A Review of the Resources and Industries of the State of Washington, 1909. Ithamar Howell
electricity, however, are both in use.
COAL MINING.
The mining of coal for foreign and domestic purposes is one of the most important of Washington's industries. The annual output of the mines is about three million tons, worth about eight million dollars; Fifty thousand tons of coke are made annually, worth at the ovens about $300,000. The coal mining industry gives employment to 6,000 men. The production of coal for 1907 was distributed as follows:
| Kittitas County, tons | 1,524,421 |
| King County, tons | 1,446,966 |
| Pierce County, tons | 612,539 |
| Lewis County, tons | 101,275 |
| Thurston County, tons | 33,772 |
| Whatcom County, tons | 3,160 |
| Clallam County, tons | 300 |
The coke nearly all comes from Pierce county.
Nearly forty different corporations and individuals are engaged in coal mining. The coals thus far commercially mined are chiefly lignite and bituminous. These coal measures lie along the base 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 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.
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 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.
The propagation of oysters, both native and eastern, is assuming great importance in many places in the state. In Shoalwater bay, Willipa bay, Grays harbor, and many of the bays and inlets of Puget Sound, oysters are being successfully grown. In some instances oyster farms are paying as much as $1,000 per acre. The state has sold many thousand acres of submerged lands for this purpose. It has also reserved several thousand acres of natural oyster beds, from which the seed oysters are annually sold at a cheap price to the oyster farmers, who plant them upon their own lands and market them when full grown.
The native oysters are much smaller than the eastern oysters and of a distinct flavor, but command the same prices in the market.
AGRICULTURE.
Cereals.
The largest and most important industry in the state is without doubt the cultivation of the soil. The great variety of the soils and climatic conditions has made the state, in different parts, admirably adapted to a large variety of farm products. Vast fields of wheat cover a large proportion of the uplands of eastern Washington, the average yield of which is greater than that of any other state in the Union.
The diked lands of western Washington produce oats at the rate of 100 to 125 bushels per acre. In some counties in southeastern Washington barley is more profitable than any other cereal, on account of the large yield and superior quality.
Corn is successfully raised in some of the irrigated lands, but is not as profitable as some other crops and hence is not an important factor in Washington's grain supply. Rye, buckwheat, and flax, are successfully grown in many localities. In western Washington, particularly, peas form an important ration for stock food and are extensively raised for seed, excelling in quality the peas of most other states.
Hops.