The Dredge Gappa Bites Into the Pend Oreille

The work of dredging the channel of the Pend Oreille river was started on Monday of this week. The steam dredge Gappa, owned by Contractor Beckman of Seattle, made a beginning just below Boundary island.

The dredge works splendidly; the only trouble was that the machinery was so powerful the stream was too heavy for the casing holding the boxing. This will be remedied at once, and the gravel in the river on the bars will begin to fly in fine shape right after Thanksgiving.

Mr. Beckman says that the dredge proper works as well as a dredge of larger size and cost. He can choke the pumps within a half minute at any time that he desires. This was done during the tests of the machinery.

Thus the long deferred improvement of the great Pend Oreille river becomes a certainty. The appropriation is a miserly one, but the navigation companies welcome the improvement and hope now that the entering wedge has been driven, that the federal government will increase the amount in future sessions of congress, so that the improvements needed may be completed.

The upper Columbia, from Wenatchee to Meyers Falls, has received a larger portion of the money appropriated by congress, although the traffic on that portion of the stream is not nearly so great as on the Clark Fork, or Pend Oreille river, as it is more commonly called. The streams of the southern states, where boats of one-half the size of those operating our river operate but occasionally, have been receiving larger appropriations for years than the mighty streams of the northwest. This was largely because this section of the country was still unsettled and their representation in congress was small. With the rapid increase in population and the consequent increase in representation in congress from the northwest we may expect that this section will receive more gracious treatment or else know the reason why.

Next to the Columbia the Pend Oreille is the largest and most important river in Montana, Idaho, Oregon or Washington. It has had absolutely no government aid until the present time. The river is navigable from Newport north for boats of 200 tons burthen for a distance of about 60 miles and, if the obstructions in Box Canyon were removed, a much longer distance would be served by the boats. It traverses a valley rich in timber, agricultural and mineral resources that has been dependent for years on steamers. There are no railways in the valley as yet, but one will soon be constructed. On account of the government having neglected the stream great bars have formed in the channel, making the navigation of the stream in low water tedious, expensive and dangerous. With a channel completed as the engineers have marked out, these disadvantages will have been removed. The deepening of the channel will also allow of the flood waters running off much more rapidly and thus lessen the danger of overflows in the valleys along the stream.

It is not generally known, even to a great many of the residents of this locality, that the headwaters of the river are in Montana. One of the principal tributaries of the stream is the Missoula, which has its source between Butte and Helena, Mont. Other streams that help form the mighty river are the St. Regis, which comes down from the Bitter Root mountains near the present town of Taft, Mont., and the Flathead, which is fed from Flathead lake near Kalispell, Mont.