Sketches of Washingtonians; Containing Brief Histories of Men of the State of Washington Engaged in Professional and Political Life, in Manufacture, Commerce, Finance and Religion with a Summary of the Cities of the State Containing Upwards of 5,000 Popula (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: position. The table herewith shows the situation for the last three years, only the five leading ports being noted: 1903-04 1904-05 1905-06 New York 91,461 106,832 120,127 San Francisco 36,917 35,905 32,067 Boston 14,317 16,593 15,074 Puget Sound 9,931 12,353 14,339 Philadelphia 11,611 11,404 12,088 The exports from Puget Sound for 1905 were $56,000,000, and its imports $10,600,000, making a total foreign commerce of $66,600, - 000. The Great Northern freighters, Minnesota and Dakota, have a carrying capacity of 28,000 tons each. COAL MINING. Coal mining is one of the leading industries of the State of Washington, and particularly of King county. The following figures, taken from the report of the State Inspector of Coal Mines, for the years 1901 to 1904, show the development of the industry and the number of tons produced during those years: Output By Counties. 1901. 1902. 1903. 1904. Kittitas 1,005,017 1,252,454 1,376,017 1,339,601 King 863,229 1,0I2,217 1,216,518 1,116,677 Pierce 575,091 401,091 575,286 514,570 Skagit 12,643 19,017 19,256 10,650 Whatcom 8,200 6,010 600 Lewis 1,800 1,935 Thurston 1,000 15,000 Totals 2,464,190 2,690,789 3,190,477 2,998,633 In addition to the coal product the mines produced 46,175 tons of coke. The average price of coal at tide water is about $3.00 per ton, and coke is sold at from $5.00 to $6.00 per ton. The market value of the product, therefore, is about $9,000,000 per year. The coal fields of Washington cover an area of several thousand square miles. All of the large mines, except those of the Koslyn district in Kittitas county, are located within fifty miles of Seattle, while the Roslyn district is distant less than 100 miles in a direct line. The deposits of coal are practically ...