Broadcasting Telecasting (Jan-Mar 1956)

MACHINE VS. MOUNTAIN MOUNTAINOUS obstacles crumble before the might of a Caterpillar tractor as a new road is cut through some of the nation's roughest terrain. New and better roads plus deeper river channels and expanding air transport, are joining railroads in the effort to remove the Northwest's semi-isolation from the rest of the U. S. Washington's rich farming valleys. Walla Walla (Indian term meaning many waters) has a county population of 42,000, of which 25,500 are in the city. Retail trade in 1954 totaled $47.2 million in the county, $44 million in the city. It is close to the Oregon border in the southeastern corner of Washington. YAKIMA — Within a five-county area having a 90-mile radius are 265,000 people whom Yakima claims in defining its trade influence. The city is center of the first major U. S. irrigation project, with 700,000 acres of surrounding land under cultivation. It is the main metropolis between Spokane and the built-up economy west of the Cascades. From its central point east of the mountains, Yakima is processing point for Yakima County's extensive fruit production. The county claims to be first U. S. county in output of apples, pears and hops; fifth U. S. county in total agriculture production ($125 million annual farm income); fifth in cherries; sixth in output of all fruits and nuts; eighth in peaches, and ninth in plums and prunes. Tom Bostic, KIMA-AM-TV, said this fast-growing county is the third largest in the Northwest in area, with lakes, mountains and 305 days of sunshine every year. Transcontinental and international planes sometimes land at the airport if Seattle is fogged in, he said. Rainfall is only IV2 inches a year, but the Cascades feed streams and reservoirs that moisten land producing some of the world's fanciest fruit. Yakima has the biggest concentration of cold storage facilities in operation, Mr. Bostic said. A hundred manufacturing plants are related to fruit processing, with 210 others including lumber, wood products and metal working. Yakima expects to serve as metropolitan center for the Columbia Basin project. Retail sales in 1954 totaled $159.3 million in the county, $96 million in the city. Yakima County has a population of 149,000; Yakima 44,000. OREGON THE STATE of Oregon, as any Portland wholesaler knows, provides living proof that the Pacific Northwest's pioneer mapmakers and businessmen were incompatible. From a Portland warehouse on the Willamette River, a carload of stoves, refrigerators or television sets may eventually be distributed into three states, depending on the particular distributor's franchise. From this wholesaling center close to the Washington border — half-way between Canada and California— white goods, hard goods, soft goods, and the tools of farm and industry reach destinations in such Washington cities as Kelso, Longview, Vancouver and Chehalis on the north. Along the low-level, low-cost Columbia River waterway and its easy land routes, these products get into Richland, Pasco, Walla Walla and even Yakima. Vancouver, just across the Washington border, is an integral suburb of Portland. Far away, Boise and Pocatello, in southern Idaho, are serviced sometimes out of Portland via rail and highway transport. Some Portland distributors reach as far as a western strip in Wyoming and a thin slice across the northern part of California. Broadcasting • Telecasting Oregon's economy thus enjoys a flow of dollars from several other states, a financial bloodstream whose possibilities were not foreseen by the early surveyors and statesmen who plotted the boundaries. Two-thirds of Oregon's business is strung along a north-south valley and tributaries between the Cascade Mountains and the wooded coastal ranges. Both population and business have been growing at a faster rate than Washington can boast, Oregonians claim, a source of considerable satisfaction after preWorld War II years in which the state played country cousin to its northern relatives. Oregon has three principal assets: (1) More timber and forest products, resources and industries than any other state; (2) the Columbia River and tributaries: (3) Portland (see "Portland" chapter). The timber provides ingredients for industries employing two of every three factory workers. It fills the nation's lumber yards and supplies material for paper, pulp, plywood and related plants (see "Forest Products"). The Columbia River, fed by the Snake, Willamette and other streams, roars downward over numerous dams to provide cheap hydroelectric energy. This is expecially helpful to power-eating aluminum and other light metal plants (see "Power" chapter). Portland is important as the industrial capital of the state. It is Oregon's only major city and the metropolitan population is just outside the first 20 U. S. cities. The nearby Columbia carries water commerce to foreign countries, Alaska and domestic ports. Geographically, Oregon is big (exceeds New York and Pennsylvania put together); intensely green, especially in the western third; moist in the same third, and bordered by 900 miles of water (Columbia River 300, Snake River 200 and Pacific Ocean 400). Its peaks (Mt. Hood, Mt. Jefferson, Three Sisters) are snow-topped all year. East of the Cascades there are vast dry areas, with 1.3 million acres of irrigated land. Heavy rains wet the huge fir trees on the coastal ranges. Temperatures are mostly mild west of the Cascades, with pleasant summers. The eastern portion has much greater temperature extremes. Snowfall in a winter totals 6 to 12 inches a year in the Willamette, and an astonishing 460 inches in the Cascades at the 6,000-foot level. Oregon's agriculture is important. It leads the U. S. in seed crops, filberts, peppermint, several types of berries, prunes and snapbeans; ranks No. 2 in strawberries and walnuts; third in pears and hops. The seed crop brings in up to $35 million a year. There are more kinds of seeds grown than any other state can claim, including about all of the rye grass, plus vetch, winter peas, fescues, bent grass, clovers and blue grass. The state has led the nation in lumber for nearly two decades. Production of finished wood products and other forest derivatives is increasing rapidly. These include plywood, kraft paper, containers and paper. Newer chemical industries are growing, including pharmaceuticals, insecticides, paint, cleaning compounds and fertilizers. Abundant water and low-cost power are a big help. Electronic plants are expanding. Food processing is the second most important industry, with 14 million cases of fruits and vegetables shipped in a year plus a quarter-billion pounds of quick-frozen. Flour is milled at Astoria, and fish processing January 9, 1956 • Page 87