The Unopened Wealth of Eastern Washington
University of Washington researchers argue that the state’s massive kaolin and feldspar deposits could transform Spokane into a ceramic powerhouse.
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To encourage the growth of the clay and ceramics industry in the state is the purpose of research work being conducted at the University of Washington under Professor Hewitt Wilson. Although eastern Washington is one of the chief sources of kaolin and feldspar—materials used in the manufacture of whiteware, table porcelain, and spark plugs—the industry is still underdeveloped here. Mr. Wilson says its development would add materially to the wealth of Washington and make Spokane the clay center of the west. Additionally, bottle glass manufacturing should be developed in this state, according to Wilson. There are glass sand deposits at Merritt and on the Green River, but only one plant has started up, located at Anacortes.
“Its development would add materially to the wealth of Washington, and would make Spokane the clay center of the west.”
A century later, the vision of Eastern Washington as a manufacturing hub for ceramics and glass remains a persistent theme in regional economic planning. The reliance on exporting raw materials like kaolin and feldspar versus manufacturing them locally is an economic challenge that still echoes in the state's modern industrial development debates.
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