A Review of the Resources and Industries of the State of Washington, 1909 | Page 8

of the foothills, chiefly of the Cascade mountains. Higher up are some mines of anthracite coals, not yet on the market for lack of transportation. As far as discovered they are chiefly near the headwaters of the Cowlitz river in Lewis county. Coal forms the largest factory in furnishing steam for the mill roads. Some of the railroads, notably the [Page 20] Northern Pacific and Great Northern, own their own mines and mine the coal for their own engines and shops.
It is also the main fuel supply for domestic uses, although fir and yellow pine cordwood is extensively used when the cost of transportation is not too great.
Coal is also the chief fuel used in steamboats, both those plying over inland waters and the ocean-going boats as well. Here also, however, the fir wood proves a good substitute and is used to some extent by local steamers on the Sound.
Coal is also used to create both steam and electricity for most of the large heating plants in the cities and in many factories and manufacturing plants, flour mills, elevators, etc. The fact that vast coal measures lie within 50 miles of the seaports of Puget Sound is a very important factor in insuring the construction of manufacturing establishments and the concentration of transportation in these ports.
Coal is also used in all the large cities for the manufacture of illuminating gas and as a by-product of this industry coke, coal tar, and crude creosote are produced.
The coke from the ovens goes chiefly to the smelters for the reduction of ores, both of the precious metals and iron.
METAL MINING.
The mining industry other than coal is quite rapidly reaching importance among our industries. There are in the state three large smelters, whose annual output of precious metals far surpasses in value the output of our coal mines. The ores for these values, however, do not all come from the mines of this state. Other states, British Columbia, Alaska, and some foreign countries help furnish the ores. But Washington has within its borders a great mineralized territory, not yet thoroughly prospected and very little developed, yet which materially assists in supplying these smelters with their ores.
[Illustration: Plate No. 17.--Ocean-Going Raft, Built at Stella, Cowlitz County, by the Oregon Rafting Company.]
[Illustration: Plate No. 18.--COWLITZ COUNTY TIMBER. This Stick Was 301 Feet Long and 36 Feet in Circumference at Stump.]
The smelter at Everett receives a steady supply of arsenical ores of copper, lead, gold, silver and zinc from the mines of Snohomish county which are of magnitude sufficient to make profitable the railroad which has been built to Monte Cristo [Page 21] purposely for these ores. This smelter has a special plant for saving the arsenic in these ores, which materially adds to the value of its output and is said to be the only one of its kind in the nation.
Besides the mines at Monte Cristo, there are copper mines being successfully worked at Index, whose ores are shipped both to Everett and Tacoma.
At Tacoma is located one of the largest smelting and refining plants in the nation, which draws its ores from all parts of the world. At North Port in Stevens county is a smelter which is chiefly supplied with ores from this state, supplemented by those of British Columbia. At Republic in Ferry county are mines producing gold and silver ores of such extent as to have induced the building of a branch line of railroad to carry their ores to this smelter. There are also in Stevens county large deposits of silver-lead ores, which will be large producers as soon as better transportation is secured. This last statement is also true regarding many mines in other counties.
FISHING INDUSTRY.
The business of catching, preserving and selling fish gives employment probably to more than 10,000 men in this state and adds probably four million dollars annually to its wealth production. The fishes include salmon, which is the chief commercial species, cod in many varieties, halibut, salmon trout, perch, sole, flounders, smelt, herring, sardines, oysters, clams, crabs and shrimp from its salt waters, and sturgeon, trout, perch, black bass, white fish and many others from the fresh water. Great quantities of salmon and halibut are shipped in ice-packed boxes, fresh from the waters, to all parts of the nation. Of these fish, many salmon, halibut and cod are caught in Alaskan waters and brought into this state to be cured and prepared for the market.
The salmon are chiefly packed in tin cans after being cooked; the cod are handled as are the eastern cod, dried and salted. The business of handling the smelts, herring, etc., is in its infancy, as is also that of the shellfish.
[Page 22] The propagation of oysters, both native and eastern, is assuming great importance in many places in the state.