Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 August 1891 — FROM THE NORTHWEST. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FROM THE NORTHWEST.

INDUSTRIAL. GROWTH OF A NEW STATE. Important Industries That Are Under Way—Marvelous Increase of Population —Miaes and Mining— Tiie Country in General. [SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE.] When you travel over the Northern Pacific, with your trusted kt dak in your hand, ready to make a center shot on the choicest bits of scenery, let us advise you to hold your ammunition until you reach the Clark’s Fork River, unless you take a coup'e of snaps at the Flatheads who hang about the stations in the vicinity of the Rosebud Agency. No wonder the Government experienced trouble with suth citizens. The artist •who took a typical Flathead countenance as a study of “trouble” would bo bound to overdo the subject, if he was faithful to his model. Their tents, however, are quite picturesque, and so, also, are the Indians, provided they are far enough away. The valley in which the Rosebud Agency is located is very fertile and inviting. and home seekers and capitalists alike view it with envious eyes Perhaps it is a peculiarity of Indian reservations to appear to the eyes of whites to be a little more desirable land than that which is equally fertile and well located, but which is open to the white settler and speculator. It is the forbidden which always appears more tempting. When once you have reached the shores of Ciark’s Fork you will be tempted to fire a perfect fusjllade of snap shots; for every mile of the one hundred along which we fo'low this stream offers new and enticing scene beauties in marvelous and striking variety. Here the sportsman finds an abundance of the choicest victims. Almost every mountain brook that flows into the river is alive with “speckled beauties,” hungry for the hook, and neither too shy nor too wise to heln themselves freely, at the first opportunity, while tear, deer, and other large game are plentiful in the woods.

Lake Pendd’Oreille, in Western Idaho, is one of the most enchanting lakes in the West Southwest of Lake Pend d’Oreille is Lake Ca-ur d’Alene, another beautiful mountain lake. This is the headwaters of the Spokane River. The banks of this lake and river are thickly timbered with fir and cedar, and the cost of booming the logs down the Spokane River is from thirty to fifty cents per thousand. The great water power must make that city the site of some of the greatest lumber mills of the West, for the amountof timber on the Spokane River, Lake Coeur d’Alene and the St. Joseph, St Mary and Coftir d’Alene Rivers, which flow into the lake, is almost beyond computation. Spo'kwno already has various prosperous mills, one cutting 100,000 feet of lumber per day. Spokane draws a largo amount of wealth from adjacent mining districts, which are all within 200 miles distant. The Jdaho districts which are tributary to Spokane are the Coeur d’Alene, southeast: the Pend d’Oreille, cast; and the Metaline, northeast The Kootenai, across the line, in British Columbia, is also tapped by a Spokane railroad, and the districts in the State of Washington which are partially or wholly tributary to Spokane are the Okanogan and Colville, to the north and northwest. The supplies for these districts are mainly furnished by Spokane, which will derive a large additional source-of profit from Its surrounding minerals as soon as the magnificent smelting plant just built, Some five miles out of the city, is in full operation. The capital stock is one million dollars. The amount of free

mining ores from mines in these districts, in 1890, was abnut three million dollars, while the amount of smelting ores produced that year from tributary districts is placed at 175,000 tons. Of this the Coeur d’Alene district produced 00,000 tons of ore, valued at 96,021,000. The smelting charge.on this amount of ore, at the average price, would be 91,950,000. Anothercity which is surrounded with abundant mineral resources is Ellcnsburgh, the county seat of Kittitass County, and the metropolis of the Yakima Valley, situated In practically the geographical center of the State. In 1880 its population was 100; it now has nearly 5,000 inhabitants. Its latest triumph of enterprise is the erection of the Ellensburgh Blast Furnace The buildings are already up, and the furnace is being built of fire-brick manufactured from native fire ciay by a plant erected on the site of the furnace. The clay from which they are made is superior to the famous Scotch fire-clay. , The manufacture of these fire-brick, which retail for S4O per thousand, can scarcely fail to develop into an industry of considerable proportions; but it is to their iron, gold, and coal resources that the citizens of Ellensburgh look with greatest expectation. Iron has proven the world over, and particularly in England, Pennsylvania, and Alabama, to be a most substantial basis upon which to build cities. it should fail to meet the expectation' of the people of Ellensburgh, for there are in Kittitass County, and in close proximity- to Ellensburgh, literally mountains of iron of a very high grade In the report of George A. Bethune, State Geologist, bearing date of 1891, we find the following official statement: “In Washington, to day, there are la process of development nearly twenty promising iron properties. These are situated in King, Skafftt, Kitta ass, Stevan|» and OkanogaiTTbunties, and I am pleased to say that the devei-

opment work on all of these deposits is being vigorously prosecuted. I have inspected many of these discoveries, procured samples from all visited, and have ascertained that each of the classes of iron I name above are to be found in our own State, and that of these classes the Washington ores are of superior excellence. In King, Kitt it ass and Okanogan Counties magnetites and hematites exist in great quantity, and the value of these varieties cannot be over estimated, as

from them is made that quality of steel designated the Bessemer, and acknowledged the king of steels throughout the world. Our magnetites and hematites are peculiarly adapted to the manufacture of steel, because of the small quantity of phosphorus they carry and the high per cent, of metallic iron contained

in them. I look forward with supreme confidence to the time when Washington’s Bessemer steel will to one of her principal manufactures, and to the time when steel works will be seen in operation throughout the great hematite and magnetite ore belt of the State. “The fact that the railway development of the State has assumed really phenomenal proportions, and that iron highways are penetrating the very seat of these and deposits of other iron ores of the classes I have mentioned warrants the prophecy that within less than two decades the output of iron in this State will lead that of any other ironproducing division of the Pacific Slope.” The presence of large quantities of the red hematite ore greatly simplifies the process of reducing the other Iron ores, because the ‘introduction of a proper proportion ofc red hematite into a mass of the other ores causes tho whole to reduce one-third quicker than it smelted without mixing. Alongside these iron mountains are immense deposits of high grade coking coal, and limestone of remarkable strength and purity, which makes tho finest of fluxing lime. The gold fields about Ellensburgh are the famous Sauk, Cle-Elum and Peschastin districts, In Kittitass County. Concerning the first and second beds the State Geologist reports: “This discovery was made in the spring of 1874 by Ben Goodwin, an old-time California miner, and a prospector who, in search of hidden treasures, had traversed the whole of Oregon and Idaho, and then came into Washington and what is now Kittitas County.' Reaching the Swauk, lam told, G< odwin lost his bearings, and camping, proceeded to look about him As a result of this the prospector found himself the discoverer of what today are the richest placer mines of Washington. Of fabulous richness were those placer mines, and as an evidence of their extent, I may say to this day they are being worked with rich results. Nuggets valued at as high as 8400 have as recently as the past season been extracted from these placers. And to old Ben Goodwin must be given the credit

«“ ’ » ■ * i ’■. f' for having first found the State’s richest seat of surface deposits of gold. “It was nearly three years* after the discovery of the Swauk placers that C. ”P. Culver, a pioneer prospector, en route ,tp the Columbia River and the South, found paying placer diggings on the banks of the Peschastin creek, a lively stream emptying itself into the Wenat-

chfe ffiver, which in turn terminated with a jointure with the Columbia River-! This creek is in what is now Kittitass County. Like the Swauk, the Peschastln placers proved fabulously rich, ana were worked by hundreds of miners,’ thousands of dollars being extracted from them. Like the Swauk deposits,' they seem to be inexhaustible, as at this writing they are being worked, and with splendid returns, by many miners. ” Of the last he says: “The more recent

discoveries of placer diggings date from the year 1881, when the Cle-Elum placers were found. The Cle-Elum River is a small stream, having its source in the, Cascade Mountains in and emptying into the Yakima River near the prosperous little town of CleElum. There was a rush of miners to the new-found field. There Is no possi-, ble method by which the output of the Cle-Elum placers can be even approxX mated with anything like accuracy. I know the fact to be that the Cle-Elum placers are still being worked by a number of miners, and with substantial results.” There are extensive quartz mines in the Peschastln district, and the first stamp mill in Washington was erected and is now operated here. The Donehue mine in the Peschastln crushed its quartz in old-fashioned arrastres, at a loss of 80 per cent of the metal, and then secured 817,000 worth of go'd last season. The annual output of tho Swauk, CleElum, and Peschastln districts is over

8100,00 U

MAYFLOWER.

SIIVER MINE AND CONCENTRATOR.

A FLATHEAD INDIAN FAMILY.

PLACER MIXING.

HYDRAULIO MINING.