Olympia’s Booster Year: Brick, Bridges and a 50,000-Person Promise

This thirty-first day of December, 1891, closes the most encouraging, progressive, and successful year ever chronicled in the history of Olympia and Thurston County. Improvements have been prosecuted to such an extent that the city presents almost an entirely changed appearance, and many beautiful structures adorn the business and residence thoroughfares. In this particular especially, it has surpassed any city on Puget Sound. Dwellings have been erected by scores, and the outlying districts have become thickly populated. New streets, new bridges, new stores, new churches and new people, which must necessarily demand new homes, are sufficient evidence of the progressive spirit which has awakened the State Capital during the past year. Handsome stone and brick structures have taken the place of frame buildings to such an extent that in a few years, it is fair to anticipate, the business section will be one mass of imposing structures.

SOME EVIDENCE of just what has been done may here be given. The report of City Engineer Millard Lemon shows that since January 1, 1891, the sum of $95,000 has been expended on the grading of streets alone, while the additional improvements in planking, curbing, construction of sidewalks, and other repairs show the total expenditure on streets to be fully $200,000. In addition to this, bridges have been constructed, the West Side bridge deserving particular mention in being the longest and widest bridge on Puget Sound. It connects Olympia with the West Side, is eighty feet wide, with twelve-foot sidewalks, and contains the track for the West Side electric railway. The total cost of brick and stone and wooden structures, with dwellings, aggregates more than $3,000,000. Prominent among these may be mentioned the new court house, which will be completed by March 1 at a cost of $107,000; the McKenny building, costing $75,000; the Bettman, Reed, Stuart, Hale, Chilberg, Union and other blocks, averaging $20,000 each. New dwellings are innumerable. Three new churches, the Unitarian, the Episcopal and the Christian church, have been built, making a creditable addition to Olympia. This gives a church for every denomination.

FOR ITS POSTAL FACILITIES Olympia cannot be excelled by any city of its size on Puget Sound. It has a handsome new postoffice building, and tomorrow the free delivery system will go into operation with four carriers to deliver and collect the mail. Twenty-two letter boxes are now being placed on the street corners.

THE STATE OFFICERS, nearly all of whom reside in Olympia, now have their headquarters in the McKenny building, which is rented by the state. Provision has been made for a state building to be located at Olympia that will surpass any west of the Mississippi. Upon the admission to statehood 132,000 acres of land were granted by Congress, the proceeds of which are to be devoted to the construction of a state capitol. Already nearly 10,000 acres have been selected, the average value being $20 per acre.

The season just closed has noted Olympia, the state over, for its ENORMOUS FRUIT SHIPMENTS. Carload after load has been forwarded to lower Sound points. Apples, pears, plums and small fruits have been raised in abundance, and with little attention. The farmers, too, in the surrounding counties have enjoyed a most successful crop. The soil is rich and well adapted to the raising of cereals. It is just six miles from THE TRIBUNE office, where wheat was raised by Owen Bush, which secured the golden medal at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia as being the finest wheat in the world. At the Chicago Exposition the story will be repeated.

WHAT IS HERE. In keeping with its prosperous conditions, Olympia can boast of one of the prettiest theaters on the Pacific coast, a handsome hotel costing over $100,000, two daily and four weekly newspapers, a handsome club house valued at $10,000, one of the largest and most complete hospitals on Puget Sound, two handsome brick school structures costing $30,000 each, which, in point of architectural beauty and substantiality cannot be excelled, the largest gridiron for the accommodation of Puget Sound steamers, immense coal bunkers at deep water, connected with the mines by a standard gauge road, and a fire department with all the conceivable electric details for quick and effective work.

Nearly everything used in Thurston County is of HOME PRODUCTION. An immense roller mill supplies the population with flour. From the tannery in the south part of the city is sent out leather which is converted into footwear. Among other articles manufactured within the city limits are agricultural implements, bedding and furniture, wagons, carriages, and heavy vehicles, books, boots and shoes, engines and boilers, bricks, sashes, doors, blinds and all kinds of finishing work, candy, clothing, guns and firearms, picture frames, gas fixtures, wooden pipe, boats, harness, stoves and tinware, cornice work, bottling works, pickle factory, and innumerable smaller industries, which keep the city in a constant state of activity.

General Hazard Stevens, son of the first governor of the territory, is closely identified with the interests of Olympia. He is now in Boston, making negotiations for the bonding of the Light & Power Company’s plant at Tumwater, which is valued at $25,000. In order that facts may be presented in a concise and authentic manner, General Stevens has prepared a neat little pamphlet, in which he shows more correctly the advantages, growth and commercial importance of Olympia. He says:

“Olympia, the capital of the state of Washington, is seated at the head of navigation on Puget Sound. She has a population, including the Tumwater suburb, of between eight and nine thousand, being the fourth in population in the state, and having grown to this number from less than three thousand four years ago, or at the rate of three hundred percent in four years.”

Prof. Brintnall, superintendent of public schools, in his report for the year ending June 1, 1891, gives the number of children of school age during the last four years as follows, showing conclusively the rapid growth of the population: 1888, 623; 1889, 778; 1890, 1,153; 1891, 1,406. This is exclusive of Tumwater, which has a population of about eight hundred. During the last two years the number of buildings has more than doubled, and the new erections are of a much better class than the old, including two fine brick school houses, a large handsome court house, and a number of fine business blocks of brick and stone. A complete system of water-works has been constructed, supplying nearly every part of the city. Many miles of streets have been graded and sidewalks laid. A new bridge has been built across the west arm of Budd’s Inlet. A complete system of electric lighting, both for streets and stores and dwellings, has been constructed. On every hand the evidences of rapid and substantial growth are astonishing.

RAILROAD AND COMMERCIAL CENTER. At the southern extremity of the Sound, and therefore at the point where railroads must fork to go to the east and west sides, Olympia has already become a railroad center, having the following lines in operation: Northern Pacific Railroad lines: 1. South to Portland, Oregon. 2. Northeast to Tacoma, Seattle and entire east side of the Sound. 3. Southwest to the lower Chehalis Valley and Grays Harbor. 4. South, the Olympia Chehalis Valley railroad to Tenino, connecting there with the Northern Pacific railroad and reaching the Tenino freestone quarries. Lines projected and partly constructed: 5. Portland & Puget Sound railroad, the joint extension of the Great Northern and Union Pacific railroads between Portland and Seattle, already graded, passes through Olympia, and gives her the advantage of competitive rates both northward and southward. 6. The Port Townsend Southern railroad from Olympia northwestward through Mason County and via Hood’s Canal and west side of the Sound to Port Townsend. Twenty miles of this road southward from Port Townsend and three miles northward from Olympia have been already constructed and are in operation. 7. Regular lines of steamers make daily trips to Tacoma and Seattle and return. 8. A regular steamboat line makes daily trips to Shelton, Kamilche and other points on the Sound, and in Mason County.

The geographical position of Olympia as the head of navigation of the great sound of the Pacific and the center whence diverge so many railroads make her a strategic point for gathering and controlling the business of an extensive and rich scope of country. The nearest rival cities are Portland on the south, 105 miles distant, and Tacoma on the northeast, 40 miles distant, and on the west no competitor at all.

FARMS AND ORCHARDS. The good farming, fruit, and garden land tributary to Olympia is very extensive, and productive of hops, hay, vegetables, apples, pears, plums, prunes, cherries, and all small fruits of remarkably fine quality in wonderful profusion. Owing to the expense and labor of clearing the forests, only a small part of the land has yet been brought under cultivation; but more and more is being reduced every year, and from the way the country is being cleared, before many years thousands of farms will market vast quantities of these crops in the stores and warehouses of Olympia.

TIMBER. An immense amount of valuable timber along the new lines of railroad, around Black Lake and in the Black Hills, must be rolled to the water at or near Olympia, and the supplying of the loggers and lumbermen and the manufacture of the lumber will contribute largely to her business.

TENINO QUARRIES. Olympia is the nearest seaport to the valuable and extensive sandstone quarries at Tenino, sixteen miles distant. The quarries are already extensively worked and furnish most of the building stone used in Tacoma and Seattle, and business blocks have been constructed of it in Portland and Spokane Falls. The stone is of superior quality, very fine and close-grained, entirely free from seams or flaws, soft and easily worked in the quarry, but hardens rigidly on exposure. It is also fireproof. It is of two colors, a warm yellowish gray in the upper and a delicate blue in the lower parts of the quarry. The time is not far distant when this fine building stone will be extensively exported to San Francisco and other places through Olympia.

COAL FIELDS. Olympia is also the nearest point to the extensive Skookum Chuck coal fields, one vein of which outcrops at Tenino. The average distance of these coal measures from the city is from twenty to twenty-five miles. The Olympia Chehalis Valley railroad, by extending its line from five to ten miles south from Tenino, would tap these coals, and an immense quantity of fine timber as well. This railroad has already built coal bunkers at Olympia, and doubtless will extend its line to this new business in due time.

BLACK HILLS AND IRON ORES. It is well known that the Black Hills, only five miles distant, contain iron ores in abundance, as well as limestone, and bog iron ores have been found in the immediate vicinity, but no effort has yet been made to develop these resources, or even to thoroughly prospect them and ascertain their extent and value. Enough is known, however, to warrant the conviction that they are great in both, and when worked and developed, as they must be at no distant day, they will add greatly to the prosperity and growth of the city.

MANUFACTURING. The advantages of Olympia as the seat of manufactures are very great, and will certainly attract and build up extensive industries. At the head of navigation of a great inland sea, with railroads radiating to every point of the compass, her communications and facilities for trade both by land and by water are unrivalled. Her factories can draw their supplies of materials, especially crude materials such as ore, stone, clay, brick, lumber, coal, etc., at the lowest rates owing to the competition inevitable between so many roads and between them and vessels, and will have the same advantage in the distribution of their products. The proposed harbor improvement of Budd’s Inlet between Olympia and Tumwater will afford three and a half miles of frontage, counting both sides, one deep-water way, with lines of railroads along and ample room for buildings and works, so that every mill or factory can receive and deliver its goods at its own gates by water or by rail at will. Moreover the Deschutes Falls at Tumwater are of great value in starting manufactures, and those already underway will attract others as soon as the country is ripe for this branch of industry. Even now a lumber mill to replace one recently destroyed by fire, a paper and pulp mill, a fruit packing establishment, a starch factory, a furniture factory, a tub, pail and barrel factory, a wooden mill, drain and tile works, and brick-making works would pay well. The citizens of Olympia, with the liberal spirit which has always characterized them, stand ready to aid by subsidies or by giving locations to anyone who will establish such industries.

DESCHUTES WATER POWER. The Deschutes River flows through Tumwater and empties into Budd’s Inlet at its southern extremity, two miles above Olympia. It rises in lakes at the foothills of the Cascade Mountains, has a length of thirty miles, and a volume exceeding eight thousand cubic feet per minute at the lowest summer stage, which can be largely increased by suitable dams, etc., on its upper waters. For a quarter of a mile above tidewater the river rushes down a narrow rocky canon, flowing over ledges of hard basaltic rock, and makes a total descent of eighty-two feet to the Sound. This descent is broken into three falls of twenty-six, twenty-six, and thirty feet respectively. Owing to its narrow and rock-bound bed the stream is easily dammed and controlled. A saw mill on the upper falls was recently destroyed by fire. The middle falls supplies the power for the electric lighting system of Olympia and Tumwater and also for a fine flouring mill of the latest improved construction. A tannery, shingle mill, sash and door factory, and other works are operated by the lower falls; but only a fraction of the water power that can be, and ultimately will be, developed upon these falls is utilized. Besides these the following manufactories are situated in Olympia: two lumber mills, two shingle mills, water pipe manufactory (turning out great quantities of wooden and banded pipe), two brick yards, furniture factory, planing and moulding mill, sash and door factory, foundry, and a number of smaller industries.

HARBOR IMPROVEMENTS. Budd’s Inlet affords one of the best harbors on the Sound, perfectly land-locked, with ample depth of water, but not too deep, which extends to within a mile of the city. From this distance to the town the water shoals rapidly at low tide, but at high tide there is depth enough for the Sound steamers and vessels. A long wharf has been constructed to accommodate them at low water, and at mean or high water they land at wharves in the city. The state board of harbor commissioners will recommend an appropriation for the improvement of Olympia harbor, one of two only they propose to recommend, Bellingham Bay being the other. The engineer bureau of the army also recommends an improvement by dredging a broad channel, etc. The senators and representatives of the new state are deeply in earnest in urging an appropriation for this improvement, and it will in all probability be made in the next harbor and river bill. The state also devotes three-quarters of the money derived from the sale of tide flats to the improvement of the harbor.

STATE CAPITAL. By an overwhelming vote of the people under the provisions of the constitution Olympia was made the permanent capital of the state, and cannot be divested of it except by an amendment of the constitution itself. Congress has endowed the new state with one hundred and thirty-two thousand acres of land for the erection of suitable capital buildings, and this princely grant, worth today one and a half million dollars, and rapidly increasing in value, insures the erection of a capitol worthy a state of such boundless resources and magnificent future. The capital of such a state as Washington would alone suffice to build up no mean city. The permanent residence of the governor and state officers, the seat of the United States land and surveyor-general’s offices, the place of meeting of the legislature, the supreme court, and many state boards must attract considerable population. Olympia, too, is a city of homes, of schools, of gardens, and fruit trees and shade trees, a city which draws visitors and attracts families of means and refinement, families with children to school and bring up, as a place of residence.

There is no reason to doubt that Olympia in the next ten years will become a city of 50,000 population. She may not become a great seaport and commercial center like Seattle or Tacoma, but she will be second to them alone. Perhaps no more satisfactory evidence can be found than the opinions of men of known ability and wide experience, and certainly none are keener nor more observant than the managers of the great railroad system. The fact that so many lines have made Olympia their objective shows clearly the confidence these able men have in her future growth. Another opinion, prophetic and remarkable, because made at a time when the town was extremely dull and depressed, being completely side-tracked by the Northern Pacific railroad, was uttered by Gen. Sherman in a brief speech to the citizens when he visited Olympia some years ago. Gen. Sherman then told his somewhat surprised auditors that Olympia was a natural strategic and commercial point, and that one of the greatest cities on the Sound would one day grow up here.