White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1923-11-30
WHAT DEVELOPMENT OF PRIEST RAPIDS POWER
SITE REALLY MEANS

ard land lying east ana north OF the
rapids. This land reclamation in
itself will bring in large farming
population and form. rich hinter-
land for the new industrial city.
Irrigation is necessary only in the
months when the plant will have sur
plus power in abundance.
To insure constant market for the
primary 100000 horsepower, the Cen
eral Electric interests decided to build
an industrial city to use it, and to
that end geologists, chemists and
electro-chemical engineers of national
fame we're sent to the Pacific North
west to find minerals available for
manufacture at Priest Rapids.
1t was the success of their quest
that decided the capitalists back OF
the project to undertake its immc-
diate construction.
Raw Products Available
An article written for technical
magazine recently by Henry j. Pierce,
formerly of Seattle, but now of New
York, electrical engineer, who is pres
ident of the Washington Irrigation &
Development Company, indicates what
discoveries were made by the experts
who studied the possible uses for the
Priest Rapids power and also fore
shadows the nature of the manufac-
lures the General Electric Company
interests will undertake there.
Mr.. Pierce wrote that the plan was
to manufacture basic materials at
Priest Rapids, and he gave list Of
the raw products that could be OBJ
tanned i'll quantity near by. The own
ers Of the project, he said, had ac-
quired deposit Of pure limestone
with ten million tons in sight, and
had also purchased 600 acres of beds
Of purest clay containing 40 per cent
of alumina and suitable for the man
ufacture of aluminium, the clay
metal Coal and high-grade iron ore
and coke we'll suited to metallurgical
uses, he said, were obtainable near
the project and could be delivered to
the power plant site at reasonable
prices.
High-Grade Phosphate Rock
Nearly all the nations supply OF
highgrade phosphate rock, SO waltz
able in the manufacture of fertilizers,
he said, was found in the States of
Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, which
are within easy rail haul of Priest
Rapids.
Among the raw materials to be
found in quantity. within 500 miles
81 Priest Rapids, besides the ones
mentioned, he listed copper chrom
ium lead, manganese, molyndenum,
gypsum, kaolin, silver, tungsten, va
zinc, lcucitc, marble. mica,
pyrites, clays suitable for making
china, porcelain nettery and fire.
brick, soda, silica. diatomaceous
earth, fcldspar, hourspar, alunitc
and timber in abundance.
The significance Of this list lies
in the uses to which the minerals
named are known to be put in the
industries and me-
tallurgy. For example limestone
and coke arc used in the manufac
ture at Niagara Falls of huge guam
titles of carborundum used as an
abrasive. Copper and steel form
brass used in huge quantities in
electrical apparatus. Mica is used
in electrical apparatus as an insula-
ting material. Manganese, chro-
MUM, molybdenum, tungsten and
vanadium arc used i'll making the
finest steel for many purposes.
Ingredient of Dynamite
Diatomaceous earth is one of
the ingredients of dynamite, of
which another ingredient is nitric
acid, which can be made from air
with cheap electricity. Fcldspar
is used in making porcelain. Pyritcs
are a source of sulphuric acid that
is largely used i'll chemical indus
tries. Silica and soda are the prin-
cipal raw materials for glass of which
the Pacific Northwest now manufac-
lures little. Tungsten is used in
making electric light globes.
Nitrates taken from the air by cleo
trio magic enter into artificial fer
tilizers in combination with rock
and other substances.
In his article Mr.. Pierce called at
tcntion to the fact that few of the
staple chemicals and metals are now
being manufactured on the Pacific
Coast and that producers OF them at
Priest Rapids would have half the
population of the world facing them
across the Pacific as an export mar
ket.
at is hoped" he said. that Priest
Rapids will become the Niagara Falls
of the West, and that its power will
be used for a diversity Of manufac-
turing purposes, whether great or
small"
City Of 10000 Proposed.
He estimated that the manufacture
ng industries to be established would
support city of 10000 at the power
plant, but since then other engineers
have declared that city much larger
will come into being there having as
its hintcrland the 100000 acres OF
land to be reclaimed from the Priest
Rapids Valley desert by irrigation
with electric pumps drawing water
from the river.
This land alone would support a
population Of many thou
sands, for it has been proved by pio-
ncer reclamation work that the land
will produce everything from alfalfa
and sugar bccts to corn, cotton and
tobacco because OF its fertility and
ong-growing season with about 800
days of sunshine each year
Priest Rapids are about $50 miles
from each of the four most importont
Cities in the Northwest. Seattle, Ia
coma, Spokane and Portland, and
near the lines of the four big trans
railroads serving the Pa
cific Northwest. The Milwaukee,
which is the nearest, already
S electrified through the Cascades