HOOD RIVER, Ore., name applied to a valley, town and river in Wasco County. The town is situated on the Columbia River and on the line of the Oregon-Washington Railway and Navigation Company, 66 miles east of Port land and 22 miles below The Dalles, the county seat. The Hood River strawberry has acquired a reputation almost phenomenal, and is distrib uted over an immense area of country extending from Denver and Omaha on the south to Winni peg in the province of Manitoba to the north and east. The apple industry is also rapidly assuming large proportions, grades of superior excellence are produced, and the highest priced Spitzenburgs and Yellow Newton Pippins found in the markets of New York and London were grown in Hood River. The valley proper ex tends south from the Columbia River to Mount Hood, some 20 miles, and is protected and cradled by the Cascade range of mountains on the west and a high divide putting out from Mount Hood on the east. The amount of land adapted for fruit culture in this unique valley exceeds 50,000 acres. The river itself drains all of the north side of Mount Hood, has a large and constant flow of water, and for the last 10 miles of its course before entering the Columbia has an average fall of over 60 feet per mile, affording 10,000 measured horse power per mile: There are immense forests of fir and cedar about the head-waters of this stream, and one of the largest saw-mills in the State is con veniently situated near its confluence with the Columbia. The climate is a happy mean be.
tween the moist section of western Oregon and the semi-arid plains of the Columbia. The scenery is grand in the extreme and yearly tracts the attention of many visitors. The town is pleasantly situated, overlooking the Columbia River, is supplied with electric lights, has a Carnegie library, county hospital, high school, and operates its waterworks, while the tele phone is universally present in both town and country. It is, however, the superlative ex cellence of its fruits that has given Hood River a reputation almost world-wide. The town has saw and planing mills, canneries, evaporators, a vinegar factory, meat-packing plant, cider and syrup factories, machine shops, wagon works and a co-operative creamery. Pop. of town 2,331, valley about 6,000.