Writers' Program of the Work Progress Administration

“ Day and night the Row is a river of flowing traffic; gasoline fumes mingle with heavy odors of ripened fruit and the clank of hurried machinery. Above the roar of trucks and motors, the sounding of horns, and the shouts of drivers, rise the hoarse whistles of railroad locomotives and warning switch engine bells. In a mounting crescendo of industrial activity, peaches, pears, and apples follow each other in season. ”

“ Noticeable among the older structures are a few newer, more modern buildings. On the hill and along the bayside to the north are attractive residences, surrounded by broad, close-clipped lawns, brightened in sea- son by daffodils, rows of irises, blossoming shrubs, roses in profusion, beds of flaming gladioli, and golden autumn leaves; even the sombreness of winter is broken by the sheen of laurel leaves and the orange and red berries of thorn and holly. Between these residential districts and the business and industrial areas are scattered sections where the mass of the population lives. ”

“ Cutting across the highway are many rivers and small streams. Dominating the horizon on the left, forested foothills rise in an ascending series to the saw-toothed Olympics, clear- cut and dazzling in bright sunlight, at other times veiled in mist or shrouded in storm clouds, which creep down the canyons and spread out over the lowlands. At infrequent intervals forest roads wind into the deep fragrant woods, bright with wild currants and rhododendron in bloom, splashes of red elderberry, and cascades of creamy-white spiraea and ocean spray. ”

“ Today young cowhands in sombreros and high-heeled boots drive to McKenna in modern automobiles, and truckloads of stock pass through the streets on their way to Puget Sound cattle markets. Irrigation has made possible the cherry orchards, prosperous farms, filbert groves, and berry patches that sprinkle the prairies near the town. The highway passes an abandoned sawmill and, paralleling the railroad, sweeps past prairies covered in summer with a mass of bloom. Camas flowers, ranging in color from white to a brilliant sky-blue, blend with yellow buttercups. ”

“ Occasionally, an airplane drones overhead and swoops down to a landing on the waters of the bay. From unostentatious docks and from piers longer than any in the country, vessels depart for Alaska and the Orient. And the seagulls drift out over the entire city, coming to rest everywhere, even on cornices and the spires of churches. Seattle seems to alter its nature with each change of perspective. Physically, its vistas seem constantly shifting, as its streets move swiftly from one plane to another. Here, one sees automobiles parked on roofs of houses built on the avenue below. ”

“ Resorts, camps, and forest shelters occur at fairly frequent intervals. But the mountains are only a part of this wilderness wonderland. Salt water is never far distant. Side roads dart down to idyllic beach camps, where time is marked only by the changing shadows of towering fir and cedar upon the mirror of some protected bay or inlet; or they lead to picturesque fishing towns, Indian villages, white-walled light- houses, seaports, sawmill towns, and isolated trading hamlets. ”

“ It is a desolate-looking country in midsummer, when heat waves shimmer over the roads and scorching dry winds blow across the sage lands; and is even more desolate in winter, when storms sweep down from the Canadian plains and drive the snow into smudgy, hard- packed drifts, across the roads. The main highway, a ribbon of gray asphalt bordered by barbed-wire fences, against which winds have piled the skeletons of last year's tumbleweeds, Russian thistles, and Jim Hill mustard, winds toward the horizon. ”

“ Occasional clumps of stubby, gale-bent trees, gray with lichen, cling tenaciously to the land's edge, as though conscious that this is their last grip on the North American Continent—westward there is no soil for 5,000 miles. From the outer rim of the beach the traveler's gaze into space is interrupted only by the funnels of an occasional ship, reminding him in passing that the earth is a globe. ”

“ Here, fringing the city, are factories and mills with their stacks and burners, smoking volcanoes by day and glowing infernos by night. Except when a holiday or curtailed production brings a tem- porary lull, the air reverberates with the whine of saws, the strident blasts of whistles, the hiss of steam, and the clank of wheels as engines shunt cars of freight on the sidings. Moored along the docks are freighters, their strong booms swinging incoming cargo to the docks and outgoing cargo, mostly lumber and lumber products, to the decks and into the holds. ”

“ Ascending the Columbia in great silver hordes, the salmon swarm inland to tributaries remote from the ocean, recklessly leaping forward in upstream plunges, tearing their sides against sharp rocks, wriggling through stony shallows, fighting through rapids, many dying on the way, until they reach the headwaters of their native stream. ”

“ Commencement Bay, a fine natural harbor on the Sound, is recognized as one of the country's leading ports. Few cities may boast a more beautiful setting. To the west is the sweep of Puget Sound with wooded bluffs rising from the water's edge, and far to the north- west are the Olympic Mountains, visible in clear weather, a soft line in the haze of summer, a clear-cut jagged ridge in winter. On the land- ward side are the flats of the Puyallup River, the semi-wooded farming area stretching eastward to the foothills, and prairies with patches of woodland. ”

“ Perched above the piles of driftwood on the beach are a number of shacks, where squatters lead a hermit-like life. Gulls drift and soar, white wings flashing against the grey of stormy skies as they wheel and tack and soar with the gale, or swoop down, feet dangling like the landing gear of an airplane, to pick up some bit of floating debris. Straight ahead from Marietta on a graveled road is the LUMMI INDIAN RESERVATION, 6.9 m., on a peninsula between Bellingham and Lummi Bays. Today, most of the Indians eke out a meager existence by fishing, clam digging, and small-scale farming. ”

“ West of the Idaho Line, US 410 climbs upward from the irrigated orchards of the Snake River Valley through rugged, treeless hills, cut by narrow valleys and steep-walled canyons; traverses the fertile, un- dulating benchlands of the Walla Walla country and the sandy wastes along the Columbia River; crosses the river and then runs for miles through alfalfa and hop fields, orchards, vineyards, and truck farms, hemmed in by hills covered with sagebrush, dun-gray in the glare of noon, or softly purple as the sun sinks behind the Cascades. ”

“ The great red buildings of the mill, its rusted stacks belching black smoke and white steam, dominate the town. Crowded close together and fronting crooked, planked streets are tiny box-like cottages, painted in the same dingy red as the mill. ”

“ Near the summit the grass is stunted and only a few sunflowers find sufficient moisture to survive. A wagon road, not much more than a trail, winds up to the summit. From here on clear days the entire Palouse country can be seen—fields of grain, corn, and peas; patches of yellow stubble and dark-brown summer fallow; farm buildings flanked by clumps of evergreens and small orchards; and the canyon of the Palouse River, easily traceable by the dark line of trees along its course. In 1888, Davis conceived the idea of building a resort on the bit of level land at the summit of the butte. ”

“ The winds stir the flags of every civilized nation, while the Indians, in their long-beaked canoes, glide about from ship to ship, satisfying their curiosity or trading with the crews. Keen traders these Indians are, and few indeed of the sailors or merchants from any country ever get the better of them in bargains. Curious groups of people may often be seen, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Scandinavians, Germans, Greeks, Moors, Japanese, and Chinese of every rank and station and style of dress and behavior; settlers from many a nook and bay and island up and down the coast ”

“ Mirrors behind bars are encased in heavily carved wooden frames, and the shop signs of employment agencies and outfitters recall the heroic epoch of lumbering and the gold rush. The harbor was the embryo of Seattle, and to this day the city derives its character from the wharves and its people. Broad Alaskan Way is a long sweep of activity, which subsides but does not entirely cease during the early rush of the morning. ”

“ So precipitous are the walls that in places solid rock had to be blasted away for the entire width of the roadbed. These abrupt and rocky cliffs are tinged brown and orange. Turnouts are provided at points of unusual scenic beauty; far below, the railroad winds in a serpentine course along the canyon floor, where giant firs strive to reach the level of the roadway. Mountain farms with tiny orchards appear along the road, and cattle graze in the fields among clumps of young alder. ”

“ Strung along the highway at widely spaced intervals are several small cities and numerous towns, often little more than a cluster of dwellings around a service station, a grain elevator or two, and a general store and post office combined. Some of these are ghosts of settlements that 60 years ago echoed with the crack of stagecoach whips and the creak of wheels, as heavily loaded wagon trains moved at a turtle's pace toward the mines. From these towns, too, rattled the Conestoga wagons of settlers headed for the lands north of the Snake River. ”

“ No minister leads their meetings. East of Riffe Valley, farms alternate with patches of second-growth timber and cutover lands, brilliant with flaming maple, fox glove, and fireweed. Some of the denuded hills already show the deep gullies of erosion. Here and there are unpainted shacks of clapboard, where live the families of loggers employed in the near-by logging camps and mills. In the more fertile parts of the bottoms are well-cultivated farms, dating back to pioneer days, with broad fields of grain and clover, meadow lands of timothy and redtop, and occasional orchards. ”

“ East of Kosmos the highway runs through a sparsely settled lowland, hemmed in by steep hills, serrated, and in spots heavily forested. In the grassy valley are old homesteads. Rickety snake fences border the road, and here and there are battened or tar-papered shacks. Cattle graze in tree-studded pastures, lush with clover, whose fragrance permeates the air in the spring. ”

“ The highway traverses the base of a wooded promontory and ascends gradually, offering a panorama of the Columbia as it swings westward to join the Pacific. A large island stems the current in the center of this great sweep of water. Ocean-going cargo carriers move ponderously upon its broad bosom and small fishing boats scuttle to and fro. At nights the lights of tiny settlements on the Oregon shore appear. At 42.5 m. is a junction with a graveled road. Left on this road, which follows the shelf of the Kalama River through a gorge of sheer rock walls rising precipitously above the roadbed. ”

“ Right from the junction a gravel-surfaced road follows the bay shore along a slightly crested upland, a region of dairy farms, patches of woodland,
cultivated cranberry land, and several small lakes, the joy of bass fishers. Signs along the route offer fresh oysters for sale, and at intervals the traveler arrives at an oyster farm, its pastures the pungent mud flats of Willapa Bay. The warm, shallow tide creeps twice daily over the flats, bringing the oysters their food and furnishing the peninsula its leading industry. At 12.6 m. on the graveled road is a junction with a side road. ”

“ Many kinds of birds are found in this region south of the Snake River. Early in spring the chickadee and the grosbeak awaken the woods with their excited chatter, the robin's whistle is heard in budding orchards, the mountain bluebird appears on fence posts and ridge poles, and the lark trills from the meadows. Every day the bird population grows, as swallows, blackbirds, sparrows, orioles, goldfinches, thrushes, mourning doves, and kingbirds arrive. Magpies shriek from clumps of trees, crows fly noisily by, woodpeckers begin to beat their tattoos, and hawks soar overhead. ”

“ Attracted by timber, free lands, minerals, railroad construction, the fish industry, irrigation, and power developments, successive waves of settlers have come to Washington: dissatisfied and restless folk from the older States; Southerners, ruined and uprooted by the Civil War; immigrants from Europe and from the Orient; and discouraged farmers from eroded, worn-out lands of the Middle West. Each group has brought its distinctive folkways, which have modified and enriched the cultural life of its new homeland. ”

“ Writing in the new Washington Magazine, he plunged thus into his topic—"Has Puget Sound a Literature?"
"No, Puget Sound has no literature but this region has plenty of real estate, timber, coal, iron and fish, and at present the inhabitants are scrambling over each other in their efforts to become rich out of the natural wealths of the land. There is no time to devote to the
production or the appreciation of a distinctive literature. . . . They buy and sell too eagerly. Literature will be fostered by and by." ”

“ There are long summer afternoons when the only movement in Riverside is the cloud of dust drifting above some cow nonchalantly marching down the main street. On week-ends, however, inhabitants of the outlying districts invade Riverside and pre-empt the floor of the town hall, where they stage night-long successions of square dances and modern steps to the strains of "good old mountain music." ”