An Explorer’s Report from the Northwestern Frontier

Having recently returned from a visit of a couple of weeks in the vicinity of Dungeness, on Fuca Straits, I think it may interest a few of your readers to know something about the 'lay of the land' in Clallam county—the most extreme northwest county in Washington Territory. I left Port Townsend on the 12th of January, in company with a friend, who had invited me to pass a couple of weeks with him on Sequim Prairie. Sequim Bay, or Washington Harbor, as the charts have it, is one of the very best harbors on the Pacific. From the landing, a good wagon road of two miles brought us out on the open plains of Sequim Prairie. The prairie or bottom land extends from Sequim Bay in a north-westerly direction, some ten miles, terminating in a precipitous bluff which forms a portion of the eastern shore of the harbor of Old Dungeness. The open plains afford excellent pasture for stock, and already the settlers have large herds of cattle. Stock raising at present pays better than any other product of the farm, but as soon as experienced farmers with sufficient means commence a systematic method of agriculture, the soil will yield abundant harvests. The near proximity of the prairie to the base of the Olympic mountains will make it a convenient position for any expedition to start from with the intention of prospecting or exploring those mountains, either in the search for gold or to discover some pass which will lead to the fertile valley of the Chehalis.