The Coolidge examiner., 1933-08-18

Washington. D. C.-WNU Service.
wv 7ITH large groups of men
M/ returning to lumber mills
w and camps weekly, one of
Washington's leading industries is
showing signs of new life after 30
months virtual shutdown.
Washington, with only brief mo-
ments Of economic setback. has
been forging ahead agriculturally
since November, 1851, when "a
white piOneers-12 adults and ~
children - disembarked from a
schooner in Elliott bay, an arm Of
Puget sound.
Cherries the land looked to
these pioneers as they set about
making their new homesite habita-
bic. The women and children, dis
Iconsolate. huddled under trees near
the waters edge while the men
scrambled to rescue their belong
ings from the fast incoming tide.
One Of the women, clasping her
two-months' old child, sat on log
and wept. To her the primeval
evergreen forest, sweeping mp from
the gray waste of the sound to
misted heights of snow-capped
mountains, suggested only nostalgia
longing to go back to the Illinois
Iprairies.
Had the young mother been able
to enviSage what the son she held
in her arms was destined to look
upon, her tears would have been
forgotten in a dream of wonder
and delight; for that son has lived
to see the settlement of "a grow
to city Of nearly 100000 Seattle.
The story Of Seattle mirrors
that of the whole commonwealth
of Washington. In less than a hun
Idred years the Evergreen state has
emerged from wilderness to modern
civilization, crowding three centu-
ries of history into one. Spokane,
largest city of eastern Washington,
with population of more than
115,000, celebrated in September,
1881, its fiftieth anniversary. The
United States census Of 1860 found
in Washington territory fewer than
1900 persons; that of 1890 record
ed more than a million and a half
in the state.
Frontier Life Still There.
The Evergreen state is so close
to its beginnings that in parts of
it frontier life, far from being a
half-forgotten memory. is a thing
of the living present. Within so
miles of Seattle skyscrapers. hardy
pioneers are wrestling their living
from the wilds of the Olympic
peninsula, just as did their fathers
of the Oregon trail. Many of them
must back-pack supplies to their
homes up mountain trails that wind
through well-nigh impenetrable
Businesses of untouched forest. A
state senator from Jefferson cOun-
ty, the son of one of the earliest
peninsula settlers. bought an auto
mobile only few years ago and
built for 1t as convenient a garage
as possible-35 miles from his
housei
To see Washington for the first
time is to experience the thrill of
discovering a new country. To live
within its borders, then to go away
from it and return after a few
years absence is to know that
thrill again.
From islands to mountain heights
Is only step in Washington. The
amazing contrasts Of scenery are
keynotes of the states perpetual
charm.
Shuksan, 9,03S feet high. geologi-
cally one of the oldest mountains
in North America, thrusts its rag
ged pinnacles against a sky of per-
feet blue, vertical ridges and rug
ged crags of bare rock showing
black among tatters of ice gorges
and foaming cataracts. From the
serrated peaks banners Of snow
wave in a high, clean wind. while
mfsts rise like smoke from the for
ests below the ice line, now wrap
ping a bold promontory in downy
whiteness, now breaking free to fly
away in clouds.
"HoIIand of America"
One Of the last of five Washing
ton volcanoes to fling forth its fires,
Mount Baker still occasionally
breathes smokily from several
craters near its summit: but its
head. rising to an altitude of 1O,-
$50 feet, is turbaned with eternal
snow, and vast fields of ice send
u major glaciers cOursing down its
sides.