Seaports, Captains, Merchants

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United States: Seattle, Washington

March 9, 1896, San Francisco Call, San Francisco, California, U.S.A.

QUEEN CITY OF PUGET SOUND

Rapid Growth of Seattle, the Metropolis of the Northwest.
IN A VERY RICH REGION.
The Resources of a Varied and Almost Inexhaustible Nature.
VALUABLE LUMBER AND COAL
Manufacturing Interests That Will Boom During the March of Improvement.

SEATTLE, Washington, March 6, 1896.— Among the youthful cities of the Northwest of prospective greatness, three or four stand dut with brighter hopes than the others; but none, perhaps, with better prospects than Seattle. The Queen City was first settled by whites in the year 1852, and since that time her growth has been rapid and substantial. The steady increase in her population during the last sixteen years is shown by the following figures: In 1880 her population was, according to the United States census, 3533; in 1885, 9683; in 1889, 26,740; in 1890, United States census, 42,837; in June, 1892, State census, 57,542; her present population is upward of 65,000, the directory estimate for 1896 placing it at 67,000.

As a commercial center Seattle's situation is unequaled on the Pacific Coast; she has every natural facility for the making of a great city, and her friends expect within a few years, to see her ranking with Detroit, Buffalo, Milwaukee, Toledo and the other cities of commercial importance around the Great Lakes. Her citizens realize that her future largely depends upon her own exertions and her natural advantages.

Seattle has already realized this, and her citizens are turning their attention to manufacturing. The Seattle Chamber of Commerce is alert to the need of manufacturing, and all applicants for locations find ready and earnest cooperation from that energetic body.

Like most Western cities Seattle must depend largely upon outside capital to develop her natural resources. Too little is generally known of the advantages which the Puget Sound country offers to Eastern capital. This, however, seems likely to be remedied within the next few years. Eastern people who have wintered in Southern California are returning to their homes in great numbers by the northern routes for the express purpose of looking over the situation in this fertile and rich section of the country.

All visitors seemed surprised to find Seattle the well-built city she is. The great fire of 1889 destroyed all the business portion of the city, causing damage to the extent of $15,000,000. Her citizens, however, have rebuilt the city with modern, well-equipped buildings, making her the best built city of her size in the United States. No sooner had Seattle been rebuilt than the panic came and retarded her growth somewhat. These vicissitudes, however, have called out the energies of the people, and forced them to turn their attention to manufacturing and legitimate commercial business.

Within the last few years Seattle's manufactures have made satisfactory progress. The chief products of Puget Sound, of which Seattle is the largest and most important city and natural distributing point, are lumber, shingles, coal, marble, hops, fruit, potatoes, field roots, dairy products, cattle, hogs, poultry, orchard and small fruits, and edible fish of a numerous variety. None of these products are developed to their full extent, and they present a large field for the capitalist. Considering, however, the natural advantages which the country has over the Eastern sections of America, and considering the extent of the growth of the East, the West may hope some day to outstrip the East. All that is wanted is capital. It has been truly said that had the Pacific seaboard been first discovered, the bleak hills of New England would have to this day remained uninhabited.

Lumbering and coal mining are the chief industries of this section. The amount of coal shipped from Seattle during the year 1894 was 270,000 tons, and the output for 1895 much greater.

The lumber manufacturing is a prominent industry. The number of acres of timber land in King County is about 879,000. The average number of feet of standing timber per acre is about 23,000. The average stumpage per 1000 feet is 70 cents. The number of feet of standing timber, 20,230,800,000. Stumpage value, $14,161,500. Many other counties on Puget Sound are equally rich in timber.

Lying in the Snoqualmie Pass, near the summit of the Cascade Mountains, is a rich deposit of magnetic iron ore. This deposit is well-nigh inexhaustible, and its great value is shown by the following average analysis of ore:

Metallic iron, 68.31; silica, 2.48; phosphorus, .034 ; sulphur, .023.

Overlying this ore is a large quantity of white marble, and adjoining the iron ore claims are rich veins of copper and silver. Rich gold and silver deposits are being discovered in the Cascade Mountains.

The fisheries of Seattle have during the last year done a thriving business, having run day and night. New canneries are starting up at several points^on the Sound and the industry is decidedly on the increase. The fishing industry includes seal catching, salmon canning, shipping fresh fish to the East and fish drying. Halibut are extensively handled; also herring, cod and other varieties. Oysters, clams, crabs and shrimps abound in the sound and are already a great feature of the fishing trade and one destined to increase indefinitely in the future. Lobsters have been planted of late years and are expected to multiply and thrive. There is no reason to suppose that the Pacific fisheries will not in time equal those of the Atlantic and when they do Seattle will become the great fishing center of the coast.

The city has railroad facilities which are unequaled on the Pacific Coast, having direct communication with the East by four great transcontinental line 3, the Northern Pacific, the Great Northern, Canadian Pacific and Union Pacific, all of which terminate at Seattle. It also has 600 miles of local lines.

It is the center of the water traffic of Puget Sound. Freight, touring and passenger steamers innumerable make Seattle their headquarters. It has several lines of steamers and sailing vessels plying between Seattle, San Francisco and the California coast, three to Alaska, one to South America, several to British Columbia, and local lines reaching every nook and corner of the 1800 miles of shore of Puget Sound.

Its water and land facilities for handling all kinds of business have made Seattle the principal wholesale and jobbing point in the State, and have given her all of the following named institutions, as well as the travel and trade incident thereto, viz. : The State University, Circuit and District Courts, United States Land Office, Customhouse, Local Inspectors Hulls and Boilers, Weather Bureau and Signal Service, Geological Survey, United States Engineers' Office, etc.

The city is in the midst of the greatest lumber, coal, iron and mineral belts in the world. The native wealth of this immediate section is too great for the human mind to comprehend. All sorts of industries are found there, such as sash and door factories, furniture factories, iron works, car shops, flouring-mills, boiler shops, ship and boat building, marineways, foundries, elevators, breweries, warehouses, etc. The city is the county seat of King County, the greatest hop-producing county in the West. It is the principal produce market of the State, and ships great quantities to California, Hawaiian Islands, China, Japan, South America, Africa and England. It is also the principal supply point for logging camps, mills, etc.

Seattle is a substantial and growing city, the metropolis of the Northwest, and her trade and business are in exact ratio to her population. The city is situated on the east shore of Puget Sound, on a strip of hilly land which lies between Elliott or Seattle Bay and Lake Washington. Lake Washington is a fine, fresh-water lake of great depth, about twenty-five miles long, with a superficial area of about thirty-nine square miles, lying parallel to the Sound about two miles distant.

Seattle lacks but two things to round up her commercial facilities: The one is level land on which to build up her manufactories and to transact her other heavy business adjacent to deep-water wharfage, and the other is a freshwater harbor where vessels and wharves would be protected from the ravages of the teredo. The area of low, level land adjacent to the harbor is very limited and lies at the base of the bluff on which the residence part of the city is built. So narrow is this strip that the business part of the city has extended out over the water upon expensive wharves, which are annually or biennially destroyed by the teredo. The city is thus hampered. Her business must be done on this mere strip or on wharves or raised to the hills, which is impracticable. More room on level ground is a positive necessity.

The remedy is at hand. There extends from the city, south, a level tract of level land, called tide flats, overflowed with each coming in of the tide. If this area of tide flats had been dry land, lying as it does contiguous to the heart of the city, the business center of Seattle would now boon this land.

This land is now being filled in and reclaimed, and at the same time provision is being made for one of the finest harbors in the world. It will be pierced with two main ship waterways, each 1000 feet wide, connected with the Duwamish River by means of two canals, each 300 feet wide. These level lands will be connected with Lake Washington by a ship canal through the highlands two miles long, and this canal will be connected with the main waterways by a canal waterway one mile long.

The material dredged and dug from these waterways and canals is being used to fill in the tide lands. Seawalls and retaining walls of the most substantial character will be constructed. The contracts were let by the State to the Seattle and Lake Washington Waterway Company and by that company to the Bowers Dredging Company of Chicago, and they are now moving 250,000 cubic yards of earth monthly. The estimated cost of the complete work is from six to seven million dollars. This reclaimed land must necessarily become very valuable. The great and rapidly growing business of this metropolis of the Northwest must go there, because there is no other place for it to go.

The total area to be rilled in is 1525 acres. The length of the hill section of the canal is 10,225 feet and the deepest cut 308 feet. The time allowed by the State for the completion of the work is six years. The present improvers on the districts now being filled number among them some of the best known and largest concerns of Seattle. The values of the lands as set by the Board of Tide Lands Appraisers vary from $1000 per acre to $100 per acre. The higher priced lands are those directly adjoining the present business portion of the city, and the lower priced those at the extreme end of the fill.

The district at present being filled comprises about forty-six and a half acres of the most valuable tide lands, and the filling has been in progress since August 1, 1895, although certain preliminary work, such as pile-driving, etc., was started May 23, 1895. Notwithstanding a number of serious delays, due to storms and accidents, the Bowers Dredging Company has filled in and raised to two feet above high tide about twelve acres, and inside of three months sixteen acres additional will have been filled. The depth of the fill in some places is as great as twenty-two feet, but on an average the depth of the fill is sixteen to eighteen feet. The fill is protected from the action of the Sound by a brush and pile bulkhead.

The filled land is capable of sustaining buildings of any dimensions and weight. Too great importance cannot be attached to this great work, and the benefits that the city will derive from it need no comment.

The citizens of Seattle contributed $500,000 to the work, but St. Louis capitalists are mainly financiering the enterprise. There are no obstacles, either physical or financial, in the way of a satisfactory completion of the work, and when completed Seattle will have one of the finest, if not the finest harbor in the world.

Seattle is without doubt the most advantageously located city on the Pacific Coast to feel and profit by the opening up of Alaskan resources. Her trade with that country is rapidly increasing, and the Chamber of Commerce is using its best efforts to develop Alaskan trade. Several shipping, express and transportation companies have recently been organized in Seattle, all in the hands of experienced and substantial men.

Two regular lines of steamers run from Seattle to Alaska, besides a number of sailing vessels doing a good business in carrying passengers and freight to and from the north.

There can be no doubt but that as trade opens up both at home and abroad and in the Orient, Seattle will step to the front rank and will eventually be one of the greatest shipping and commercial cities on the Pacific Coast.

Assistant Secretary Seattle Chamber of Commerce.

August 12, 1897, San Francisco Call, San Francisco, California, U.S.A.

THE SEATTLE CRAZE.
Klondike Still Holds Fast Its Victims In the Sound

SEATTLE, Washingon, August 11. There is no abatement to the gold fever here. Nothing but Klondike is to be heard on all sides and if you attempt to reason with a man or woman, boy or girl, that it is downright foolishness to go into that region at this late season of the year you will not be listened to for a moment.

map You are told that Jim Humbug and Jack Bum, or some other character never known to any one but two or three boon companions, went in there a year or so ago and returned a "Baron Rothschild" in wealth. Because these men did so there is no reason under the sun why these going out should not fare as well or better.

Seattle, Washington. Landowner Map. 1890.

On all sides you find the word Klondike. It is Klondike bonnets, hats, boots, shoes, suspenders, garters, hosiery; Klondike dinners, parties, steaks, chops, puddings; Klondike culinary utensils of every description, Klondike groceries. The very air one breathes seems to be impregnated with the Klondike microbe a very substantial one if you could but catch him. And the newspapers and merchants are as badly smitten with the "Klon" as the public. All sorts of yarns are flying around and where in the mischief they originate would puzzle a seer to say.

The immense influx of Easterners to Seattle has taxed every description of trade to the utmost. There need be no idle men in Seattle for many months to come, for all who are willing to work have no trouble in obtaining it.

Great Northern dock view, SS Dakota and Minnesota Seattle, Washington

On entering a tent factory today to look around I was asked if I was hunting for a job; if so I could start in right away. Unfortunately the sailors' needle is not my forte. Every jack tar who can cobble tents can secure all the employment he wants right in this burg.

Politeness is forgotten by the clerks in stores, and little time is wasted on you if you have not your mind made up before entering a store. The demand is "to great and so many want to be served in ; a rush that even the proprietors do not have time to wash their hands with imaginary soap or even welcome you with a smile. "Purchase or get out" appears to be the order of the day. There are hundreds waiting to be served, and as every one has money and expects to pay three prices for the articles required, no "bargain-counter" haggling goes in Seattle at the present moment. One large outfitting house here took in one afternoon last week $12,000 ready cash over the counters. Large as the sum appears one can credit it, judging from the immense number of strangers in the city bound for the Klondike. Some of the Klondikers carry sums from $1 up to $3000, and, as nearly all have fitted out here, the money put into circulation is hard to calculate.

One of the greatest attractions noted on the dock to-day were a couple of remarkably fine shorthorn oxen, which have been trained to pack. Their owner goes with them, and is to employ them packing outfits between the landing at Dyea and the headwaters of the Yukon. Already enough of employment has been booked to keep the oxen going for several weeks, and at a price which will swell their boss' pocketbook. Many of those who purchased cayuses concluded, after seeing the oxen, that it would have been more profitable had they done likewise. Having got their outfits to navigation, and built their boats, the animals could have been turned into juicy steaks or sun dried beef.

Every one bound to Klondike is kicking at the high freight rates, but apparently all gladly pay them. On the barges the owners of horses had to pay $25 a head and $11 a ton for hay (40 feet going to the ton), while oats were taken at $20.50, a ton.

But what foolish people are the Eastern folk! To go from Chicago to San Francisco by train costs about $61; a second class passage to Dyea $28, a total of $31. From Chicago to Seattle by train is $72.50, a second-class passage by steamer to Dyea $22.50, a total of $94.50. Any one can see the saving. Again, in San Francisco one has an opportunity of choosing his steamer and getting his berth. Here, he takes what he can get, and very often has to await his opportunity.

J. C. Campbell.

November 21, 1898, San Francisco Call, San Francisco, California, U.S.A.

SCHEMES TO DIVERT GOLD TO SEATTLE

Strange Plays Against San Francisco.
CONGRESSMEN UP IN ARMS DISCRIMINATING EXCHANGE IN CHICAGO.
Remarkable Energy of the Government Assayer at Seattle in Drumming Up Business.

The California delegation to Congress has sharpened its claws for a vigorous bout with the Treasury Department at Washington regarding a striking and hitherto unnoticed discrimination against San Francisco and in favor of Seattle and Chicago in the matter of the receipt and disposition of gold bullion produced on the Pacific Coast, and especially in Alaska.

One subject of protest is that since the establishment of the United States assay office at Seattle recently gold bullion deposited with Uncle Sam there has been paid for by check on the sub-Treasury at Chicago Instead of San Francisco. When a man deposits gold bullion at the San Francisco Mint he receives a check on the sub-Treasury here.

The difference is that of the regular banking exchange between the Pacific Coast and Chicago. Thus, when gold is deposited in the assay office at Seattle the Treasury Department practically receives the deposit at Chicago and so Seattle is given this advantage over San Francisco. The price of exchange is small, but the price of exchange regulates the flow of gold the world over. Between the Pacific Coast and Chicago exchange costs 15 cents per $100. As the Seattle office has received between $0,000,000 and $8,000,000 this year its total advantage over San Francisco amounts to several thousand dollars —a big figure in banking operations.

It further transpires that the enterprising F. A. Wing, who is the assayer in charge of the Seattle Assay Office, has been laying himself out to boom the business of his office and of Seattle by missing no chances to divert his way and away from San Francisco all the bullion deposits possible.

He has over his own signature advertised the claim that the Government pays more for gold bullion at Seattle than at San Francisco, and has actively solicited miners to deposit their gold with him rather than at the San Francisco Mint. A few days ago, under date of November 2, he answered a letter of inquiry written by a well-known mining man of this State, and the main part of this remarkable letter from a Government official is as follows:

I take great pleasure in informing you that the charges are as follows: The first charge is one eighth of one per cent on the gross value of the gold and sliver. The second charge is four cents per ounce on the weight after melt. The third charge is $1 for each deposit, or in cases where the deposit is over 1000 ounces the charge is one-tenth of one per cent per ounce, which makes a small increase. The fourth charge is 2 cents an ounce on one-eleventh of the standard weight of the gold, which is a very small charge. The first and second charges are the only ones of importance.

All deposits are paid by checks on the sub-treasury at Chicago. The advantage of depositing with this office over the Mint at San Francisco would be that you can secure Eastern exchange; and our second charge of four cents an ounce after melt is two cents less than San Francisco. I would be very pleased to handle any gold that you might see fit to send me, and am in position to give you prompt and satisfactory returns.

Trusting to hear from you In the near future,
I am, respectfully yours.
F. A. WING, Assayer in Charge.

This precious letter from a Treasury Department official sufficiently indicates the way the Seattle Assay Office is being I run in open and aggressive competition with San Francisco by means of newspaper interviews and private communications. "Wing makes that Eastern exchange stick out as an inducement and then declares that he will charge his customers 2 cents less an ounce than will Superintendent Leach of the San Francisco Mint. According to this, gold is worth more in the Seattle Government market than in San Francisco.

It is possible that Mr. Wing is merely ignorant. The Government charges at Seattle are precisely the same as at San Francisco, but they appear to be expressed differently at an assay office and at a mint. The one-eighth of 1 per cent charged at Seattle amounts to exactly 2 cents per ounce, and 4 cents is added to it. At the mints one charge of 6 cents is made, and the other trifling charges for alloy and for deposit are exactly the same as at Seattle. If the facilities of the Seattle office allow as perfect assays as at the San Francisco Mint, the depositor should receive the same amount to a penny.

Mr. Wing probably tripped on the 4 and 6 cents and may know better when he learns more. At both the San Francisco Mint and the Seattle Assay Office the charges on 1000 ounces of Klondike gold at $16 an ouce would, according to regulations, be $62 56.

There is thus a discrimination against San Francisco by the Treasury Department both through its hustling agent and through the banking advantage allowed. The gold deposited at the Seattle office is shipped to Philadelphia for minting. When the bill for the establishment of the Seattle office was passed at the last session of Congress the argument for it was that it would help the poor miner. It is a great convenience to the Alaska miner who returns to the Sound, but he does not get the benefit of that "Eastern exchange." California Congressmen are unable to see why Seattle should have this advantage over San Francisco to draw gold to it.

Senator Perkins, who is out of town lor a few days, has said that he will protest at Washington, and Congressman Hilborn has declared himself likewise. The only member of the delegation in the city yesterday was Congressman Maguire, who has also looked into the matter quietly.

"'lt is an injustice," he declared. "I shall talk with Senator Perkins when he returns. It is a discrimination which the Government should not allow."

When it was suggested that the Treasury Department appeared to have created a "line of least resistance" for the transcontinental flow of gold, he said: "It has done more than that. It has connived at a scheme to divert gold to Seattle and Chicago for the benefit of special interests. And it is not a valid argument to say that the gold is needed East. The Government should not do a banking business in competition with bankers. Let the bankers ship the gold if it is wanted East. The natural course of the bullion is to San Francisco."

Indianapolis A 180 foot steamer built in 1904 by the Craig Shipyards at Toledo, Ohio. Her trip around the horn in 1905-06 was one of the shortest journeys--54 days total, a record, but the trip was far from uneventful. A mutiny nearly took place, a scuffle which resulted in Captain Johnson receiving a black eye which was still in evidence when the vessel pulled into Seattle on 10 February, 1906. Black Ball announced that the ship was to be renamed Crescent but they never got around to it. After a brief refit, the Indianapolis went to work in competition with the veteran steamer Flyer on the Seattle-Tacoma run. The rivalry between the Flyer and the Indianapolis was long-standing. Despite Black Ball's strict policy against racing, there was one midnight race between the two steamers. The Flyer, in her efforts, burst one of her boilers; still, even with a 4 minute lead she passed her rival and pulled into Tacoma well ahead of the Indianapolis. "Come fly on the Flyer" was not just a company boast, it was now an established fact. Black Ball was not pleased. With over 285 people aboard, and the loss of the Clallam still fresh on their minds, they released a scathing statement reprimanding both the crew and captain of the Indianapolis. The rivals never raced again. There was still a matter of pride involved in running the big steamer. The Indianapolis tried very hard to maintain the Flyer's schedule. To do so, she had to run at full steam, creating a wake, according to author Gordon Newell in the fine book Pacific Steamboats that "would have done credit to the Mauretania. The waves of her passing upset scow-loads of lumber, tore small boats loose from their moorings and wrecked houseboats." The rivalry ended in 1911 when Black Ball found a simpler solution: the company purchased the Flyer. Like most of the other Black Ball steamers, the Indianapolis eventually found herself unprofitable as a passenger steamer. She was removed from the Seattle-Tacoma run in 1930. Black Ball hauled her into the yard and converted her to carry autos on the Edmonds-Port Townsend run.

During the summer of 1909, the first world's fair was held in Seattle. Capitalizing on the popularity of the booming gold rush, the exposition was designed to showcase the riches of the Pacific Northwest and highlight trade with the Pacific Rim nations and beyond.

Millions of visitors came to Seattle to experience the one-of-a-kind attractions, exhibits, and events held during the AY PE, which became the footprint for the modern University of Washington campus. Many of these visitors stayed to populate the growing metropolis. From the ornate European-style architecture to the fountains and gardens, the amusements of the Pay Streak, and the exotic Oriental exhibits, the AYPE entertained and educated while bringing needed business to Washington State.

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Spirit of the First People: 
Native American Music Traditions of Washington State 
Willie Smyth
Spirit of the First People is a collection of personal narratives, stories, and essays on the music of the First People in the region that now encompasses Washington State. From tribe to tribe and reservation to reservation across the state, a wide range of musical genres and individual styles have developed, including social dance songs, game songs, and hymns.

Company Towns of the Pacific Northwest
Linda Carlson
University of Washington Press
"Company town" evoke images of rough-and-tumble loggers and gritty miners, of dreary shacks in isolated villages, of wages paid in scrip good only at price-gouging company stores, of paternalistic employers. But these stereotypes are out-dated, especially for those company towns that flourished well into the twentieth century.

The author provides a more balanced look at these "intentional communities." Many of the later towns attracted professionals as well as laborers; houses were likely to be clapboard Victorians or shingled bungalows; and the mercantile store carried work boots, baby diapers, and Buicks and extended credit even to striking workers. Company owners built schools, power plants, and movie theaters. Drawing from residents' reminiscences, contemporary newspaper accounts, company newsletters and histories, census and school records, and site plans, the book looks at towns in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, considering who planned the towns and designed the buildings. It examines how companies went about controlling housing, religion, taxes, liquor, prostitution, and union organizers. It tells what happened when people left--when they lost their jobs, when the family breadwinner died or was disabled, when mills closed.

Northwest Coast Native and Native-Style Art  
A Guidebook for Western Washington
L loyd J. Averill, Daphne K. Morris
This resource book by former University of Washington lecturer Averill and Native art educator/illustrator Morris combines effective approaches to touring, viewing, and learning about the Native arts of the Northwest Coast region.

The Mapmaker's Eye
David Thompson on the Columbia Plateau
Jack Nisbet
David Thompson was a fur trader, explorer, and meticulous geographic surveyor. He was, and is, the English and Canadian counterpart of Lewis and Clark. He visited the Mandan villages on the Missouri River in 1798. He crossed the Continental Divide in 1807 and spent five winters on the west side of the divide trading with the Indians. He explored the Columbia River from its origin to the Pacific Ocean. He kept complete journals. He was a better writer than Meriwether Lewis, although not Lewis' equal as a naturalist. He took astronomical readings and did his own computations of both latitude and longitude. Because of this, his maps were much more accurate than those of William Clark. Later in his life, Thompson helped survey the boundary between Canada and the United States.