The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1939-1949, 1946-02-21

river. In 1883 a claim was located
in the Cascades and q stampede OF
prospectors set in. Traces Of pay
dirt were located at the head Of
Lake Chelan in what is known as
Horseshoe Basin, but not in suffi-
cient quantities to justify CONNER
cial exploitation. The net result
was discovery of the spectacular
scenery of the Cascades and the
founding of a lucrative tourist bus
mess.
BOOM DAYS ..
Towns were booming all over
the northwest as a result of emf
grafton stimulated by the compile
ton of the Northern Pacific Rail-
road. Rail transportation meant
that natural resources could be
shipped but at profit to markets
of the world. It meant industrial
opportunities and jobs, and that In
turn meant prosperity for farmers.
a Another factor that helped to
make things boom was the promise
of statehood for Washington, Ida
no and Montana. The feeling was
general that development had been
retarded by territorial status, that
they were handicapped by the fact
that the territorial delegates had
no vote in Congress, and that the
territorial governors appointed by
the President of the United States
were outsiders and not deeply in
terested in developing northwest
resources.
On the Pacific coast the big
money opportunities lay in timber,
of course. The states of Oregon
and Washington, which had pro-
duced only 300 million feet in 1879,
sawed billion and a half feet in
1889. This demand fostered specu-
lation in timber land. An Oregon
timber cruiser has left this account
of conditions:
81 came to Oregon in 1883 and
found the land business booming,
every hotel in the timbered Sec
tons of the state being crowded
with timber land spectators. /
went into the locating business the
first thing and continued to do
land-office business for two years.
This was in 1889 and 1890, and
during all this time the woods
were fairly alive with timber men.
Moneyed men are here from Mich
igan Wisconsin, Minnesota, and
other middle west states eager to
make investments and grasp the
unlimited opportunities offered Of
reaping big returns. AS result,
thousands of men were sent into
the forests of Tillamook and Clat-
sop counties, of Oregon as well as
throughout various sections of
Washington, to file on timber
claims; and in nearly every in
stance the entryman had contract
ed in advance to transfer their
titles to some lumber company or
syndicate of eastern capitalists"
Charles Miles, visiting Olympia
in 1889, wrote in his diary: "This
finds me in Olympia, the territor-
ial capital, the city where q state
will soon be born :. It is difficult
to tell, among those who throng
the streets, which are political big
wigs and which are land speculate
ors. 1t seems that many Of the
latter, after making a deal, appear
at once with skyscraping hate and
gold-headed canes. It is more prof
table to get in ahead of the rush
for some rumored toWnside than it
is to win a stable prize in the
Louisiana State Lottery, but to
hear talk about the Union Pacific
coming through to create cities
right and left, you'd never suspect
what I believe-that the land
dealers are as big a mbable as the
lottery"
About the same time the Wash
ingtone Standard Of Olympia re-
marked editorially:
From all accounts it would ap-
pear that the advance guard of
the great tidal wave Of immigra-
ton had reached the Sound dis
tricts. Late reports from the land
office show that never in the his
tory of the territory has there been