the Northern Pacific. In 1890 the Northern Pacific constructed a road from Tacoma to Gray's Harbor, passing through Olympia.

The growth of the county during the few years immediately following the Indian war made imperative the building of a court house and thus providing for proper care of the public records. The agitation of the question brought to the front the matter of a county seat and the question was submitted to a vote of the people at the election in July, 1861, when Olympia was chosen, the active competitor being Tumwater. Several different buildings were used for court house purposes during the succeeding thirty years, and in 1890 the people voted to issue bonds to the amount of $100,000 for the purpose of erecting a modern building for court house purposes. The work of construction began the following year.

Thurston county is one of the best agricultural and manufacturing communities in the Puget Sound Country, and its many fertile valleys are well adapted to dairying and fruit-growing and the operation of creameries, canneries and cheese factories. The abundance of many kinds of wood furnishes material for several kinds of manufacturing enterprises. Many of the inlets contain hundreds of acres of good oyster lands, and the Olympia oyster has already achieved a world-wide reputation.

In 1893 the legislature took steps toward the erection of a magnificent capitol, but the financial panic, which soon paralyzed all plans for raising money, defeated the efforts of the state to dispose of its securities. In 1897 a proposition was brought forward to modify the elaborate plans that had been prepared by the capitol commission, but the executive vetoed the appropriation made by the legislature for the completion of the building. A like fate met an appropriation bill that passed the legislature of 1899. In 1901 Governor Rogers recommended that steps be taken toward purchasing the Thurston county court house and the erection of an annex for capitol purposes. At the same session of the legislature an organized effort was made by certain influences in Tacoma to again submit the question of capitol location to popular vote, but the proposition to purchase the court house prevailed and the capitol question is thus undoubtedly settled for all time.

The location of Olympia at the head of navigation on Puget Sound gives it a commanding position as a commercial factor when the development of the southwestern portion of the state reaches a more advanced stage. If one will take a glance over either an ancient or a modern map he will not fail to note that the great marts of commerce are thus situated. Sitting at Olympia, the proud mistress of this western Mediterranean Sea can have poured into her lap the products of the mines, mills, forests and fields of the great Olympic peninsula, extending northwesterly to the Straits of Fuca, and the traffic on the east between the Cascade Mountains and the Sound will be largely under her control.

JEFFERSON COUNTY.

This county lies at the head of the Straits of Juan de Fuca and at the entrance of Puget Sound. It is composed mainly of densely timbered, uninhabited and unexplored mountains. Its northeastern corner, however, is an important section of the Puget Sound Country, including Port Townsend, the county seat, and one of the most interesting towns in the state historically, politically, and commercially. The custom house for the Puget Sound district is located here as well as the United States Marine Hospital. Besides being the port of entry the city has a number of manufacturing establishments, sawmills, foundries, electric lights, street car service, telephone systems and a variety of church and fraternal organizations. Located near the entrance to Puget Sound, it is in the immediate vicinity of Forts Worden, Flagler and Casey, all of which have recently been constructed by the United States government for the protection of the Puget Sound cities. These forts are all supplied with the most modern and effective artillery. Their guns are of the disappearing type, and intended to afford complete protection to American interests in these waters. The county has an area of about two thousand square miles, and it extends westward from Hood's Canal to the Pacific Ocean across the Olympic range of mountains. It contains much valuable timber, and lumbering is thus far its principal industry. Its fishing interests are also important, and its mineral wealth of iron and the precious metals is supposed to be the great, but as yet undeveloped, resource. The dairies and cheese factories produce 124,840 pounds of butter and 53,706 pounds of cheese. Certain portions of the county are admirably adapted to this industry. It has also a cannery with an annual output of 40,000 cases of canned fish. The population of the county is 7,000, of Port Townsend, 4,000; assessed valuation of property real and personal, 2,130,178. The other chief towns are Irondale, Port Hadlock, Center, Port Discovery, Port Ludlow, and Pleasant Harbor. At Irondale a furnace for the manufacture of iron was in successful operation for several years. It is now being repaired with the view of increasing its capacity and making it modern in its methods of operation. The iron manufactured there was of very fine quality and was used at the Union Iron Works of San Francisco in the building of battleships for the government. Immense sawmills have been in operation at Ports Ludlow and Hadlock for many years. The county was named after Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, and was originally created by the Oregon legislature in 1892, before the organization of Washington territory.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

PUGET SOUND COUNTIES.

(Continued.)

KING COUNTY.

The county of King is not only the most important in the Puget Sound Country, but it is one of the great counties of the northwest coast. It occupies the central part of the Puget Sound region and extends from the summit of the Cascade Mountains westward to the Sound, including also the beautiful island of Vashon. Its admirable location, natural resources, and its numerous advantages for all purposes of navigation make it eminently suited to become the seat of vast commercial and manufacturing interests. Outside of the city of Seattle, its county seat and chief city, which is referred to elsewhere, it has enormous deposits of iron, coal, timber, stone, glass-making material, etc., and in its mountains are numerous ledges of copper, gold, silver and other precious metals, now in the course of successful development. The Duwamish, White, Snoqualmie and other rich valleys contain large bodies of land which is unusually fertile, and where many productive farms and handsome towns and villages are to be found occupied by a thoroughly intelligent and progressive people. The valley lands are admirably adapted to the cultivation of hops, hay and almost every variety of vegetables and farm produce, while the uplands, after the timber is removed, are valuable for fruit of many different kinds and especially for grazing purposes. The chief industries are lumbering, coal mining, hop-raising, diversified farming, ship-building, etc., combined with an infinite variety of manufacturing establishments. For all these diversified industries its mild, genial and equable climate has been found highly advantageous. Coal mining has been a leading industry in the county since 1860. The output is given in another chapter.

No other county in the northwest is so well supplied with means and facilities for transportation. Four transcontinental lines have terminal facilities at Seattle. These and its local lines have an aggregate mileage in the county of more than three hundred miles. The area of the county is approximately two thousand square miles; assessed valuation of property for 1903, $73,276,137; population (estimated), 200,000.

The city of Ballard, adjoining Seattle on the north, is a busy and thriving place on Salmon Bay, which is largely devoted to manufactories. It has many saw and shingle mills, and is noted as the city which produces more cedar shingles than any other locality in the state if not in the world. It is connected with Seattle by electric lines of street cars as well as by the lines of the Great Northern and Northern Pacific. Other flourishing towns are

Kent, Auburn, Issaquah, Kirkland, Renton, Franklin, New Castle, Bothell, Black Diamond, Enumclaw, Fall City, Snoqualmie, Tolt, North Bend, South Seattle, Columbia, Georgetown and West Seattle.

When the county was created in December, 1852, by the territorial legislature of Oregon, the following officers were appointed: County commissioners, Thomas Mercer, G. W. W. Loomis, L. M. Collins; judge of probate, William Strickler; sheriff, C. D. Bowen; auditor, H. L. Yesler; treasurer, William P. Smith; superintendent of schools, Henry A. Smith; assessor, John C. Holgate; justices of the peace, John A. Chase, S. L. Grow and S. W. Russell; constables, B. L. Johns, S. B. Simmons and James W. Roberts.

PIERCE COUNTY.

This is one of the Puget Sound counties which is large in area, rich in mineral and other natural resources and provided by nature with ample facilities of navigation. It occupies a mountainous district, for the most part, lying between the summit of the Cascade Mountains and Puget Sound. It was created by the territorial legislature of Oregon, in December, 1852. Its first board of county commissioners consisted of William P. Dougherty, L. A. Smith, William N. Savage; treasurer, H. C. Perkins; sheriff, C. Dunham; assessor, Hugh Patterson; coroner, Anthony Loughlin; justices of the peace, H. M. Frost, George Brown, Samuel McCaw; auditor, G. Bowlin; judge of the probate, H. C. Moseley; constables, William McLucas, William Sherwood.

The county is rich in timber and coal, which constitute the foundation of its leading industries. A limited area of land of the finest quality is found in the Puyallup and Stuck valleys. Here the hop crop has been a leading feature for many years. One of the first men to introduce the cultivation of hops-which has since become so important an industry in the state of Washington—was John Valentine Meeker, a prominent member of the Meeker family and for many years a leading citizen of Pierce county, who carried on his back from Steilacoom certain hop roots which had been imported from abroad by a brewer named Wood. These roots he planted, about 1862, on the land where the town of Sumner now stands. Ezra Meeker, also a prominent member of the Meeker family and a well known citizen of Pierce county for half a century, was engaged in the hop-growing business for more than thirty years in the Puyallup, Stuck and White River valleys. The uplands are well adapted to the production of fruits, vegetables and grasses.

The county is well supplied with railroad transportation. It is traversed from its eastern border to Tacoma, thence to its southern limit, by the Northern Pacific Railroad, which also has several branches leading to coal mines. logging camps, etc. The Interurban electric line connecting Tacoma and Seattle has been recently completed and is doing a large business.

The Hospital for the Insane is located at Steilacoom, and the Soldiers' Home at Orting. Tacoma, its principal city and the county seat, is elsewhere referred to. Other chief towns are Puyallup, Wilkeson, Carbonado, Sumner, Buckley and several small coal-mining towns. Area, 1,800 square miles; population, estimated, 90,000; assessed valuation of property for 1903, $29,573,406.

ISLAND COUNTY.

This county was created by the Oregon legislature in January, 1853, and is located across the head of the Straits of Juan de Fuca. It includes the islands of Whidby and Camano, both famous for their agricultural, horticultural, lumbering and other advantages. The Island of Whidby, named after one of Vancouver's lieutenants, contains about 115,000 acres. The Island of Camano, named after a noted Spanish navigator, contains about 30,000 acres, making a total area for the county of 145,000 acres. The first county commissioners of the Island were Samuel B. Howe, John Alexander and John Crocket; sheriff, George W. L. Allen; and probate clerk, R. H. Lansdale. Coupeville, on the east side of Whidby Island, is the county seat. Area, 220 square miles; population, 2,500; assessed valuation of property, $1,099,544.

Utsalady was for many years a place of considerable importance as the location of one of the large sawmills of the Puget Mill Company, from which immense quantities of lumber were shipped to all parts of the world. Other towns are Langley, Oak Harbor, Useless. Whidby Island is forty miles long and from one to ten miles wide, and separates the two principal channels of the lower Sound. Camano is twelve miles long and from one to six miles wide. The climate of these islands is particularly salubrious, mild and equable, and in summer is especially delightful. They were formerly covered with a heavy growth of fir, cedar, hemlock, spruce and alder, but in recent years, because of its nearness to the water, much of this timber has been removed by the lumbermen of the Sound. There are considerable areas of prairie and swamp lands, which, when reduced to cultivation, produce large crops of hay, wheat, barley, oats, fruit and vegetables. The logged-off lands are excellent for fruit, small fruits, etc. Here are to be found some of the oldest orchards in the state. Many young orchards have been planted in recent years, and the fruit-growing industry is receiving much attention. Sheep and wool have long been successfully grown on Whidby Island. Easy access to the Sound markets makes lands in this county desirable for a great variety of purposes.

MASON COUNTY.

A county closely allied to Thurston in industrial growth and historical importance is Mason. On March 8, 1854, David Shelton, a member of the