tohusum.html

The Klickitat County Agriculturist, Goldendale, WA., June 25, 1910, page 3
"Klickitat Intelligence"

Six miles up the White Salmon river from where it empties into the mighty Columbia, is the town of Husum, nestling in a valley of rich productiveness. Husum is located in the White Salmon River Valley property proper, in the heart of the rich orchard lands. The town is favorably situated as a hub for roads from the towns of Trout Lake, Glenwood, Laurel, Fulda, Panikanik, Gilmer, Underwood, and White Salmon. Commercially it is represented by a number of trade and store buildings, with several new structures in process of erection. As a manufacturing center it will stand prominent as a leader when the different projects are carried out that at present are commanding the attention of Eastern and Western capitalists. With water power in abundance, it is that natural point for large manufacturing plants. What Hood River is to Oregon, the county adjacent to Husum is to Washington. What the same conditions as the famous lands across the Columbia River, this section of the White Salmon Valley produces the choices Spitzenberg and Newton apples to be found in the Northwest. From virgin forests commercial orchards have sprung up on every hand, and hundreds of fruit-bearing tracts are being developed yearly. The successful raising of strawberries for the early market is an industry without a rival. All grains, grasses, fruit and berry crops are grown year after year without irrigation. The White Salmon river can supply thousands of horsepower every half mile from its mouth to the head waters near Mount Adams. A topographical survey was made last fall by H.D. McGlashan for the Government, who stated that no river in the State could furnish more power for its length of 30 miles. Power is derived from the river at this point for running the plant of the Husum Power and Electric Light Company, of which J.T. Thompson is manager. The company supplies the towns of White Salmon, Bingen, and Husum with power and light. Service is also connected up the valley for a distance of five miles, and the company expects to have lines in operation as far as Trout Lake, a distance of 16 miles, within a year. Another manufacturing plant recently installed here is the sawmills of the Husum Lumber Company, adjoining the townsite on the west on Spring Creek. A dam has been built across the creek and a large turbine runs the mill's machinery. The company has already started out with sawing capacity of 30,000 feet of lumber per day. From the headquarters of the White Salmon river in the foothills near Mount Adams, this stream affords the best of trout fishing. Big catches of rainbow trout are a daily pastime during the season along its entire length of 30 miles. The river is a swift running mountain stream, pure and sparkling as crystal. Silently flowing through the level stretch of the Trout Lake region, it suddenly dashes in cataracts and falls, brilliant in the sunlight, before tumbling into semideep canyons lower down the valley. It again appears near the surface level of the country a few miles above here, when it swiftly continues its way to the deep, beautiful Columbia River, six miles below.