Grant county occupies about 2,700 square miles of what was formerly Douglas county, comprising the lands southeast of the Grand and Moses coulees, bordering on the southwest on the Columbia river, with Adams and Lincoln counties on its eastern border. Ephrata is the county seat, on the Great Northern railway. The northern part of the county is traversed by the Great Northern railroad, and has developed into a vast region of grain production without irrigation, although originally supposed to be valueless for cereal-raising. The southern part is new and comparatively undeveloped, but is crossed by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railway, just now giving this new county great impetus. The southern portion of the county has long been a grazing ground for herds of cattle and horses, but it is thought now it will be turned into a prosperous region of small farms. While the county is cut by several coulees, it is chiefly composed of large areas of bench lands, comparatively level, barring a range of hills in its southwestern corner called Saddle mountains. There is considerable water in the county, Moses lake being quite a large body of water with bordering swampy lands, about in the center, and Wilson creek, in the northern and Crab creek, in the southern part, furnishing considerable stock water. LANDS. The lands tributary to the Great Northern railway already produce great quantities of grain and livestock, and these will continue to be its staple crops until irrigation may come in and stimulate fruit production, for which it is thought much of the lands will be suitable. TRANSPORTATION. Both the Great Northern and Northern Pacific railway systems are in the grain fields of the northern part of the county. The Milwaukee road crosses the southern part, the N. & S. is projected along its western border, paralleling the Columbia river, which is navigable, thus affording all the county, excepting the central portion, good facilities for marketing its products. As the county develops, beyond question branch lines will penetrate this portion, and Grant county will become as well supplied as any other portion of the state with facilities for commerce. CITIES AND TOWNS. EPHRATA, the county seat, is a small village on the Great Northern railway about midway of the county and the center of a large wheat-growing section. Its transformation into an important town is rapidly [Page 60] going on, the new county government calling for a variety of new occupations to center here. WILSON CREEK, near the eastern border of the county, is a larger town whose chief industry is marketing grain. It is an important distributing point, with prospects of larger growth. QUINCY is a station on the Great Northern and is also an important wheat-shipping point. SOAP LAKE, on a lake of the same name, is noted as a resort for the rheumatic. BACON, COULEE CITY, and HARTLINE are stations on the Northern Pacific railway in the northeastern part of the county.