SOUTH BEND, the county seat, situated near the mouth of the Willapa
river, is a rapidly growing town of 3,000 people and destined to become
an important ocean port. The harbor is capacious, well protected,
has fine anchorage, and is handicapped only by a few feet of mud at
the bottom, which Uncle Sam will soon remove. At low tide there
is now from 20 to 30 feet of water in the channel of the river and
at South Bend it is 1,000 feet wide. South Bend is the terminus
of the Northern Pacific railway. It has electric lights, water
works, good schools, fine churches, bank, sawmills, planing-mills,
sash and door factories, fish canneries, newspapers, etc., and
is about to build a $50,000 courthouse.
RAYMOND, a new manufacturing town on the harbor and railroad, a
few miles from South Bend, has 2,500 people and is rapidly growing
in importance. Raymond is not yet five years old; has a monthly
payroll of $100,000; sawmills and factories representing an invested
capital of $4,900,000, employing 1,200 men; an electric light plant;
a city telephone system, owned by local capital; a salt-water fire
protection system; is about to build two bridges, costing $30,000
each, and is adding new manufacturing plants at the rate of one a
month. The city gives free factory sites, and has both rail and
ocean transportation from factory locations to the markets of the
world.
ILWACO is a fishing post of importance near the southwest shore
of the county, with 900 population.
CHINOOK, FRANKFORT and KNABTON are other fishing points on the
Columbia river of importance. NAHCOTTA is an ocean summer resort.
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PIERCE COUNTY.
Pierce county, though not the largest, is one of the most important
counties in the state. Its area of 1,800 square miles occupies
much of the upper reaches of Puget sound on both sides and extends
southeasterly, taking in the Rainier National Park of 2,225,000
acres, and Mount Rainier (Tacoma) 14,526 feet above sea level and
less than 60 miles from salt water, covered with eternal snow, an
endless scene of majestic grandeur, giving the county a greater
variety of elevations and more beautiful and startling scenery than
any other county in the United States. Its northeastern boundary
is the White river, its southwestern boundary the Nisqually river.
It has about 125 miles of salt-water shore lands, with innumerable
bays and inlets and several important islands. Originally one vast
forest, much of it now is covered with fruitful fields of grain,
grass and orchards.
Its climate is mild and salubrious, its soils of great variety
and fertility, and its mountains and foothills full of coal and
precious metals.