Surveyors Find a Rich Country Behind a Brutal Trail
A government surveying party returns from Chehalis County with tales of an impassable road, a hotel meal that required a salmon spear, and soil and timber worth the misery.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
J. R. Dewitt, the government examiner of surveys, accompanied by T. B. Smith and H. P. Bush, returned on Sunday from Chehalis county, where they have been examining surveys just made, in order to learn that the lines are properly run. They were out just a week, and traversed much of the country along the Humptulips river. All surveys contracted for by the government are examined before they are accepted at the land office in Washington, and opened for filing.
When the three men arrived in the city on Sunday evening they looked as if they had been traveling a pretty rough road, and verily they had. They were hungry too, for flapjacks and 17th century corn beef were not so inviting at the dinner to which they sat down at the Carlton house. They each agreed that they felt a hundred per cent better after having devoured a hearty meal.
After reaching Hoquiam, they had to travel 32 miles over a rough road that wouldn't accommodate anything with wheels. On their backs they packed their grub, instruments and blankets. Their progress was slow, but slower still when they reached the end of the road at Humptulips City and had to make their way from there over a trail that was almost hidden with brush and fallen logs. It was difficult to cover more than two miles an hour.
At Humptulips City there is a general store and a hotel. "The landlord ought to be arrested for obtaining money under false pretense," said one of their number, "and if a piece of the bread were to strike you, you would imagine that somebody had assaulted you with a deadly weapon. It needed a salmon spear to tackle the meat, but we managed to get through with it."
While this country is almost inaccessible, it is as rich for cultivation as any in the state. How many thousand years it has been enriched by falling leaves is a puzzle, but such a thing as a stone is out of the question. Immense fir logs from six to twelve feet in diameter cover the ground so that it is impossible to see the chainman 100 feet distant.
When the corner stakes to a section or township are driven they are placed in the ground diagonally, with the corners facing due north, south, east and west. Notes are made of the angles, size and description of the tree nearest to each corner of the stake, and other data is made to mark the corner. The party was out one week, during which time it rained constantly.
“It needed a salmon spear to tackle the meat, but we managed to get through with it.”
In 1891, opening land for settlement depended on surveyors willing to push through brush and fallen logs to mark corners no one could yet reach. The gap between a rich country and the roads needed to use it still echoes in rural infrastructure debates, where access often determines who benefits from land.
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