TRANSPORTATION.
Aside from having a long salt-water coast, open to traffic from the ocean, with splendid harbors, the county is traversed in all its agricultural half by a network of railroads, by the Northern Pacific, Great Northern, B. B. and B. C. railroads. These furnish exceptional means of traffic to all industries excepting the mining. The county has also an admirable system of wagon roads, some planked, some graveled and some graded and drained, covering about 700 miles.
Plate No. 83.—Products of Thurston County Waters.
Plate No. 84.—Thurston County Stick. 14,000 Feet. Sandstone Quarry, Tenino, Thurston County. Logging with Oxen. Early Days in Thurston County.
Plate No. 85.—Five Combined Harvesters at Work on a Walla Walla County Wheat Farm.
Plate No. 86.—Ploughing the Ground for Wheat-Growing, Walla Walla County.
Plate No. 87.—Bird's-Eye View of a Portion of Bellingham, Whatcom County.
Plate No. 88.—Typical Farm Scenes in Whatcom County.
PRINCIPAL CITIES AND TOWNS.
Bellingham, on a salt-water bay of the same name, is the county seat, and commercial metropolis not only for this county but much other territory. It has a population of about 40,000 people. Into it all the railroads center, while the harbor is one of the best in Washington. It is largely a manufacturing town, having plants for the production of sash, doors, columns, tin cans, boilers, engines, flour and feed, canned fish, condensed milk, and many others. It is a substantial, live business community of wide-awake people, and growing rapidly. It has a gravity water system, electric lights, and gas plant.
Blaine is a city of about 3,000 inhabitants, situated close to the Canadian line and on the Great Northern railway. Timber and lumber manufactures are the chief sources of its prosperity. Fishing and the canning of salmon are also important industries. The railroad company has recently expended considerable sums in improving its facilities. Blaine is a growing community.
Sumas, on the Canadian border, is a lumbering town of 1,100 people.
Lynden is an agricultural center of 1,200 citizens.
Ferndale is a lumber center of 1,000 people. Besides, there are a dozen smaller business centers in the county, growing and prosperous.