Page:Oregon, End of the Trail.djvu/98



cities on Coos Bay. Salmon is the leading catch, with halibut, pilchards, cod, steelhead trout, shad, and oysters important in the order named.

The salmon-wheels in the Columbia River, a few of which are still standing, are reminders of a past made obsolete by law. Formerly thousands of salmon were taken in these ingenious contraptions. However, horse-seining is still done on the lower river, where teams, neck deep in water, pull in nets filled with struggling fish. The animals, most of them old discarded work-horses, seem to be rejuvenated by the brine. Astoria is the largest fish-canning center in the state. From here a fleet of boats puts out to troll or seine in the river, or off the coast. For the past few years the catching and processing of pilchards for oil and fertilizer have become important activities during a two-month season at Astoria and Coos Bay. This industry is so new that no reliable data on it have as yet been collected. However, in 1936, a tax of 50 cents per ton on pilchards taken in Oregon waters netted about $35,000. The annual yield of all Oregon fisheries is about 25,000,000 pounds, valued at over $2,600,000. The pilchard products are used locally and along the Pacific Coast; salmon and allied products, canned, smoked, dried, or kippered, are shipped to all parts of the world.

From mining, Oregon receives a small but steady income. Gold, copper, silver, and lead rank in the order named. Mercury production equals that of gold in value, or about $350,000 annually. Three thousand persons are engaged in the production of minerals in the state, and the total income is approximately $4,500,000 a year. Gold was Oregon's earliest mineral discovery. In eastern and southern parts of the state prospectors are still active in the mountains and along streams. Tales of "lost" mines persist as part of local folklore. In Curry, Baker, Jackson and Josephine counties are many ruins of "ghost towns," built hurriedly and as swiftly abandoned and forgotten.

Manufacturing in Oregon has made slow but steady progress. The lumber industry plays the role of a general stimulant through its demand for logging locomotives, donkey-engines, steel cables, blocks and timber-cutting tools, much of which equipment is made in the state. In Portland a factory, in business since 1887, builds 13,000 stoves and 2,500 furnaces a year. Another plant specializes in automatic stokers that are sold all over the world. Still another makes 2,000,000 tin cans annually to meet the demands of the local fruit and fish-canning industries. Woolen goods have been made since earliest days. Though wool in great quantities and of excellent grade is still produced in the state, the industry has lagged somewhat in late years.