It is the distributing point for the Coeur d’Alene, the Colville, the Kootenai, and the Okanagan mining districts, all of which are in a prosperous condition, and all of which are yielding rich and growing tributes of trade.

It has adjacent to it the finest wheat-growing country in the world, producing from 30 to 60 bushels per acre.

It has adjacent to it a country equally rich in the production of fruits and vegetables.

It has adjacent to it the finest meadow lands between the Cascade and Rocky Mountains.

It has adjacent to it extensive grazing lands, on which are hundreds of thousands of cattle, sheep, and horses.

It has, adjacent to it, on Lakes Pend d’Oreille and Coeur d’Alene, inexhaustible quantities of white pine, yellow pine, cedar and tamarack, the manufacturing of which into lumber is one of the important industries of the city, and a source of great future income.

It has a power in the falls of the Spokane River second to none in the United States, and capable of supplying construction room and power for 300 different mills and manufactories.  The entire electric lighting plant of the city, the cable railway system, the electric railway system, the machinery for the city water works, and all the mills and factories of the city—­the amount of wheat which was last year ground into flour exceeding 20,000 tons—­are now operated by the power from the falls.  One company alone, the Washington Water Power Company, having a capital of $1,000,000, is now spending upward of $300,000 in the construction of flumes and other improvements for the accommodation of new mills and factories.

Most fortunately for the city, all the milling properties and improvements on the falls and along the river were saved from the fire.

The city has a water-works system which cost nearly half a million dollars, and which is capable of supplying 12,000,000 gallons daily, or as much as the supply of Minneapolis when it had a population of 100,000, or as much as the present supply of Denver with a population of 120,000, and more than the City of Portland, Oregon, with a population of 60,000.

A bird’s-eye view of Spokane falls.

It requires no very profound knowledge of Western geography, no very lengthy study of the State of Washington, to enable anyone to understand without difficulty some of the minor reasons why Spokane Falls should become a great and important city, the metropolis of a vast surrounding country.  A glance at the map will show the mountain range that extends up through the Idaho Panhandle, and then along the British Columbia frontier, to the east and north of the city.  These mountains are incalculably rich in ores of all kinds, and would amply suffice to make a Denver of Spokane Falls, even if she had no other natural resources to draw from.  The Spokane River is the outlet of Lake Coeur d’Alene, a sheet of water sixty