Aberdeen’s Rapid Rise from Forest to Factory

Although the still undeveloped resources of this country are so vast, we are not among those who point only to the future. In spite of the disadvantages of communication which have hampered Aberdeen's growth, the location was too fine to be overlooked and pioneer enterprise has established itself here. Five years ago, the site on which Aberdeen is built was covered with a virgin forest; today it is the only city in southwestern Washington. In the race for supremacy, it has so far eclipsed all rivals that it is today the manufacturing, marketing, and money center of the great Grays Harbor basin. A resume of what has been done in Aberdeen shows: four saw mills running, with a daily capacity of 200,000 feet; a foundry and machine shop kept constantly busy; a shingle mill being constructed; two sash and door factories at work employing 50 men; a ship yard building a three-masted schooner; and three salmon canneries whose annual output is 35,000 cases. It is the best electrically lighted city in Washington, boasting a system of fire protection and water works. With a monthly payroll of $50,000 and two first-class banks, Aberdeen is the only place on the Harbor where wharves can be built along the shore line, possessing five times as much wharfage front built as all other places on the Harbor combined.