[Illustration:  Plate No. 60.—­Railroad Yards and a Corner of the Business Section, Tacoma.]

[Page 65] principal towns.

Port orchard, the county seat, is on the bay of the same name and opposite the navy yard.  It is the chief distributing point for a larger part of the cultivated lands of the county, and exports not only agricultural products, but also shingles.  The surrounding lands are well suited for dairying, fruit-growing and poultry-raising, which is also true of the entire county.

Bremerton, adjoining the navy yard, is the largest town in the county, having about 4,000 people and rapidly growing.  It has a fire department, electric light and water systems, newspapers, banks, about 1,000 or more wage-earners and is a hustling town.

Charleston is another smaller town adjoining the navy yard on the west and rapidly growing.

Port Blakeley is an important milling and shipbuilding town of nearly 2,000 people, opposite Seattle.  Its lumber goes to all parts of the world.

Port Gamble is a sawmill town of importance contributing to swell the large output of lumber shipped out of the county.

Chico, Tracyton, Keyport, Paulsbo, Seabeck, Crystal springs, Colby, Bangor, Burley, port Madison, and Olalla are all small villages, making progress as agricultural centers and as furnishing summer homes for business men.

KITTITAS COUNTY

Kittitas county is located about in the center of the state, and takes in the upper reaches and most of the watershed of the Yakima river.  It has a population of about 20,000 in an area of 2,400 square miles.  On its northwestern side it is bordered by two ranges of the Cascade mountains, while its southwestern side lies on the Columbia river.

Among the sources of the Yakima river are three large lakes, Keechelus, Kachess and Cle-Elum, most beautiful bodies of mountain water and the sources of the great irrigation systems now fathered by the national government and making the Yakima valley a veritable garden pot of orchards and vegetables, grasses and flowers.

Resources.

The central portion of the county is a valley comprising 250,000 acres, about one-fourth of which is under irrigation, and has long been noted for its prolific crops of hay and many herds of dairy cows.

The foothills of the mountains have precious metals, coal and iron.  The streams abound in trout and much game is in the mountains.

Transportation.

The Northern Pacific and Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railroads, coming into the county from the south and west, cross at Ellensburg [Page 66] and then follow the valley of the Yakima to the crest of the Cascades giving abundant facilities for making markets east and west to all parts of the country.