It was photographed by many thousand visitors, illustrated in railroad guides as one of the attractions, featured by papers and magazines everywhere, and will probably be distinctly remembered longer by a greater number of people than any other building on the exposition grounds. As a practical exhibit of the State's lumber products it was a tremendous success, and together with its exhibit contents, representing a composite collection of the State's natural products and resources, was a colossal advertisement and demonstration of the State's natural wealth.
In addition to the State appropriation, heretofore mentioned, and the donation of lumber material above referred to, various counties in the State expended a total of $15,000 in the maintenance of individual exhibits.
The State of Washington installed and maintained throughout the period, in the various classified exhibit palaces, comprehensive exhibits of its mines, forestry, fisheries, game, horticulture, agriculture, education, climate, and scenery, and in addition, and supplemental thereto, maintained a composite showing of all these resources in its State building:
Horticulture: One thousand boxes of the best apples grown in the State in 1903 were carried over in St. Louis in cold storage. On May 1 the exhibit was opened with the 500 jars of miscellaneous fruits preserved for this exhibit; on May 15 we began the showing of fresh fruits, which showing was continued with all varieties and ample quantities (both in Horticultural Hall and in our State building) throughout the season, consuming four carloads of this material received by freight, and 150 boxes miscellaneous fruits in season expressed. Awards—Grand prize, for "collective exhibit of fruits." Gold medals, Yakima County, Chelan County, W.L. Wright, Geo. H. Farwell; silver medals, Chelan County Horticulture Association, Chelan County Fair Association, Clarkston Fruit Growers' Association, Orondo Fruit Farm, Yakima Horticulture Association, Washington Irrigation Company (Sunnyside), Wrightville Farm, to 38 individual exhibitors; bronze medals, to 27 individual exhibitors.
Forestry: A comprehensive collection of commercial woods, large dimensions, rough, and a good variety of finish shown in our various booths, counters, tables, etc.; also, a sample collection of all our native woods, rough and finished, exceeding in quantity (exclusive of the exhibit features of our State building) the exhibit shown by any State.
This exhibit was entered as "collection of commercial woods of best quality and largest dimensions; and the greatest educational exhibit of forestry shown at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, in that it teaches the youth and uninformed adult more of the characteristics and extent of the wonderful forests of the Northwest, and conveys to the residents of the treeless areas of the North-Central States a better knowledge of the quality and duration of their future lumber supply than does any other forestry exhibit shown on the occasion."
Awarded grand prize on "commercial woods." Collaborators—H.
McCormick Lumber Company, the Larson Lumber Company, Grays
Harbor Commercial Company, Pat McCoy Logging Company, St. Paul
and Tacoma Lumber Company, Clarke-Nickerson Lumber Company, the
Northwestern Lumber Company, the Northwestern Woodenware
Company, Panel and Folding Box Company (Hoquiam), E.K. Lambert
(Elma), and the American Portable House Company.
Agriculture: In this department our space in Agriculture Hall and the lower floor of our State building was crowded with an exhibit of all cereals in straw and seed, forage grasses, vegetables, hops, wool, dairy products, etc.
Awarded grand prize on "collection of cereals, forage grasses, and miscellaneous vegetables;" grand prize on "best one-farm exhibit;" gold medals on various county exhibits, seven in number; gold medals on various mill products, five in number; gold medal on dairy exhibit, by Hazelwood Company; gold medal on hops, wool, and flax; gold medal on beet sugar.
Fisheries: Washington's exhibit in this department included every native leading variety of food fish and game fish, exceeding in numbers and quantity the showing of any other State. The installation was also the most practical undertaken here, considering the water and temperature, as all live exhibits were failures, and the collective exhibit was awarded first prize.