Читать книгу The Beauties of the State of Washington: A Book for Tourists - Harry F. Giles - Страница 3

Table of Contents

Cover Design (a water color)	Miss Zola F. Gruhlke
Engravings	By Western Engraving & Colortype Co., Seattle
THREE-COLOR HALFTONES.
Title.	Photographer.	Page
The Rhododendron (C.)	Asahel Curtis	Frontispiece
Lake Chelan (C.)	Kiser Photo Co.	8
A Forest Stream	Curtis & Miller	16
A Puget Sound Sunset	Webster & Stevens	32
Mount Rainier and Mirror Lake (C.)	Curtis & Miller	49
Sunnyside Canal (C.)	Asahel Curtis	64
Priest Rapids	80
Columbia River from White Salmon (C.)	Kiser Photo Co.	96
ONE-COLOR HALFTONES.
Deep Lake	Curtis & Miller	4
Snoqualmie Falls (C.)	Romans Photo Co.	6
Mount Baker (Gr.)	10
Looking Across the Cascades (C.)	Kiser Photo Co.	12
Principal Trees in Washington	C. H. Ziddell	14
Lumber Industry (Gr.)	18
Sunset Falls and Mount Index (C.)	Asahel Curtis	21
Yachting on Puget Sound (Gr.)	23
Bremerton Scenes (Gr.)	24
Tacoma and The Mountain	Avery & Potter	27
Eastern Shores of Puget Sound (Gr.)	28
Seattle and The Olympics	Curtis & Miller	30
San Juan Islands (Gr.)	J. A. McCormick	34
Olympic Mountain Scenes (Gr.)	37
Lake Crescent	Curtis & Miller	39
The Chehalis River (C.)	Asahel Curtis	41
Southwest Washington Views (Gr.)	44
Surf on Washington Coast (C.)	Asahel Curtis	47
Mount Rainier National Park (Gr.)	51
Mount Rainier and Lake Washington (C.)	W. P. Romans	53
Along the Columbia River (Gr.)	56
Salmon Fishing Industry (Gr.)	58
Snake River Country	Asahel Curtis	60
Rock Lake	Curtis & Miller	62
The Yakima Valley	Curtis & Miller	66
The Wenatchee Valley	Curtis & Miller	69
The Okanogan and Methow (Gr.)	71
Irrigation Scenes (Gr.)	73
City of Spokane	Frank Palmer	74
Wheat Fields (Gr.)	76
Walla Walla Scenes (Gr.)	78
Along the Scenic Highways (Gr.)	82
Olympia, Our Capital City (Gr.)	BC Collier	85
Spokane Falls and Bridge	Frank Palmer	87
Wild Elk in The Olympics (C.)	Grant Humes	90
The Angler's Reward	BC Collier	92
Spokane Scenes (Gr.)	94
Our Leading Educational Institutions (Gr.)	99
Our Earliest Pioneers (Gr.)	102
Seattle's Boulevards (Gr.)	105
Tacoma's Parks (Gr.)	108
Alaska, Land of the North (Gr.)	111

Those marked (Gr.) are groups; (C.) means copyright.

DEEP LAKE—A TYPICAL SCENE IN THE CASCADE MOUNTAINS. Photo by Curtis & Miller.

The state of Washington, most northwesterly state in the Union, named for the "Father of His Country" and popularly called the "Evergreen State," brings greetings.

For all who would behold, at close range, Nature in her most beautiful expression when all component elements have been harmoniously combined, these words of welcome are written. You are invited to come and share the joy that emanates from the satisfaction of living in a country as nearly perfect as any that earth has to offer.

In the creation of this region nothing was overlooked that might appeal to the most fastidious. An empire within itself, it is provided with all things for ministering both to man's physical needs and to his innermost longings. All forces have contributed towards its glory. More careful preparation was never made for the coming of man in any clime. Mountains that reach to heaven and echo the music of celestial choirs in their innumerable streams and waterfalls; valleys and plateaus that spring into life when pricked by the harrow of the husbandman; forests of big trees, perpetually green, to adorn and protect; the greatest of oceans to temper with its breezes; inland seas and azure lakes to embellish and attract—such are a few of the elements that make the State of Washington and provide beauteous homes for its people.

SNOQUALMIE FALLS (268 FEET)—"THE NIAGARA OF THE WEST." Copyright by Romans Photo Co.

Have you yet discovered that cozy retreat imagined in your youthful impressionable days, where true happiness is bound to reign? You can find it here—a place where wonderful pictures, real and far grander than the famous paintings of your favorite artist, are constantly visible from your kitchen window or from your work shop—and they need no expensive frames to enhance their loveliness and no dusting to prevent their obscurity.

What are your favorite pastimes? Are you one of the brave mountaineers who must yearly draw near the Almighty, and dare the elements by treading dangerous yet entrancing trails to heights where the world appears at your feet? Do you love to cruise in a little yacht built to accommodate yourself and a few well chosen friends, or motor over scenic highways to places of interest both near and far? Do you regard yourself a mighty hunter and desire so to convince your friends? Or would you be content to angle for the finny denizens of the deep with a certainty that you will not in turn be tantalized?

The state of Washington affords unusual opportunity for all these. Its mountains, glaciers and waterfalls are not excelled by the most boasted scenes of Switzerland.

Almost the year round the waters of Puget Sound and the harbors of the southwest invite the small craft. Nearly 50,000 miles of scenic highway, passable for twelve months in succession, are ready for your automobiles. Game, both large and small, feathered and hoofed, will lure you through many a jungle of delicate fern and sweet scented bramble; while countless streams and lakes teem with fish of many species.

MOUNT ADAMS AND FOREST-COVERED FOOTHILLS.

Picturesque parks, dazzling sunsets, roaring ocean surf, cozy camping sites, beach parties and clam bakes, college regattas, midwinter fairs, roses at Christmas, golf the year round on turf that's always green—these are a few of the charms that are as common in the state of Washington as sands in the Sahara, or ice at the Poles.

If you are drawn by none of these, but desire only to satisfy that exalted yet mysterious feeling which lurks in everyone's breast, becoming manifest when the greatest works of the firmament are beheld, then by all means visit this the "Evergreen State" and drink in the glories which no book, howe'er so well written, and no picture, whoe'er the artist, can portray with any degree of fullness or accuracy.

Washington is a region of variety and strong contrasts. At one moment you may be jostled along the streets of some metropolitan center among people of many nationalities and within a mere hour or so be wafted to a sequestered spot of transcendent beauty, where no voice but your own is echoed by the hills and where the existence of any other human being to share this planet can be completely forgotten.

It is a state of large accomplishments. Big projects are planned: mammoth irrigation schemes are carried out; lands are reclaimed from the deep; orchards fill its valleys; wheat plateaus extend for miles; salmon traps line the shores; its lumber supplies the world; its ships sail all the seas; monstrous bridges cross the waterways; buildings vie with the highest anywhere constructed; its schools rank first in the Union; its men contribute to the world's greatness; its women vote and rear capable families; the people make their own laws. Loyalty, originality, enterprise, independence and liberality, all attributes of the western spirit, are evident throughout the state.

Its population has grown in twenty odd years from 343,000 to over 1,400,000. In the meantime, wildernesses have been converted into gardens, villages have developed into towns, while towns have grown into cities, taking their places among the leading marts of the world. From a frontier state it has come to be one of the greatest and most important in the Union, adding to the galaxy of stars one of the brightest that has yet appeared on the horizon.

LAKE CHELAN, ONE OF THE MOST WONDERFUL LAKE RESORTS IN THE WEST "Pride of the waters of the world"

Copyright by Kiser Photo Co., Portland, Ore.

Perhaps the most prominent feature which attracts the eye of a visitor upon his arrival in the Pacific Northwest consists of the mountain ranges with their towering snowcapped peaks, forming, as it were, ladders reaching from the green vales of earth to the blue vaults of heaven. Silhouetted against the sky in the hazy distance, they are noted by the westward bound traveler as soon as he reaches the highest point in the divide of the Rockies, while to the mariner groping his way eastward upon the Pacific Ocean they offer the first evidence of the nearness of the welcome land.

MOUNT BAKER FORTY MILES EAST OF BELLINGHAM.

These mountains mean much to the state of Washington, both for their scenic grandeur and for the favorable influence they exert on the climate and on the lives of the people who build their homes in the valleys below. Their supremacy is reflected by the thermometer, the barometer, and the aerometer; for they help regulate the temperature, the rainfall, and the wind's velocity. They form great repositories for the waters that feed the streams and keep full the cities' aqueducts. Within their immeasurable depths lie buried huge deposits of precious and useful metals, besides vast fields of bituminous coal. Their lower zones provide fertile and safe localities for the growth of Washington's big timber, while the alpine meadows above secure for the timid deer and ptarmigan asylums of temporary freedom from too frequent disturbance by prowling huntsmen. Still higher are the rugged bare prominences, reserved for the wild goat or mountain sheep, and the snow fields traversed by the more venturesome seeking to gain the summits. Everywhere the true sportsman finds ample opportunity for proving his prowess, while trailing the beast to its lair, and the sight-seeking mountaineer is fully rewarded for all the struggle required to reach some dizzy height.

Within the immense bosoms of these mountains nestle innumerable lakes, beauteous beyond compare, near whose shady shores is many a sequestered spot, most tempting to the camper who loves the mountain region; and many a brook goes trickling over its stony course to join the rivers below, pausing here and there in some shady dell to create a deep pool for luring the fisherman, or hurling itself over some lofty precipice as a waterfall of wonderful magnitude and magnificence.

The mountains are a link connecting us with the past. They remind us perhaps of the period when volcanoes belched forth their fiery refuse, or of the era when the sea covered most of what is now land. Indestructible they stand and their rocky heights are in places insurmountable. The works of man trespass everywhere else, but these huge pillars of the ages rise in their majestic splendor and with sublime dignity seem to say: "Thus far and no further! We will preserve and guard your water and fuel supply. We will protect you from the furies of the elements and produce materials for building your palaces. We will create charming nooks where you may camp under the clear sky, and shady forests where you may pursue the chase. We will fill the brooks with swift darting fish; carpet the meadows with myriads of flowers, ferns, and shrubs; and paint you pictures undreamt of by men who have scorned our acquaintance. You are permitted to build roads whereby your Pullmans and your automobiles may cross to the other side, but not one of our number shall be moved nor its form be changed in the least, except by that same invisible power at whose mighty will we were brought into existence."

LOOKING ACROSS THE CASCADE MOUNTAINS. Copyright by Kiser Photo Co., Portland, Ore.

Each mountain range possesses its own distinct characteristics. Of least importance, but none the less beautiful, are the Blue Mountains in the southeastern corner of the state, providing pleasant summer retreats for the people in that vicinity. The Olympic range practically envelopes the Olympic Peninsula and all but encroaches upon the agricultural lands lying between the foothills and the salt waters on three sides. In this range are the most rugged mountains in Washington, presenting some of the wildest and most inspiring scenery anywhere to be found.

Most prominent and of greatest importance in the geography of the state are the Cascades, having an average altitude of from 5,000 to 8,000 feet and named for the many hurrying streams that have cut their deep courses upon the shady slopes. They extend from the British Columbia line slightly southwest until divided by the Columbia river, whence they continue through Oregon and become the Sierra Nevadas of California. By them the state of Washington is separated into two quite distinct parts, known as Eastern and Western Washington, the former comprising a portion of the great Inland Empire. Forming a sort of spur on their east side, north of the Columbia, and extending to the mountains of Idaho are the beautiful rolling hills known as the Okanogan Highlands from 5,000 to 6,000 feet in altitude without sharp abrupt prominences and bearing on their higher surfaces forests of pine.

Throughout the Cascade range several prominent peaks tower above the others like giants among dwarfs. The loftiest by far is Mount Rainier (or Mount Tacoma), second highest mountain in the United States proper, 14,408 feet in altitude and the chief mountain resort out of Seattle and Tacoma; Mount Adams, 12,307 feet, on the boundary line of Skamania and Yakima counties; Mount St. Helens, 9,697 feet high, at the western edge of Skamania county, reached from Castle Rock or Vancouver; Mount Baker, 10,730 feet, forty miles from Bellingham and one of its main attractions; Mount Stuart, 9,470 feet, in Chelan county; and Glacier Peak, 10,436 feet, in Snohomish county. In this latitude 7,500 feet is the snow-line, but Washington has many peaks above that elevation. Fifty-seven have already been named and measured.

All these peaks are accessible and, together with Mount Olympus in the Olympics, constitute the main goals of the mountain loving clubs of the northwest. Mountain phenomena are displayed in all with a maximum degree of grandeur, insuring ample reward to those venturing to explore their many fastnesses.

A FIR, A CEDAR, AND A HEMLOCK—PRINCIPAL TREES IN WASHINGTON. Photo by C. H. Ziddell.

Dense forests of evergreen trees almost envelop the hills and mountains of the state of Washington. Scarcely any portions were originally left bare, excepting the higher peaks, which in a spirit of independence seem to have pushed their bald heads up and above this beautiful covering protecting the regions below. Into the fertile valleys and along the river banks clear to the sea the stately ranks of these forests once advanced, but such localities are now, for the most part, given over to the cities and the husbandmen or else in a state of semi-transformation are awaiting the day when they too will be devoted to the peaceful pursuits of agriculture; for the broad Columbia plain was the only part of the state dedicated from the first to the sole task of producing food supplies rather than fuel and building material.

About ten million acres of these forests have been locked up in eleven national reserves, and set aside for our future needs, or to insure permanent haunts where Nature may always be seen in her full pristine glory—Conservation! Nearly six million acres more are under private ownership. Investigation reveals evidences that their birth occurred very many years ago, possibly five hundred or even six hundred years; for that many rings have been counted on some of the largest trees. The foliage appears every month in the year just as beautiful as when it first mingled with the landscape—hence the name "Evergreen State."

The effect produced by this verdant growth upon the scenery of the state of Washington can be best realized by climbing to one of the heights overlooking the timber line. From here one can readily see how perfectly it hides every blemish of the irregular contour, blending beautifully with the blue waters in the distance and the pale clouds floating above. Thousands of greenish tints are distinguishable, shading from a light yellowish tinge to a deep prismatic blue, while occasionally a streak of bright red or a touch of pure white lends a striking contrast.

Photo by Curtis & Miller

ONE OF MANY LURING STREAMS

"O'erhung with wild woods, thickening green"

Leaving the point of vantage, however, to delve into its midst, breathing in the aromatic odors from the balsams and cedars, it is easy to note hundreds of interesting distinctions in size, form, color, and variety, for

"No tree in all the grove but has its charms,

Though each its hue peculiar."

One should know, too, that he is buried in one of the densest forests of the temperate zone; while standing proudly on every side are individual giants, which for size can be duplicated nowhere else in the world, excepting by occasional specimens of the famous Red Woods of California.

These sturdy monarchs have all been honored with names and thoroughly worthy of their names they are, without a blemish to mar their fame in spite of the ages through which they have lived. Most prominent is the Douglas Fir, or Douglas Spruce (Pseudotsuga taxifolia), the giant of the forest, growing erect as a plumb-line until it ends in a pyramidal crown two hundred feet or more above the ground. This is the most important tree of the state, for its product houses the people, and for the past ten years has insured Washington first place in lumber production in the United States. Some of the largest trees reach the enormous proportions of eight, ten, and even twelve feet in diameter, a single one producing material sufficient to build a palace of huge dimensions.

Of great importance also is the "Red Cedar," reaching sometimes a height of 200 feet and having a diameter in rare cases of over 20 feet; yielding for the state of Washington two-thirds of all the shingles produced in the United States. Similar to the Cypress, its sweet soporific scent is everywhere conspicuous and always pleasing. Other trees which provide lumber and add grace to the Washington woods are the hemlocks, spruces, larches, and white firs, in the western part of the state; and the pines and tamaracs in a number of the eastern counties.

Many other species, of minor commercial value, are sprinkled throughout the forest in sufficient plentifulness to complete the artistic design. There are the wide-leafed maples; the red barked madronas; the pale barked quivering cottonwoods and their allies, the bitter tasting willows; the white flowered dogwood, prominent throughout the forests until late in the spring, and occasionally found blooming in the fall; the gray barked alder protecting the springs and mountain streams; the sturdy oaks, skirting the gravelly prairies; the long lived juniper; and the hardy Scotch broom; besides various other trees and shrubs. Many of these are so beautiful that landscape gardeners find nothing more suitable for decorating lawns or lining the city parks and boulevards.

Here and there are many trees, shrubs and vines that seem to have been destined especially to yield food for the natural wanderers of the forests; for it is intended that nothing shall be wanted in the state of Washington. There is probably no other section of the world where wild berries grow in greater profusion. Very prominent is the wild cherry, the wild apple, the salmon berry, the thimble berry, the huckleberry, the salal berry, the Oregon grape, the blackberry, the strawberry, the wild currant, and the raspberry.

Hiding within the shade of these, playing hide and seek with nature lovers who enjoy threading the romantic trails for which this section of the world is noted, is many a modest flower which in some sections blooms nearly the whole year round, so soft is the climate; while the pink petaled rhododendron, of bolder nature, Washington's state flower, is prominent in June tossing its beautiful head among the dry logs and lining the course of many a pretty driveway.

Penetrating everywhere and saturating the atmosphere with its sweetness, may be heard the music of some rippling stream winding its happy way down the mountain side and playing, as it were, an accompaniment to the duets of soul mated song birds unable to restrain their songs of joy. If this is a wilderness then a wilderness is a paradise on earth.