The Navy’s Checklist: Why Seattle Was Betting Its Future on Iron and Timber

THE PROPOSED NAVY STATION: Reasons Why It Should Be Established at Seattle The Advantages Set Forth in Answer to the Questions of the Commission.

SEATTLE, W.T., Jan. 11, 1902.

Dear Sir: His Honor Mayor Moran has handed me your letter containing a list of questions which the commission selecting a site for a naval station upon the Northwest coast desire to be answered. His Honor Moran has desired me to send you answers to these questions and in order to do so intelligently, I have consulted with a number of our citizens whose opinions on the various points are well known.

FIRST QUESTION. The great lumber of Puget Sound which constitutes the bulk of the forests, particularly adapted for shipbuilding, especially the yellow fir, owing to its strength, durability, general superiority and cheapness. This and other varieties of timber used in shipbuilding can be obtained in almost unlimited quantities throughout the entire country surrounding Seattle... large quantities of shipbuilding timber is found in the forests surrounding Lake Washington... The price of logging timber can be delivered at from $8 to $14 per 1,000 feet... Fisk Brothers, the great shipbuilding firm at Port Blakely... have arranged to move their yards here almost immediately simply because the supply of shipbuilding timber will be more accessible here.

SECOND QUESTION. It is impossible to obtain any lumber or timber for wharves anywhere throughout the entire coast that is not subject to the ravages of the teredo, but large creosoting works for protecting timber... are now being erected at Salmon Bay on the line of the proposed canal joining Lake Washington and Puget Sound. The teredo, however, does not exist in fresh water, and as Lake Washington and Union contain a great deal of fresh water, there is no possibility... of any damage being done to wharves by the teredo.

THIRD QUESTION. Seattle is specially adapted for supplying cast and wrought iron and steel at much cheaper prices than they can be produced on any other part of the coast... Seattle is the only place on the Pacific coast where certain kinds of iron and steel manufactures, especially the latter, can be produced to advantage. Surrounding country abounds in veins of iron ore... The Denny Iron Mine are nine in number... located in King county about three miles northwesterly from Snoqualmie pass... The thickest vein, "The Big Cliff" magnetic iron ore... is extremely valuable, especially for the manufacture of Bessemer steel.

FOURTH QUESTION. On the north lake Washington, at South Seattle, a site for a town containing 10,000 and immense iron works has been laid out as the work of erecting the buildings commenced. These works are all connected with the Denny Iron mines by means of the Lake Washington Railroad... The Kirkland Iron Works have four blast furnaces... A boat company from San Francisco has large shipbuilding yards... yet all the steel plates in the construction of vessels have to be imported from the East. The proprietors of the Kirkland works propose to supply all parts of the vessel with steel plates... then Seattle stands in the position of being the only place on the coast able to say definitely that steel plates and wrought iron and steel can be supplied here at a lower rate than can be obtained anywhere else.

FIFTH QUESTION. There is an abundance of lime to be produced within easy distance of Seattle... A company of San Francisco capitalists are now developing the lime resources... In addition to these two sources of supply, immense deposits of slate and marble exist at the Denny Iron on the line of the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway... The price of lime now is $1.50 per barrel... but as soon as the Denny lime is placed upon the market, the price will probably be not more than 80 cents per barrel.

SIXTH QUESTION. The output of the Bear Mound brick yards... will be, it is estimated, upwards of 10,000,000 brick... The proprietors of the Kirkland Iron Works are also building brick yards on the shores of Lake Washington... The price of brick will be lower before long... the price at present ranges from $6 to $7.

SEVENTH QUESTION. On the shores of Lake Washington, a quarry of blue granite of a very superior quality has just been discovered, on what is known as Dignan's claim. The deposit is 120 acres in extent... It can easily be transported to any part of the lake at slight cost.

EIGHTH QUESTION. Portland cement will be manufactured this summer in Seattle... a new company of capitalists have the matter presently in hand.

NINTH QUESTION. There are six machine shops at present in and around Seattle, employing about 1,000 persons.

TENTH QUESTION. The population of a radius of 20 miles around Seattle may be said to be 85,000 people... It may be said here, however, that immigration to this part of the land is largely on the increase... out of a population of 34,000 which it is claimed Seattle has today, there are over 19,000 men liable to draft, between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years.

ELEVENTH QUESTION. The following record, kept by Mr. R. M. Hoakinson, official signal observer at Port Blakely... will answer this question [Snowfall data for ten years follows].

TWELFTH QUESTION. Fresh water is in Seattle from wells and is brought from Lake Washington... Lake Union... has an area of 6 square miles with an average depth of 7 feet... and a fresh water lake, Lake Washington... has an area of 219 square miles... contains the fresh water which is at present used for domestic purposes by the citizens of Seattle.

THIRTEENTH QUESTION. For single men board can be obtained at reasonable rates... Rooms rent all the way from $4 to $5 per month.