought home with
me some specimens of rock that would
set the heart of an old miner on fire.
Really, I belive Washington will in ten
years, be the leading state in the
Union in the mining of precious met
ais. | tell you no man can have any
adequate idea of the future of this
great state until he has gone into the
mining and farming belt away to the
Month IF fha pocA- ill., 80 ..- -