Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1927-06-02
Writes From Pacific Coast State

4
Is or 20 large brick buildings near
are the home of the State College of
Washington where nearly $1,000
young people are busy preparing for
! life; some of them are just "pair-
ing" for life. We will shape our
course to the northwest over the
rolling hills green with wheat, or
brown with the summer fallow. That
narrow strip of water is Rock Lake
and appropriately named 1t is a
softer strip between basaltic lava
rock that was scooped out by i'm
mense glacial streams. The silt loan
hills have been washed away and to
the west we see Scared scab rock
with green spots where silt was left.
We will stop at Sprague on the
Northern Pacific railroad. Here the
country is more nearly level, and
long lake with low banks lies to the
southwest. A large part of the land
is still "scab,' so we will follow
down to Ritzville where many from
the Vaterland have made them
homes and where the town takes on
prosperous appearance. Here Is
one of the great wheat towns of the
world.
We follow on along the Northern
Pacific and see nothing but level
fields for miles in all directions. 1t
has all been homesteaded. but now
the ranches are immense, as the
weaker left his dry farm and the
more careful or luckier staid and
got rich off the occasional good crop
from his broad acres. All this is to
come under the Columbia Basin irri
cation project. AS we pass on over
Connell there is cloud of dust
which arises that obscures the land
scape. 1t is just as well, as the sage
brush and jack rabbits would pro-
duce a more vivid impression than
the occasional field of wheat where
the land is not cut by coulees, ar
royos, dry gulches or hollows-
whichever is the right word in the
Ohio language. We come to the oasis
at Pasco. That large plane swoop-
ing down is the air mail from Elko,
Nevada, on the main line. Here two
great rivers and three railroads come
together Kennewick across the
river has gravity bitches from the
Yakima, but all that keeps Pasco
from drying up is the immense
pumps that take the water from the
Columbia to the thirsty acres. We
will have some fresh strawberries
and young onions right from the gar
den for our luncheon. We will wait
till Fourth of July before gardens
at Pullman are so kind.
We start eastward and see only
sandy hills and twisting valleys with
a cultivated strip along the streams.
Soon the country is higher and more
level and farms appear. Yonder on
a knoll between Walla Walla river
and Mill creek is monument to Mar
Gus Whitman who was massacred by
Indians Nov 1890, 1S47, along
with several other hardy pioneers.
We will stop in Walla Walla
which is about as large as GAINESVILLE,
and so much like an Ohio town, with
it's old elms and naples and its gen.
eral air of prosperous content. The
only thing here that seems in hur-
ry is Mill creek, as it lodges about
the brick buildings and dives under
streets and sidewalks. To the lover
of beauty the city itself ministers.
The lover of good things to eat will |
look with interest as the Jap |
or Chinaman weeds the onions |
and hoes the many garden vege- |
tables. The intellectual will find en-
joyment in Whitman college, while |
all in rebellion with things as they
are, will be cared for to the west |
of town in the big buildings with the
high walls. The people there are the
only ones who wish to run away |
from Walla Walla.
But we journey on eastward. For
awhile the land is nearly level but
soon the hills are higher and the
canyons sleeper and narrower. Green
fields of wheat are on all sides, but
mostly on hillsides. We follow up
the Pataha which is easy to pro-
nounce if you know how. At Pom
I'll oy 10 a. 0Il ing vi duouI
a mile long and we wonder where
The wheat could be raised to fill
.hem, but the hills beyond our Wis
on, restricted by the canyon walls,
rs it is, are green with wheat. We
pass sign boards saying Lewis and
Clarke passed this way in May,
1906" We tread their historic foot
steps down the Alpowa to Snake
liver and up the river to Charleston
md Lewiston. The first is largely
made up of small tracts in peaches,
grapes and other fruits, but Lewis
on is quite business place. A dam
S building in the Clearwater and d
aw mill is nearly completed with
ome 80 acres of roof in the whole
,lant. The immense watershed
preading out like a fan to the Mon
ana line, will be tributary to this
mill, and much of this is covered
With virgin timber
We seem to have lost our airplane
so we will have to climb
lewiston hill to get back to Pull
nan. Look back at the towns in the
alley at each turn, so you will not
ose the sense of direction, as we go
en- miles to rise a half mile and
each a point three miles from Lew
ston in a straight line. The road
s good macadam made of the
lack basalt we have been seeing so
THE MILLER