The western wonder-land : half-hours in the western United States / by Harold Wellman Fairbanks.

  • Harold Wellman Fairbanks
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The western wonder-land : half-hours in the western United States / by Harold Wellman Fairbanks. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    English, and during that period was peopled only by Indians and trappers. In 1846 the present boundary was established, and Puget Sound passed into the possession of the United States. Because of the dense forests, agriculture could not play an important part in the development of the sound region for some time. Lumbering was naturally the leading oc- cupation. This industry could be carried on all the more advantageously because of the innumerable inlets penetrat- ing the land. The advantages of Puget Sound for foreign commerce began to be evident, but the Cascade Range stood in the way of railroads from the eastward. Although it was a comparatively easy task to build a railroad north from Portland, yet the sound region did not begin to grow rapidly until, after careful surveys, two railroads finally found passes through the Cascade Range so as to reach tide-water. As in other places, when the necessity for overcoming them arose, the obstacles which Nature had interposed were found not to be so troublesome as was at first supposed. Now the once formidable range has been tunnelled and will no longer form a serious barrier between the interior portion of Washington and the coast. Tacoma, Seattle, and Everett have grown up on the sound as important commercial and manufacturing cities, and will, on account of their favorable situation, receive their share of the commerce of the Pacific. The cities of the sound are particularly well situated for intercourse and commerce with Alaska and northeastern Asia. These cities are also well situated for manufacturing, because coal and wood are plentiful and consequently cheap, but they have not in their immediate vicinity so ex-