Mount Tacoma.—Terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad.—Great Inland
Sea.—City of Tacoma and its Marvelous Growth.—Coal Measures.—The Modoc
Indians.—Embarking for Alaska.—The Rapidly Growing City of Seattle.—
Tacoma with its Fifteen Glaciers.—Something about Port Townsend.—A
Chance for Members of Alpine Clubs.
The city of Tacoma takes its name from the grand towering mountain, so
massive and symmetrical, in sight of which it is situated. We cannot but
regret that the newly formed State did not assume the name also.
This is the western terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and is
destined to become a great commercial port in the near future, being
situated so advantageously at the head of the sound, less than two
hundred miles from the Pacific Ocean. Its well-arranged system of
wharves is already a mile and a half long, while there is a sufficient
depth of water in any part of the sound to admit of safely mooring the
largest ships. The reports of the United States Coast Survey describe
Puget Sound as having sixteen hundred miles of shore line, and a surface
of two thousand square miles, thus forming a grand inland sea, smooth,
serene, and still, often appropriately spoken of as the Mediterranean of
the North Pacific. It is indented with many bays, harbors, and inlets,
and receives into its bosom the waters of numerous streams and
tributaries, all of which are more or less navigable, and upon whose
banks are established the homes of many hundred thrifty farmers.
History shows that long ago, before any Pilgrims landed at Plymouth,
Spanish voyagers planted colonies on Puget Sound. From them the Indians
of these shores learned to grow crops of cereals, though according to
the ingenious Ignatius Donnelly’s “Atlantis” they brought the art from a
lost continent. Puget Sound may be described as an arm of the Pacific
which, running through the Strait of Fuca, extends for a hundred miles,
more or less, southward into the State of Washington. Nothing can exceed
the beauty of these deep, calm waters, or their excellence for the
purpose of navigation; not a shoal exists either in the strait or the
sound that can interfere with the progress of the largest ironclad. A
ship’s side would strike the shore before her keel would touch the
bottom. Storms do not trouble these waters; such as are frequently
encountered in narrow seas, like the Straits of Magellan, and heavy
snow-storms are unknown. The entire expanse is deep, clear, and placid.
Tacoma has about thirty thousand inhabitants to-day; in 1880 it had
seven hundred and twenty! The assessed valuation eight years ago was
half a million dollars. It is now over sixteen million dollars, and this
aggregate does not quite represent the rapid increase of real estate.
Here, months have witnessed more growth and progress in permanent
business wealth and value of property than years in the history of our
Eastern cities. At this writing there is being built a large and
architecturally grand opera house of stone and brick which will cost
quarter of a million dollars, besides which the author counted over
forty stone and brick business edifices in course of construction, and
nearly a hundred two and three story frame-houses for dwelling purposes,
of handsome modern architectural designs. Away from the business centre
of the city the residences are universally beautiful, with well-kept
lawns of exquisite green, and small charming flower gardens fragrant
with roses, syringas, and honeysuckles, mingling with pansies,
geraniums, verbenas, and forget-me-nots. It is astonishing what an air
of leisure and refinement is imparted to these dwellings by this means,—
an air of retirement and culture, amid all the surrounding bustle and
rush of business interests.
The city claims an ocean commerce surpassed in volume by no other port
on the Pacific except San Francisco. Its substantial and well-arranged
brick blocks, of both dwellings and storehouses, lining the broad
avenues, are suggestive of permanence and commercial importance, while a
general appearance of thrift prevails in all of the surroundings.
Pacific Avenue is noticeably a fine thoroughfare,—the principal one of
the town. The place seems to be thoroughly alive, and especially in the
vicinity of the shipping. The author counted fifteen ocean steamers in
the harbor, and there were at the same time as many large sailing
vessels lying at the wharves loading with lumber, wheat, coal, and other
merchandise, exhibiting a degree of commercial energy hardly to be
expected of so comparatively small a community. We were informed that
four fifths of the citizens were Americans by birth, drawn mostly from
the educated and energetic classes of the United States, forming a
community of much more than average intelligence. Young America, backed
by capital, is the element which has made the place what it is. It was a
surprise to find a hotel so large and well appointed in this city as the
“Tacoma” proved to be; a five-story stone and brick house, of pleasing
architectural effect, and having ample accommodations for three hundred
guests. It stands upon rising ground overlooking the extensive bay. The
view from its broad piazzas is something to be remembered.
Across Commencement Bay is a point of well-wooded land, called “Indian
Reservation,” where our government located what remains of the Modoc
tribe who so long resisted the advance of the whites towards the Pacific
shore. These former belligerents are peaceable enough now, fully
realizing their own interests.
Statistics show that there is shipped from Tacoma, on an average, a
thousand tons of native coal per day, mostly to San Francisco and some
other Pacific ports. A large portion of this coal comes from valuable
measures belonging to the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, situated
thirty or forty miles from Tacoma, and some from the Roslyn mines
farther away. The Wilkinson and Carbonado mines form the principal
source of supply for shipment, and the Roslyn for use on the railroad.
These last are thirty-five thousand acres in extent. One of the many
veins of the Roslyn coal deposit is estimated to contain three hundred
million tons of coal, conveniently situated for transportation on the
line of the Northern Pacific Railroad.
The great Tacoma sawmill does a very large and successful business,
finding its motor in a steam engine of fourteen hundred horse-power, and
having over seven hundred men on its pay-roll. This number includes
mill-hands, dock-men, choppers, and watermen, the latter being the hands
who bring the logs by rafts from different parts of the sound. There are
a dozen other sawmills in and about the city. The lumber business of
this region is fast assuming gigantic proportions, shipments being
regularly made to China, Japan, Australia, and even to Atlantic ports. A
whole fleet of merchantmen were waiting their turn to take in cargo
while we were there. We believe that Tacoma will ere long become the
second city on the Pacific coast, and perhaps eventually a rival to San
Francisco. Its abundance of coal, iron, and lumber, added to its variety
of fish and immense agricultural products, are sufficient to support a
city twice as large as the capital of California.
One sturdy gang of men, who are bringing in a large raft of logs,
attracts our attention by their similarity of dress and general
appearance, as well as by their dark skins and well-developed forms. On
inquiry we learn that they are native Indians of the Haida tribe, who
come down from the north to work through a part of the season as
lumbermen, at liberal wages. They are accustomed to perilous voyages
while seeking the whale and fishing for halibut in deep waters,
commanding good wages, as being equal to any white laborers obtainable.
We embark at Tacoma for Alaska in a large and well-appointed steamer
belonging to the Pacific Coast Steamship Company, heading due north.
The first place of importance at which we stop is the city of Seattle,
the oldest American settlement on the sound, and now having a busy
commercial population of nearly thirty thousand. It has an admirable
harbor, deep, ample in size, and circular in form; the commercial
facilities could hardly be improved. Here again are large substantial
brick and stone blocks, schools, churches, and various public and
private edifices of architectural excellence. Enterprise and wealth are
conspicuous, while the neighboring scenery is grand and attractive. To
the east of the city, scarcely a mile away, is situated a very beautiful
body of water, deep and pure, known as Lake Washington, twenty miles
long by an average of three in width, and from which the citizens have a
never-failing supply of the best of water. The lake has an area of over
sixty square miles, and is surrounded by hills covered with a noble
forest-growth of fir, spruce, and cedar. Seattle has four large public
schools averaging six hundred pupils each, and a university to which
there are seven professors attached, with a regular attendance of two
hundred students.
Among the great natural resources of this region there is included sixty
thousand acres of coal fields within a radius of thirty miles of
Seattle. These coal fields are connected with the city by railways.
Tacoma and Seattle are also joined by rail, besides two daily lines of
steamboats.
Great is the rivalry existing between the people here and those of
Tacoma, but there is certainly room enough for both; and,
notwithstanding the destructive fire which lately occurred at Seattle,
it is prospering wonderfully. About four miles distant from the centre
of business is situated one of the largest steel manufactories in this
country, the immediate locality being known as Moss Bay. Here timber,
water, coal, and mineral are close at hand to further the object of this
mammoth establishment, which, when in full operation, will give
employment to five thousand men. Real estate speculation is the present
rage at Seattle, based on the idea that it is to be _the_ port of Puget
Sound.
Between the city and hoary-headed Mount Tacoma is one of the finest
hop-growing valleys extant. It has enriched its dwellers by this
industry, and more hops are being planted each succeeding year,
increasing the quantity exported by some twenty-five per cent. annually.
It may be doubted if the earth produces a more beautiful sight in the
form of an annual crop of vegetation than that afforded by a hop-field,
say of forty acres, when in full bloom. We were told that the land of
King County, of which Seattle is the capital, is marvelous in fertility,
especially in the valleys, often producing four tons of hay to the acre;
three thousand pounds of hops, or six hundred bushels of potatoes, or
one hundred bushels of oats to the acre are common. It must be
remembered also that while there is plenty of land to be had of
government or the Northern Pacific Railroad Company at singularly low
rates, transportation in all directions by land or water is ample and
convenient, a desideratum by no means to be found everywhere.
From the deck of the steamer, as we sail northward, the
irregular-formed, but well-wooded shore is seen to be dotted with
hamlets, sawmills, farms, and hop-fields, all forming a pleasing
foreground to the remarkable scenery of land and water presided over by
the snow-crowned peak of Mount Tacoma, which looms fourteen thousand
feet and more skyward in its grandeur and loneliness. How awful must be
the stillness which pervades those heights! As we view it, the snow-line
commences at about six thousand feet from the base, above which there
are eight thousand feet more, ice-topped and glacier-bound, where the
snow and ice rest in endless sleep. There are embraced within the
capacious bosom of Tacoma fifteen glaciers, three of which, by liberal
road-making and engineering, have been rendered accessible to visitors,
and a few persistent mountain climbers come hither every year to witness
glacial scenery finer than can be found in Europe. Persons who have
traveled in Japan will be struck by the strong resemblance of this
Alpine Titan to the famous volcano of Fujiyama, whose snow-wreathed cone
is seen by the stranger as he enters the harbor of Yokohama, though it
is eighty miles away.
As we steam northward other peaks come into view, one after another,
until the whole Cascade Range is visible, half a hundred and more in
number.
The summit of Tacoma is not absolutely inaccessible. A dozen daring and
hardy climbers have accomplished the ascent first and last; but it
involves a degree of labor and the encountering of serious dangers which
have thus far rendered it a task rarely achieved. Many have attempted to
scale these lonely heights, and many have given up exhausted, glad to
return alive from this perilous experience between earth and sky.
Members of various Alpine clubs cross the Atlantic to climb inferior
elevations. Let such Americans test their athletic capacity and indulge
their ambition by overcoming the difficult ascent of Tacoma.
Port Townsend is finally reached,—the port of entry for Puget Sound
district and the gateway of this great body of inland water. Tacoma,
Seattle, and Port Townsend are all lively contestants for supremacy on
Puget Sound. The business part of Port Townsend is situated at the base
of a bluff which rises sixty feet above the sea level, upon the top of
which the dwelling-houses have been erected, and where a marine hospital
flies the national flag. To live in comfort here it would seem to be
necessary for each family to possess a balloon, or that a big public
lift should be established to take the inhabitants of the town from one
part to the other. It is rapidly growing,—street grading and building of
stores and dwelling-houses going on in its several sections. Vancouver
named the place after his distinguished patron, the Marquis of
Townshend. We were told that over two thousand vessels enter and clear
at the United States custom-house here annually, besides which there are
at least a thousand which pass in and out of the sound under coasting
licenses, and are not included in this aggregate. The collections of the
district average one thousand dollars for each working day of the year.
Port Townsend is nine hundred miles from San Francisco by sea, and
thirty-five hundred miles, in round numbers, from Boston or New York. It
is the first port from the Pacific Ocean, and the nearest one to British
Columbia, besides being the natural outfitting port for Alaska. We were
surprised to learn the extent of maritime business done here, and that
in the number of American steam vessels engaged in foreign trade it
stands foremost in all the United States. Its climate is said to be more
like that of Italy than any other part of America. The place is
certainly remarkable for salubrity and healthfulness, and is universally
commended by persons who have had occasion to remain there for any
considerable period. The view from the upper part of the town is very
comprehensive, including Mount Baker on one side and the Olympic Range
on the other, while the far-away silver cone of Mount Tacoma is also in
full view. The busy waters of the sound are constantly changing in the
view presented, various craft passing before the eye singly and in
groups. Long lines of smoke trail after the steamers, whose turbulent
wakes are crossed now and then by some dancing egg-shell canoe or a
white-winged, graceful sailboat bending to the breeze.
Certain custom-house formalities having been duly complied with, we
continued on our course, bearing more to the westward, crossing the
Strait of Juan de Fuca, bound for Victoria, the capital of Vancouver
Island and of British Columbia, at which interesting place we land for a
brief sojourn. To the westward the port looks out through the Strait of
Fuca to the Pacific, southward into Puget Sound, and eastward beyond the
Gulf of Georgia to the mainland.
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