SPOKANE FALLS, Oct. 17, 1888.
[Sidenote: Growth of Spokane Falls.]
Our city has progressed in growth splendidly since you were here. There
are now fully 13,000 inhabitants. The census of July 1st showed 12,000.
About $1,500,000 have been expended in buildings this year. Eight
business blocks of brick and granite have been built this season. One of
these cost $150,000. Four of these blocks are three stories, three are
four stories, and one five stories.
[Illustration: SPOKANE FALLS, WASHINGTON TERRITORY.]
Forty miles of the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern Railway will be
completed between here and the Big Bend by December 1st. The iron,
engines and cars are nearly all here, and the farmers in Lincoln
County are greatly rejoiced at the opportunity for shipping their grain
and stock to market.
[Sidenote: Prodigious development of the mining interests.]
The development in the mines this year has been greater than all the
work done heretofore. The gold mines near Murray, Idaho, have yielded
beyond the hopes of all interested in them. I saw four gold bricks, at
the First National Bank, said to contain $37,000. These were from one
mine, a South Fork mine of the Coeur d'Alene.
The Kootenai country is now reached by steamer after leaving the
Northern Pacific road at Sand Point. A good deal of development work is
progressing, and the ore is being shipped out daily. It is mostly
silver-bearing galena. A new town just above the British line on the
Kootenai Lake has been started. It is called "Nelson." I shall send you
some formulated data at an early date.
The crops have been good, though not so good as last year. Emigration to
the farming sections does not come in as fast as we would like--in fact,
not as rapidly as to the towns. I think it will be better after the
election.
REPORT FROM PAUL F. MOHR, ESQ., CHIEF ENGINEER OF THE SEATTLE, LAKE
SHORE & EASTERN RAILWAY, CONCERNING THE CADY'S PASS AND WENATCHIE ROUTE.
SPOKANE FALLS, W. T., Dec. 3, 1888.
The following is a report of the proposed line from West Coast Branch to
mouth of Wenatchie River: