NORTHPORT is the center of much mining activity and has a large smelter for the reduction of ores of the precious metals.  It has a population of 1,200.

CHEWELAH is a center of agriculture, mining and lumbering industries in the center of the county, having about 1,000 people.

NEWPORT, in the southeastern part of the county, is an important agricultural distributing center.  A dozen other smaller towns offer great opportunities to the homeseeker.

[Illustration:  Plate No. 77.—­Raising Potatoes in Young Orchard, Spokane County.]

[Illustration:  Plate No. 78.—­Basalt Columns, Spokane River at Spokane.]

[Illustration:  Plate No. 79.—­STEVENS COUNTY VIEWS.  “Where the Elephant Drinks,” a Remarkable Crag on the Bank of the Pend d’Oreille River.  A Typical Fruit Ranch.  Flume Creek Falls.]

[Illustration:  Plate No. 80.—­Stevens County Timber.  Cedar Forest.  White Pine Forest.  Yellow Pine Forest.]

[Page 85] THURSTON COUNTY

Thurston county is known as having the state capital, Olympia, within its borders, and as including the extreme southern reaches of Puget sound.  It is a county of wooded hills and valleys with a few open prairies well watered by mountain streams, chief of which is the Nisqually, which forms its dividing line from Pierce county, and the Des Chutes river, which makes a splendid waterfall of some 85 feet, a few miles south of Olympia.  It has an area of about 700 square miles, 100 miles of salt-water shore, a population of about 20,000, and a delightful climate and magnificent scenery of lofty mountains; great expanse of inland salt water, and green-clad islands and fields in every direction.

RESOURCES.

The county is one of the oldest settled portions of the state, and has a great variety of natural resources, among which are its timber areas, its agricultural fields, its coal mines, its fisheries, including clam and oyster beds, gray sandstone quarries, and a great variety of clays.

INDUSTRIES.

The sawmills of the county are still a very important industry and shiploads of lumber are sent out from its wharves.  All the cereals and grasses yield abundant crops; root crops are extensive; fruit of great variety and fine flavor is very prominent.  Dairying is flourishing, the county having more dairies than any other in the state.  Coal mining is in its infancy, but has progressed far enough to demonstrate the existence of vast areas of lignite coal, having some six veins and having a combined thickness of 61 feet of coal.  About 50,000 sacks of oysters are annually marketed.

TRANSPORTATION.

The Northern Pacific railway connects Olympia with all the important Sound ports and the east, and all the transcontinental roads coming to the Sound from the south will pass through the county.  Together with its salt-water deep harbors, these give the county splendid competition and variety of commercial facilities.