CHENEY, 10 miles southwest of Spokane, is a town of 1,500 people.  Here is located one of the state normal schools, having about 400 students.

MEDICAL LAKE is an important town, having the Eastern Washington Hospital for the Insane near-by, It is a noted health resort.

ROCKFORD is an important agricultural town of 1,200 people.

HILLYARD is an important place of 1,500 people, having the car shops of the Great Northern railway as its chief business.

STEVENS COUNTY

Stevens county, in the extreme northeastern corner of the state, has an area of 4,500 square miles and a population of about 24,000.  It is a county of great and diverse resources, is splendidly watered with large rivers, the Columbia bounding it on the west, and the Spokane on part of its southern line.  Three ranges of low mountains extend across the county nearly north and south.  Between these the Colville river and the Pend d’Oreille flow generally northerly through grand and beautiful valleys.

[Page 84] RESOURCES AND PRODUCTIONS.

Agriculture in all its branches, lumbering and kindred pursuits, and the mining of precious metals and building stones make up its chief sources of wealth.

AGRICULTURE.

The farms in the Colville valley are noted for their heavy hay crops, producing abundantly all the cereals, including corn, the clovers, timothy and alfalfa.

Dairying and stock-raising are important industries.  To these the climate and soils are well adapted.  Some lands have been irrigated with great benefit, but the bulk of the farming is successful without irrigation.

Fruit-raising is receiving deep interest of late, and the county bids fair to compete for honors with the very best localities in the state for the hardier fruits.

Lumbering and saw-milling engage the attention of a large number of the people, the product of the mills finding a ready market in the farming region, large cities and mining camps.

Mining of the precious metals is a growing and an attractive industry.  The ores include gold, silver, lead, copper, tungsten and iron, while quarries of limestone, marble, onyx, fire-clay, etc., abound.

TRANSPORTATION.

In addition to the navigable waters of the Columbia and Pend d’Oreille rivers, which traverse the outskirts of the county, the Great Northern railway through the Colville valley from the southern to the northern boundary, reaches most of the agricultural and mining centers and renders good service.  The western part of the county, comparatively undeveloped, deserves much more attention.

PRINCIPAL CITIES AND TOWNS.

COLVILLE is both the county seat and principal town in the county, having a population of 1,600 people, and is a growing town, a distributing center on the railroad, surrounded by prosperous farming communities.