Kelso is Rapidly Forging Ahead
Little Smelt Worth Thousands to Town Which Has Two Banks
Farm Lands are Big asset
Prosperous and Biggest Little City In Cowlitz County, With Paving Second to None, Destined to Play Important Part.

The Portland Oregonian
Thursday October 21, 1915
By Addison Bennett

I do not know of a better way to start an article about Kelso than to give the statements of the two strong banks they have in this little gem of a city. The Kelso State Bank is the oldest institution. It is one of the substantial concerns of Southwest Washington. F. M. Carothers is president. F. L. Stewart cashier. It has a capital or $25,000, a surplus of S25.000 and deposits of $251,036.56. This bank has a large banking room in its own building, with the very latest equipment in the way of safes, vaults and everything to insure the safety of funds deposited therein.

The First National Bank also has its own building, which is well adapted to banking purposes. E. S. Collins is the president, C. C. Basher, cashier. It has a capital of $2S.000, surplus of $5,000 and undivided profits of $1,188. Its deposits amount to $198,188.29. Kelso is in Cowlitz county, being the largest city in that county. It is situated on the Cowlitz river, and but a short distance from the Columbia river. 

It always has been a prosperous place and has had a steady growth for several years. It came into existence. I think, owing to the smelt that annually come up the Columbia to the Cowlitz and then turn up that stream to go, nobody knows. The smelt, I suppose everybody knows, is a fish not much larger than a sardine, but mighty good eating, considered a great delicacy by some when they are worth, say, two bits a pound. When the price drops to 15 pounds for a quarter, or perhaps to two bits a bushel, then they are not so good!

River Often Alive With Smelt.

Nobody knows just to a minute when the smelt will begin to run, as their yearly advent is called, but just a few days before Christmas, varying not more than a week. Within a few days after the first ones come, the river actually is alive with them. They are caught usually in dip nets holding from a peck to a half bushel and frequently the nets will be hauled in filled to capacity. 

Within two weeks from the time the run begins there comes a scarcity which lasts from the 15th to 20th of January, then the second run begins. This lasts a few weeks, when they disappear, save in small schools, enough probably to supply the demand from the hotels and restaurants. But in the meantime there has been a great scurrying around Kelso, and its people are richer to the extent of about $75,000 for each annual "harvest" of the tiny little smelt.

I suppose Kelso has somewhere around 2,250 people. I have heard it asserted that by taking in the people living in the suburbs but not within the city limits the number would run up close to 2,000. It looks like it to me. It is, in every particular, a fine little city with a prosperous look. No better paved city of its size do I know of and the best job of paving. You scarcely will find a better built city of the same size in the West, I surely know of none.

Slump Comes Slowly.

I think Kelso has suffered some through hot air, peddled by outsiders who went there to turn a shoestring into a pair of boots. For instance, to show how the boomers boomed and the ragers raged overtime, there were eight moving-picture shows in town, and at one time and a daily and two weekly newspapers. But to the credit of Kelso be it said, when there came a slump, it came so slowly and gradually that the new growth about kept up with the departures, until now there scarcely a vacant storeroom or dwelling in town.

And not a failure worthy the name has ever taken place in Kelso. Indeed, always have the Kelsonians, or the Kelsoites, or the "Kelseys," take the word you like best, always have the true residents gone ahead making money. Consequently, the Kelso of today is better than the Kelso of any day in the past, but not so good as will be the Kelso of tomorrow. For this little city has a future of roseate hue. 

There is a cause for the existence of the town and that cause is getting brighter every day. Originally Kelso was built on the lumber industry. It has six sawmills and three shingle mills in the city limits, with great logging crews in the adjacent woods, with an annual output of 26,000,000 feet of lumber and 150,000.000 shingles, not mentioning the timber operations on the Columbia river, only a couple of miles away, where the great cigar-shaped rafts were built and shipped to the south. These rafts each contained about 5,000,000 feet of logs.

Agricultural Lands Big Asset.

Gradually Kelso is finding that her greatest asset is the splendid agricultural lands surrounding the town. Foremost of these are the tidelands between the Columbia and the Cowlitz. It is a pretty well known fact that the overflow lands along the lower Columbia are about as productive as lands can be, but somehow there has been a backwardness in reclaiming these lands that is, in keeping the water off so that they could be cropped. Just now about 9,500 acres of these lands are being reclaimed surrounding Kelso, 9,500 acres of as fine land as there is in the Northwest.

The reclamation is being done under the district diking law, there being three districts, containing the total area mentioned. District No. 1 contains 3,000 acres, and the diking will cost $35 an acre; district No. 2 contains 1,500 acres, and the diking will cost $30 an acre, while district No. 3 contains 5,000 acres, and the diking cost will be $25 an acre. I have included the latter district, but no work has been done toward reclamation, and this tract may not be ready for next year's cropping. As to the other 4,500 acres, the bonds were sold some time ago through the Lumbermen's Trust Company, of Portland, and the work is being pushed with all possible dispatch, to the end that every acre of it may be utilized next year.

Bonds Carry 7 Per Cent.

The bonds carry 7 per cent interest and are payable in 15 years. During the first three years nothing is paid on the principal, simply the interest. Kelso has a good semi-weekly newspaper, the Kelsonian. It is owned by W. P. Ely. but George Umbaugh is the editor and manager. There is a large creamery doing a big business, but the railway platforms have a great number of cream cans on them, showing that a large amount of it is shipped away. I noticed cans marked for Independence, Tacoma, Portland and Astoria.

It is said that the dairy cows are multiplying rapidly in the vicinity, and that soon as the newly diked land is placed in cultivation, the present number will be more than doubled, as
most of the owners will follow dairying. If they do, there ought to be more than 2,000 cows on the first two units. As 500 cows will sustain creamery with great profit, it will be seen that there will be room for more than one.

Kelso has good commercial club. Al Maurer is president and J. L. Sparling secretary. They issue some good literature, which will be mailed upon request. The Kelso people take great pride in their schools. There are three grammar schools and one high school, and all have fine buildings. Professor Lee F. Jones is the city superintendent, and he is highly spoken of as an educator and a citizen. 

There is also firemen's club, in which the citizens take pride. It has 65 active members. Dr. L. R. Bonerd is chief and Thomas Garner assistant. The city has its own executive building, C. O. Taulbert being the present Mayor. The city is on the Pacific Highway, the main business street forming part of it. There are two good hotels. I stopped, at the Hotel Rockwood, of which the Mayor is proprietor. The Washington House is also a good stopping place. I found the Rockwood well kept in every way and the prices reasonable. There are several good restaurants in the town, and all seem to be doing good business. 

And there is the whole thing in nutshell, business is excellent in Kelso. The town forging ahead. While others are crying hard times the Kelso people are doing good business; the people are prosperous, and there is scarcely "For Rent" sign in the town.