The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1941-08-12

Twas a Great Picture
Sirfy-two Years Ago
We Still Have the Harbor.
Timber and Mineral
But Something Happened
And We Lost the Vision
SIXTY years ago writer for
- Frank Leslie's Magazine
came out - Puget Sound to check
up on the stories that Ezra
Meeker. Allen c. Mason and r.
F. Rsdebaugh were sending out
about the resources Of a city
named Tacoma, terminus Of the
Northern Pacific railroad. Hen
~ Ward Beecher. who made a
trip out here as the guest of the
railroad directors also had been
saying something about Taco
ma. Altogether the town had
been given quite a build up.
The Leslie man was skepti-
cal but admitted after being
here a few days, a guest at the
old Tacoma hotel, that the story
had not be exaggerated. A
couple of years earlier he had
written an alluring article about
San Francisco. metropolis of
the Pacific coast. His first re-
action as he studied Tacoma was
that San Francisco was going
to have a rival for the position
of first city on the Pacific coast
and he gave the odds TO Tacoma.
Chief reason for this was the
great area of land-locked harbor
with deep water within a few
feet of the banks, an admirable
natural setting for docks, and
the level areas at the head of
the bay, designed by nature
for manufacturing plants and
railroad terminals.
What at the time seemed even
to Tacoma residents an extrava-
CANT assertion regarding the
docking facilities at Tacoma
concerned the Great Eastern,
then the worlds largest steam
ship. The Great Eastern mark
ed the first venture in marine
construction that led to the
great ships of today. The YES
Sci was $50 feet long, a couple
of hundred feet longer than the
standard type of ocean liner
of the age, an powered by eight
engines. Four engines were
connected with the propeller
shaft and four drove the largest
paddle wheels known up to that
time.
This great ship-a miracle In
marine construction-the writer
said, "could lie alongside the
piers of the Northern Pacific
railroad company and there
would be several fathoms of
water under her KEEL
No greater tribute could have
been paid the docking facilities
in Tacoma harbor, for the Great
Eastern was too large for most
of the worlds harbors.
Next TO the harbor facilities
the Leslie man mentions the ma
tural resources tributary to Ia
coma. He saw the worlds
largest and most valuable tim
Der belt and the best bituminous
coal in America in virtually in
exhaustible quantities within a
few miles of the Tacoma water
front. The quantity Of coal was
estimated to be in excess of two
hundred million tons.
Then there was the iron ore,
and of that the writer reported
this:
Iron ore also abounds in the
region. The Wilkeson field Is
known to hold an eight foot
vein of hematite. a valuable ore
or iron. and in the Green river
field there is twelve foot vein.
each vein contains about sixty
per cent of metal. Across the
sound. i'm the Olympic penin-
sula, Is unlimited magnesite ore.
1t seems, therefore, that Taco
ma will be the center of an enor-
nous industry in iron"
And here is what he wrote
about wheat:
Tacoma will shortly become
the port of shipment for the
great quantity of wheat now
shipped from Portland, Oregon.
in the completion Of a railroad
running north and south through
the state, as vessels can then
escape the terrible bar at the
mouth OF the Columbia.
The entrance 10 Puget Sound
Is thirteen miles wide and more