By CAPT. JOHN MULLAN, U. S. A.
From the Washington _Statesman_ (Walla Walla) of November 29 and
December 6, 1862.
For those who have not made the journey direct from Walla Walla,
through the agricultural heart of Oregon, and across the mountains
through the mining region of northern California, there is much of
interest and pleasure; and though the trip should be fraught with much
personal discomfort, there is much to repay the traveler in the
collection of statistics, and in seeing a region where the wilderness
of yesterday has to-day given place to homes, where material
prosperity, at least, arrest the attention of the traveler at every
mile of the journey. The mode of conveyance from Walla Walla to
Wallula is by stages that run daily between these points, and where
the journey is of six hours and a cost of $5 brings you to the banks
of the Columbia, whence you take steamers for the Des Chutes Landing.
The improvements along the banks of the Walla Walla, in the shape of
new and additional enclosures for farming purposes, during the last
two years, have been many, and mark with unerring certainty the future
of the Walla Walla country, as the distributing center for a radius of
three hundred miles of country, now fast developing in all the
elements of material, social, and political prosperity. It has more
than once occurred to me that the Walla Walla River, by a system of
locks, could be advantageously used as a line of connection between
Wallula and Walla Walla, and one needs but see the long line of wagons
and pack trains, heavily freighted for the interior, to become
convinced that either this or some more rapid and economical means is
positively demanded, in order to connect the heart of the valley with
the Columbia River. Economy at the present would argue in favor of
converting the river into a canal, but the prospective wants of the
country are much more in favor of a railroad connection. For a
distance of eighteen miles below Walla Walla the nature of the face of
the country is eminently suited in its present condition for laying a
railroad track; and thence to Wallula the character of work being
either excavation in sand, clay, or soft rock, will enable a road to
be built at economical figures. The Touchet and the crossings of the
Walla Walla River will require heavy bridges but good abutment sites
are to be had, and the streams not being subject to overflow, no
impediment will ever be had from this cause. It could be safely stated
that a capital of $600,000 would construct and equip this road, and
when it is known that not less than one hundred thousand tons of
freight, at $20 per ton, and ten thousand passengers, at $5 each, pass
over this line annually, it does seem strange that capitalists are not
disposed to move in the matter in a practical shape. It is a project
in which every citizen could become interested. The farmers could
supply all the ties needed; the mills are fully capacitated to supply
all the lumber demanded, and the surplus population from the mines and
those out of employment could advantageously supply all the labor
needed in its construction; and with the valley of Walla Walla to
supply every necessary of life, to me it is anything but an Utopian
idea, and I feel warranted in believing that another twelve months
will not roll around before the matter is taken up with a view to its
practical execution. The teams now freighting on the road will not
necessarily be thrown out of employment, but the increasing
development of the interior will cause them simply to seek new lines
upon which to transport this same freight after the railroad shall
have deposited it at the city of Walla Walla, which nature has
constituted a commercial center, and from which will be distributed to
every point of the compass the merchandise which their wants demand.
Reaching the Columbia at Wallula one is pleased with the commercial
character which this point is fast assuming. Freight strewn along the
levee for half a mile--stores erected, commission houses plying their
vocations, and everything giving an earnest of a prosperous future.
This site has doubtless many advantages as a commercial point; but so
long as men shall desire pleasant homes,--where the eye is as desirous
of drinking in draughts of pleasure and beauty as the pocket is of
accumulating wealth,--where mills, farms, gardens, and pleasant
enclosures can be had,--where the products of the fields are garnered
with a short transportation to a ready market--just so long will Walla
Walla and not Wallula be the chief emporium and point of business for
the interior, and for supplying the more immediate demands of the
Walla Walla Valley. That Wallula will always be a point where
commission houses, a few stores, and one or more hotels will always be
supported, no one can doubt; but looking toward a large and growing
city with all the pleasant appurtenances that make life happy, I can
not but conceive that its growth must become circumscribed within the
above limits.
We took passage on the pleasant steamer Tenino, and in eight hours
were landed at Celilo, a point some two miles below the Des Chutes
Landing, where the Oregon Steam Navigation Company have already formed
the nucleus of a thriving village. The freshet of the past season has
strewn the banks of the Columbia with cord wood in abundance--which
commands $10 per cord. The John Day's wood yard, however, is the chief
depot for fuel. Here, too, one notices the marked progress that is
daily making its onward march to the interior. Here we saw two
steamers building, one already launched, owned by Captain Gray, and
still another at Celilo, of large dimensions. There is no doubt we are
far in advance, in point of boldness and daring, in the question of
river navigation on the Columbia, of those similarly engaged on the
eastern waters; and the success which has thus far attended the
efforts of those who dared to move in the navigation of the Upper
Columbia, has only emboldened them to greater efforts, and it is no
dream to feel that the day is not far distant when the Snake to the
American Falls, and the stretches of the Columbia from Wallula to Fort
Colville, and the Clark's Fork, from Park's Crossing to Horse Plain,
will all be tested by steam and thus made tributary to the growing
wants of trade and travel.
The fare from Wallula to Celilo is $10. A ride of three hours brings
us to The Dalles--which point, too, is showing visible signs of a
healthy improvement; and the increasing trade to the mines of John
Day's and Powder rivers is destined to make it a point of great
commercial import. Whether the idea entertained by Mr. Newell, and
other men at The Dalles, of a direct trade from San Francisco to The
Dalles, shall ever be realized, is not so easy to be determined. It
certainly has a favorable location for the full consummation of such
an idea--and we all know what magic results gold can be made to
produce, and without desire of detriment to Portland, I should
heartily desire to see such a happy result attained. The will to do
it, and the means with which to do it, are the only two essentials
needed; and if these are had, it will be done--and the sooner the two
former are ascertained the sooner will the commercial idea (grand in
its conception and pregnant with so many grand results) become a
matter of past history. The railroad company have resumed the work of
grading and ballasting, and it is the desire of the company to have
the cars running by the first of next May. The roadbed is prepared for
some five or six miles out from the city, and the iron track laid for
half a mile. My own convictions are that the railroad, eventually, is
to be more beneficial to Walla Walla than The Dalles, but that the
latter is also to derive much benefit no one will doubt.
We found the line of opposition steamers running, which, having the
tendency to reduce the rates of freight and travel, was a thing that
the commercial and traveling public were but too glad to see. The
passage from The Dalles to Portland was only one dollar. That
competition on this immense line will be fraught with healthy results
no one will doubt. The Oregon Steam Navigation Company, as the
pioneers on an untested river, do certainly merit much credit for the
bold hazard they so successfully made, and merit reward as such; and
though many complaints (founded in justice, doubtless,) have been
urged, still the history of all monopolies has shown a greater degree
of extortion than I have heard urged against this company. But so long
as the Columbia River shall remain an open sea I do heartily desire to
see competition seek here a channel of investment--and which it will
always do so long as it is found to pay. All philanthropic ideas of
"parties desiring to serve the public, without being remunerated,"
will find no believers among the merchants and travelers of the Upper
Columbia. The merchant and traveler will take that line where the
rates are the lowest and accommodation the best, irrespective of the
owners of the line or those who pioneered them through to a success.
At least this is the history of the commercial past, and I see no
reason why it should not be the history of the commercial future.
Just so soon as capitalists find that putting steamers on the upper
Columbia is a paying investment, steamers will be put on; and, unless
the capitalist is so convinced, it will be a difficult task to cause
him to turn his capital into such a channel.
This age is, preëminently, an _utilitarian_ one; in which facts and
figures are, particularly, the weapons with which the capitalist wages
his financial war. Armed with these, his victory is in his own hands;
not so armed, it is in those of some one else. The portage of the
Cascades, heretofore so great a bugbear in the trip from The Dalles to
Portland, is now made in a brief hour on the cars, without detriment
or danger. An extra dollar for riding on the cars is charged, though,
if you prefer it, you can walk on the road in nearly the same time,
free of cost. No traveler passes over this portage without awarding to
Colonel Ruckle every praise for the bold prosecution of his bold
project, and no one begrudges him the ample reward which he is to-day
deriving in token of his past labors. This portage is on the Oregon
side; but it is to be hoped that the difficulties on the Washington
side, between Bradford and Bush, will be speedily adjusted, so that
the steam cars, now running on a portion of the track already
completed, shall connect the two termini of the portage, and thus
reduce the time of travel within the minimum limits. The post at Fort
Cascades is now abandoned, nor does it seem at present necessary to
hold it under garrison, so far as the Indians are concerned. The
question of a foreign war, however, would render it a key-point of
marked importance.
A run of seven hours brings us to Portland. I fear, from the present
appearance of Vancouver, that all chances of commercial rivalry with
Portland have been banished. Capital is certainly not seeking it at
present as a point of investment. The freshet has left its marks of
devastation along the levee and lower portions of the city, and it
will require much capital and energy to reinstate Vancouver in the
position it occupied two years since; and if the idea of making The
Dalles a large commercial emporium be ever consumated, I can not
conceive that Vancouver will ever occupy a position of more than
secondary importance, unless the western slopes of the Cascades should
open up a gold-bearing region. In such an event Vancouver would
necessarily become a point of fixed commercial importance; but so long
as the permanency which now marks Portland shall continue to be
maintained, and the question on the part of the citizens of The Dalles
to make it a commercial depot shall continue to be agitated, so long
will Vancouver stand the chance of being kept in the background. On
the Lower River we traveled to Portland in company with quite a a
number of emigrants destined to Puget Sound, and they all regretted
that they could not have gone from Walla Walla to the Sound by land.
This is a matter in which every citizen of Washington Territory is
more or less interested. The road opened in 1853, by the Natchess
Pass, has fallen into such a state, that, unless repaired and kept so,
it will be useless for all practical purposes of emigrants for the
Sound from the States. I understand that the Packwood trail is deemed
by many preferable to the Natchess route; but whether we shall have a
route via the Natchess, Snoqualmie, Packwood, or any other pass, is a
matter about which those truly interested in seeing the Sound section
brought directly in communication with the interior, will not fall
out. The citizens of the Sound need a good road across the Cascades,
direct from Wallula. The valley of the Yakima will doubtless give us a
good line, and then across to the Wenatchee, via Packwood's Pass,
either into Olympia or Steilacoom. The long interval which has elapsed
since the Natchess Pass was traveled has naturally caused the line to
fall out of repair. The emigrants who desire to locate on the Sound
need a line by which they can carry their wagons, and over which drive
their stock, and not be driven to take the steamers down to
Monticello, thus increasing costs so heavy that it seems
impracticable. This is a matter of great importance, not only for
emigrants, but in order to bring the citizens of the Sound, by the
most direct trade and associations, with those resident on the eastern
slopes of the Cascades,--and is one of such importance that it is to
be hoped that the attention of Congress will be duly called to it.
Military necessity calls for such a line, and a military road should
be so located and constructed.
The large crowd that daily assembles on the wharf on the arrival of
the steamer from The Dalles is an unerring barometer of the interest
felt in the development of the upper country; and a conversation with
the leading merchant of the city convinced me that the trade of the
Willamette--where the returns to the merchants are in flour, grain,
hides, and fruit,--is small and of minor importance compared to that
whence their returns are by daily steamers and in gold dust. The
latter is immediately converted into coin and seeks new channels of
investment, and is turned over a half-dozen times a year, whereas the
former must bide its fortunate market and sales thus delayed from week
to week and from month to month. The establishment of a branch mint,
either at Portland or The Dalles, is becoming a subject of daily
commercial necessity, and should such a branch be established, if the
treasurer was allowed, as soon as the assays were made and the value
of the certificate of deposit made known, to pay out the coin
immediately for these deposits, much time would be saved to the
depositor, and much gain and saving to the miner, whereas now, without
a branch mint, the miners are forced to sell their dust to
speculators, who must be paid for their time; and this payment is kept
up till it reaches San Francisco--here from fourteen to twenty days
are consumed before the dust is coined--though not more than two days
before the value of the deposit by the assayer is determined. The
treasurer has always on hand an amount of funds which could be paid
out for the deposits made, which deposits, when coined, could replace
that paid out, thus benefiting the miner by bringing him directly in
contact with the Government, who has eventually to coin his dust, and
save him time and "shaving" by the speculator, and to this extent
materially benefits the country by distributing and disbursing the
money in the very same region where it is dug from the earth. A branch
mint for Oregon and Washington, and an authority for the assistant
treasurer to pay out at once the value of the deposit as soon as the
assay is determined, are two things which, if effected, would
materially tend to benefit the miner, and hence the country; whereas
now the time consumed in sending the dust from the mines and getting
it back in coin must be paid for by somebody, and that somebody ever
has been, and, unless these changes be made, will always be the miner.
Just as quick as the dust of the miner is returned to him in coin in
the minimum space of time and with the minimum "shave"--which in this
case would be only the cost of transporting it to the branch mint and
back,--then will the capital of the country be in the hands of the
greater number, and that number a class of people who are interested
in the material interest and prosperity of the country--and thus on
[will our] roads, rivers, and works of internal improvement--our
schools, academies, and all the elements of social and substantial
happiness and wealth be added to and quickened by an impulse that is
healthy in itself, and which aims at and desires healthy avenues of
investments. Should such a branch mint be established, Portland would
doubtless claim the site; but whether it be there, at The Dalles, or
Walla Walla, is not a subject upon which there should be any feeling.
Let us have it at one of these points; and if there is any one point
where arguments could be adduced to determine the matter to the
exclusion of the others, that point is at Walla Walla. For it is here
whence the greater bulk of gold dust must flow; and if not here, then
at The Dalles--the great Golden Gate of the Upper Columbia.
Desiring to see a section of the country through which I had never
passed we took the stage from Portland to Sacramento, which at the end
of the first day's journey brings us to Salem--where I determined to
lay over a day to visit the woolen factory, and observe the
characteristics of the place. The ride through the Willamette from
Portland to Salem is pleasant and refreshing,--large and well-tilled
farms, orchards of great proportions, with their trees ladened with
the golden fruit--peaches, apples, and pears, in most profuse
abundance; neat and well-trimmed gardens, where the poetry of
horticulture bespoke the appreciation of the owners of well-tilled
acres. The style of farms, buildings, barns, and outhouses were all in
good taste, and indicated the extent of means of the farmers of
Oregon. The orchards of Oregon during the past twelve years have
proven to be a source of golden wealth; nor is their value in the
least diminished by the large amount of fruit being now raised in
California. Many have asked where Oregon would find a market for her
orchards when California should produce her own fruit, and though it
is more than doubtful whether California will ever rival Oregon in the
growth of apples, yet if this should prove to be the case, the mining
sections of eastern Oregon and of Washington are to-day sending forth
a message to all fruits growers to dry, preserve, and can all their
fruits, and they offer even to-day a golden market that must forever
consume all fruits so preserved; and I have no doubt but that those
who will turn their attention to this employment of preparing fruits,
either as dried or canned, must always reap a golden reward for their
labors. I noticed at several points that attention was already being
much given this species of labor, and the future will prove that the
mining sections for dried fruits will guarantee an equally lucrative
market for Oregon, that California has proven for her in green fruits
in times past.
In point of natural beauty I do not think that the Willamette Valley
compares favorably with the smaller but equally well cultivated valley
of the Rogue River; but when we see once a magnificent outlet for all
the produce of the farmer, and the absence of such an outlet in the
latter, we are forced to prefer a home in the Willamette--where Ceres
has erected her temple of large proportions, and where her votaries
are annually basking in the sunshine of her smiles, her bounteous
plenty. In passing through this rich and exuberant country I could not
but regret that the donation law that first opened homes to the first
settlers of Oregon was as generous as it was in the largeness of its
grant--six hundred and forty acres, in other words, was too large a
grant for the full and truly healthy growth of any new country. True,
it required a great inducement to turn a pioneer colony toward the
Pacific so early as '46 and '47; but I verily believe that one half
the grant would have brought as many settlers as double the amount has
done. The true index, doubtless, of the prosperity of a country might
be regarded the ratio of its population to the square mile; but when
we find only one settler to the square mile, the country, from
necessity, must be sparsely populated; and this condition must hold
for so long a period that detriment on a large scale must be felt.
That the donation act has had, therefore, its disadvantages with its
advantages no one I think will doubt,--taking the present as the
standpoint from which to view the prosperity of the country. This,
coupled with the fact that the lands were taken without any regard to
the points of compass--thus ignoring our system of land surveys, so
simple and yet so beautiful,--I can not but regret that the action of
our Government could not have foreseen some of the detrimental results
into which its generosity has led it. Of course, it is among the
things of the past, but not on that account the less to be regretted.
The experience in this matter may not, and, probably, never will find
any field for application--for the spirit of all preëmption,
homestead, and donation laws, as since passed, has studiedly held two
things in view, namely, the minimum amount of land commensurate with
the object to be attained by their cession and the most rigid
adherence to the points of the compass in their location. In referring
to the donation act, I do not cavil at the generous action of a
generous government--for I but too well appreciate that it has had the
effect to open to our grasp a golden continent, with avenues of trade
and with wealth--which has built up a line of battlement of half a
million of Freemen; not probably, in looking at the results attained,
it might seem ungenerous to object, at this late date, to any of those
measures that assisted even in part to bring about this result. But I
am rather disposed to believe that the agricultural districts of the
Pacific were occupied and filled more in consequence of the gold
discoveries and to supply their wants than from the spirit which
pervaded the donation acts; for the latter antedating the discovery
of gold on the Pacific did not point out the market where the produce
of well-tilled fields should be sold. The coincidences of that date,
however, were most happy.
At Salem we found the legislature in session, and the excitement
incident to the election of Mr. Harding as United States Senator
having subsided, the body were moving in such business as looked
toward the growing wants of the State. I found in Mr. Harding a plain,
unpretending, and sensible gentlemen, and in whom the interests of
Oregon will find a true representative. At the invitation of Governor
Gibbs I visited the Committee of the State Fair, composed of delegates
from all the counties. It was here decided to make Salem the site for
holding the annual fairs; a point so central, so well suited in every
respect, that there seemed to be great unanimity of sentiment in the
matter. The grounds around are open and spacious, and you feel that
you breathe the air and tread the ground of a rural city, in making a
tour of its extent. It is one of the most beautiful localities I have
seen in Oregon--on the right bank of the Willamette, with beautiful
shade trees, neat cottages, not cramped or huddled together, but with
ample spaces for gardens--with a fine view of the woods, which, in a
vista of twenty miles, surround it--and, in the background, with the
bold slope of the Cascades, renders it one of the most beautiful sites
for a city to be found in Oregon. It is not only the political center
of Oregon, but it is also destined to become a point of great
manufacturing importance. It is surrounded by fine forests of oak,
fir, pine, cedar. The large fields of grain here cluster around it as
the center. Its pioneer woolen factory, turning its hundred of
spindles, here rears its head, thus attracting toward it every milling
interest. The same stream that turns its gristmills, turns its
sawmills--and even then the water is not allowed to run to waste, but
is again caught and harnessed up to the spindles of industry where the
covering of the back of the sheep of yesterday is converted into a
covering for your own back of to-day. No one resident north of
California can visit the woolen factory of Salem without a feeling of
pride and of pleasure; and as he sees the bales of blankets, of
clothes, and of flannels, lading the wagons which stand ready to be
freighted for every homestead in Oregon, he feels the glow of pride in
thus seeing our own looms weaving wools of our own growth, and desires
instantly to robe himself in garments that no foreign hand has woven,
and from wool grown from flocks no alien hand has tended. Let "Home
Industry" be patronized, home products be consumed, and the country
will be benefited to such an extent that we shall not have idlers to
stir up mischief nor rebels to stir up rebellion in either the North
or South. Mr. Rector, the obliging and gentlemanly head of the
factory, showed me through the compartments and gave me some valuable
statistics relative to its annual growth. His intention is to double
this year the number of spindles. The surplus wool, heretofore shipped
to New York, will be retained and manufactured at home; thus, our
clothes and blankets will all be supplied from wool which all can
grow. Mr. Rector finds difference in the wools grown on the east and
the west of the Cascades, and preference being given to the latter, as
containing more oily or fatty matter, and hence requiring less oiling
in the process of manufacturing. That grown to the east of the
Cascades is thought to be not only drier but harsher--more dirty--but
time and the proper attention to its culture will doubtless bring
about changes. New breeds, housing in winter, and dry foothills for
grazing, are all advantages which wool growers to the east of the
Cascades can have on their side. There are few regions where finer
grazing fields are to be had than the slopes of the Bitter Root
Mountains; and the freedom from excessive dampness, the pure, fresh
mountain springs, are all so many advantages, that I confidently look
forward to the day when these many well-grassed slopes shall be
covered with fleecy flocks, and when the waters of the many silvery
streams that now flow through the Walla Walla Valley, shall be caught
and used to turn the wheels of a woolen factory, from which shall be
turned out all the fabrics needed to clothe the population destined to
find homes to the east of the Cascade Mountains. The clothes made by
the Salem factory compare favorably with those imported. One thing
certain, there is no cotton in their fabrics. Flannels of every hue
are turned out at forty cents per yard; blankets from $4 to $8,
according to texture; and clothes from 75 cents to $1.50 per yard,
according to fineness. It would be a most happy result if every
merchant, farmer, miner, and professional man in Oregon and Washington
would determine in his own mind to have at least one suit of clothes
made from Salem cloth, and every bed to be covered by at least one
pair of Salem blankets. This would be affording a practical proof of
our pride in seeing established in our midst these factories, which
must eventuate in the profit of individuals. It is much to be
regretted that the immense and illimitable mill power at Oregon City
is not now turned to good account. The disasters by fire and flood of
the Linn City mills have been of such a sad character that the
tendencies now are to intimidate capitalists, at least for a time,
from embarking in similar investments at the same site. A substantial
railroad is being built around the portage at Oregon City, destined to
diminish the time and cost of shipment up and down the Willamette. The
season for practicable steam navigation to the upper points of the
river being over, but little business could be noticed on the part of
those engaged in this enterprise.
While in Salem I called the attention of Judge Humason, of Wasco, and
of Governor Gibbs, to the importance of establishing a mail line from
Walla Walla to Fort Laramie, to there tap the present daily overland
mail service, by which means our mails at Walla Walla could be
delivered in fifteen days from Saint Louis, and in seventeen days to
Portland--this in the summer season--or twenty to twenty-two days in
the winter. At present our mails cross the continent to Sacramento,
two thousand miles; thence to Portland, seven hundred; thence to Walla
Walla, three hundred more; making a total of three thousand miles to
travel before we get them; whereas I can guarantee a line by the route
indicated of one half the distance and one half the time. I framed a
memorial, which Judge Humason would introduce in Congress, for this
line; and was promised by Mr. Harding his coöperation to see that the
matter was not allowed to pass unnoticed during the coming winter.
Leaving Salem, a journey of twenty-four hours passes us through
Corvallis and Eugene City; and through an exceedingly beautiful and
rich agricultural country on to Oakland, where the celebrated "Baker
Mills" are established, producing, it is said, the finest flour in
Oregon. The disasters of the flood were too visible at each and every
point, sweeping away bridges and ferries, and destroying property to
the extent of thousands of dollars. A large structure across the
Umpqua, costing $10,000, was thus carried off--its convenience being
now replaced by a ferry. All along the road we passed small parties of
immigrants who crossed the Plains this season; some in search of new
homes; others to join their friends who years since had preceded them.
The Umpqua is a beautiful valley in a high state of cultivation; the
school-houses, dotting here a hill, and there a valley, betoken that
the education of the youth of the country was not being neglected.
Roseburg, the county seat of the Umpqua region, is a gem of a village;
streets neatly laid out, and neat, white, frame cottages, giving the
place a rare picturesque beauty, where mountain and dale, and the hand
of refined culture, all joined in beautiful harmony. The line of
telegraph posts extends throughout this entire distance from Portland
to Canyonville--the farthest point south where they are as yet
erected. It is fully anticipated to have the line from Salem to
Portland in working order by winter; as also the line from
Jacksonville to Yreka. The posts are supplied and erected by contract
by the farmers and others living along the line, at a cost of from
$1.25 to $2 per post, and the line when completed will cost $200 per
mile. Local intelligence, and the interest which every citizen feels
in the reception of intelligence, now bristling with so much import,
will cause this line, as soon as placed in good working order, to pay
to the stockholders fair dividends on their capital. This link between
Canyonville and Jacksonville will be completed during the next season.
I saw Mr. Strong in Yreka, and found him pushing ahead the line with
all his characteristic energy. He deserves much credit for prosecuting
this project thus far to a success that is to bring to our doors daily
intelligence from the East, and it is to be hoped that the citizens of
the Upper Columbia will move in the same matter as soon as the line is
completed to Portland.
A ride of twenty hours brings us into the Rogue Valley and to
Jacksonville, a region I regard as one of the most beautiful and
picturesque to be found in Oregon. The valley is from twenty-five to
thirty miles square, entirely taken up by beautiful farms and under
high cultivation; with farmhouses and barns in good keeping with the
character of its progress; grist and sawmills erected to supply the
wants of its inhabitants, and with inexhaustible forests of timber.
Gold mining is here carried on with much success; and it was
interesting to see the lines of sluice boxes running through the
streets of Jacksonville that turned out as pretty gold as any mine on
the coast. Unfortunately for this fine valley, it has no outlet for
its produce, and is dependent solely on a home market. Its supplies
are brought in by the way of Crescent City, by a good wagon road, at a
cost of four to five cents per pound. Oats here are 40 cents a bushel;
wheat, 70 to 90 cents; lumber, $15 per thousand; labor from $30 to $40
per month. We observed, in squads, the ubiquitous Chinaman, moving
from mining locality to mining locality, fleeing from the kicks of one
to the cuffs of the other, with no fixed abiding place to be called
his permanent home.
A location for a railroad line from Portland to Jacksonville is
eminently practicable, and the citizens of the Willamette will be
blind to their own interests if they do not so move in the matter so
as to secure to themselves the advantages of the ample provisions made
in the Pacific Railroad Bill for a connection between Portland and
Sacramento; but south from Jacksonville there will be a severe problem
for the engineers to solve, both in the shape of grades and tunnels.
The Calapooia range will present an easy problem for solution; but the
Scott's [Siskiyou?] and Trinity mountains will not be easily handled.
They are high, broad, and broken, and no railroad line can be laid
across or through them, except at most enormous cost. But that it is
practicable, and will in time be built, I have no doubt. But my views
relative to this location as a branch of the Pacific Railroad have
been more than confirmed by a detailed view of its geography, and I
still insist that a branch of the Pacific Railroad that will benefit
Oregon and Washington as such can only be found by tapping the main
trunk at or near Fort Laramie, and coming into the Columbia at or near
the mouth of Snake River; and thence using the main Columbia to such a
point whence freight can be shipped to and across the ocean. I made
special inquiries relative to the depth of snow across the Calapooia,
Scott's and Trinity mountains during the past winter, and learned that
not less than eight feet fell upon these mountains; still the stage
coach passed these mountains every day until the freshet suspended the
travel; which was for the period of six weeks. The Scott's and Trinity
mountains are higher than any mountains crossed by my road from Walla
Walla to Fort Benton; and knowing that the question of snow with us is
no more difficult than that met and overcome on this and other lines,
I am sanguine to believe that a mail line from Fort Laramie to Walla
Walla will prove eventually practicable. But the _experimentum
crucis_, that will leave no lingering doubt even with the most
uncompromising cavalier, will be afforded us, I trust, during the next
twelve months; and that will deliver at our doors in Walla Walla the
mails direct from Saint Louis in fifteen days. I am but too anxious
that this last crowning success should be afforded us; not only to
give us increased mail facilities for the present, but to awaken a
practical attention to that region where the _isothermal_ and
_isochimal_ lines have for ages past presented, and do still continue
to present, to us meteorological phases as wonderful in their nature
as they are destined to prove useful in their future results.
To those who derive pleasure in seeing the rough, rugged, wild face of
Nature, made to wear the smiles of civilization and of progress, and
to witness what money and labor can accomplish, I know of no point
where they can visit to see these in all their grandeur than across
the Scott's and Trinity mountains, which, in point of difficulty and
rugged wildness, surpass any mountain region it has ever been my lot
to travel, from the Columbia to the Missouri River. Toll roads lead
over both of these mountains; one connecting Yreka with Rogue River;
and the other, Yreka with Shasta. The road over Scott's Mountain is
about twenty miles long, and made at a cost not far from $200,000; and
the other, eight miles, made at a cost of $16,000. The mind that
conceived the road, and the hand that executed it, were not cast in
Nature's ordinary mould; genius of a higher order was Nature's gift to
them. Those who invested their capital (for they were both built by
private enterprise) are now being well repaid; of this, the long line
of wagons and pack trains, freighted from Red Bluff to the northern
mines, furnish unmistakable evidence.
A ride over Scott's Mountain amply repays one for all the labor
required to make it; and can be made by no one who will not appreciate
that bold enterprise that is to-day leveling mountains, leveeing
valleys, bridging torrents, and, by the sound of pick and drill, even
arousing Nature from her lethargy sleep--deep down in the very bowels
of the mountains--throughout the length and breadth of California.
Leaving Rogue River, we pass at once from an agricultural to a wild,
mountainous region, which constitutes the mining section of northern
California, of which Yreka may be considered the center. It is a place
of much trade, built mostly of brick, and presents a bustling
appearance. It supports two newspapers, three or four hotels; has a
large post office, and, at present, is the northern terminus of the
State telegraph line. A cemetery, well arranged in its plan, forms the
northern entrance to the city; the number of graves it contains shows
that here as elsewhere death has done its work. A day's journey, and
we come to Shasta, a mining town of one thousand people, possessing
few attractions outside of a business locality. The road, approaching
Yreka, winds near the northern base of Mount Shasta, a frowning snow
peak, fourteen thousand feet above the level of the sea. Though grand
and majestic, it does not compare favorably in either respect with
Mount Hood--the father of all snow peaks on the Pacific. From Shasta a
ride of a day brings us to Red Bluff--to which point steamers of light
draught are still running from Sacramento, but with so many delays and
uncertainties that the traveler prefers to continue the journey by the
stage. At this point, however, we finally emerge from the mountains of
California and enter upon the broad swelling prairie which constitutes
the norther portion of the Sacramento Valley--where, though the
country is mostly a waste, dotted here and there with clumps of oak,
or openings of the same growth, yet where many large and inviting
farming sections are had. At Tehama we cross the Sacramento, by a
buoy-ferry, and, in a few miles, enter upon one of the most choice
agricultural districts the eye ever rested upon--where grain fields
are not measured by the acre, nor yet by the mile, but by the league.
By a day's drive we passed through the extensive and rich fields of
Major Bidwell, where eleven thousand acres of grain were being
threshed--where his own mill stood ready to convert into flour the
produce of his own fields; where his own mammoth store furnished
hundreds of his employés with all the wants of life; where his own
energy was opening, with his own means, a wagon road from the
Sacramento River to the Humboldt mines; and where his own purse has
already paid out $35,000, and backed by a willingness to pay as much
more, in order to open up a new market for the exuberant products of
so rich a soil as he himself possesses. The center of his large
estate is the beautiful village of "Chico," where, in rural wealth as
well as in rural simplicity, live an educated and contented peasantry,
all more or less supported by the means of this bachelor
millionaire--whose residence, on the banks of the Sacramento, is one
of those architectural gems hid away amidst shrubs, trees, orchards,
and groves, as if to avoid the gaze of him whose residence is of
crowded cities and who is almost unworthy to breath the sweet perfume
of a region where such bowers grow. May Major Bidwell long
live--though bachelor he be--to dispense his bounties to a people who
respect him for the liberal and generous manner in which he shares his
wealth with those not similarly blest.
From Tehama the ride of half a day brings us to Oroville, a city well
named, for situated as it is on the Feather River, it is in the heart
of a rich mining country, where the miners have worked like so many
beavers, and where the water of the Feather River is made to run in
pipes and reservoirs into lakes for hundreds of feet above the level
of the river, at the site of the town. This river is crossed by a
ferry. A steamer is said to have once landed here from Sacramento, but
such occurrences I regard as rare. The river is rapid; boils and
surges over a rocky and rugged bed, and joins the Sacramento at
Marysville--to which point a night's ride brings us--continuing to
pass through a rich agricultural region, under a state of high
cultivation. Marysville is a large, prosperous city--houses, mostly of
brick--at the junction of the Yuba and Feather rivers. Thence on to
Sacramento, (a journey of eight hours' staging,) the road is over a
level, agricultural district, throughout which the piles of drift
timber and the absence of fences, in many places, and the presence of
boats and bateaux, all told that the water had been here supreme not
many months past; barns with their roofs a mile distant; houses
without any; outhouses and dwellings with a watermark up to the second
story--and in many localities no dwellings at all, where commodious
and comfortable tenements had been--all told of the presence and the
power of the waters of Sacramento when charged with fullness on its
way to the ocean. It seems to me that a system of high levees is the
only thing to reclaim hundreds of acres of fine swamp land along the
Sacramento, and to prevent the repetition of these disastrous results,
which made the people poor and retard the growth of the State.
Sacramento is already surrounded by a high levee which may protect it
another season; but the levee should begin at Marysville and extend to
Sacramento. It will, of course, be expensive, but it will repay the
labor in the end.
Between Marysville and Sacramento we passed the large and magnificent
claim called "Sutter's Ranch," though not under a high state of
cultivation. The old pioneer is now poor, but his friends are
sufficiently zealous in his behalf to see that his wants go not
unsupplied. One can not pass over this region and at the same time
observe how rapidly the Sacramento River is being obstructed by the
immense deposits of sand and sediment which its current is daily
bringing down, thus forming bars and deltas destined not only to
intercept but probably to suspend at no distant day navigation to its
upper waters,--without feeling the pressing importance of a railroad
connection between Sacramento and the more northern regions of
California. Already are parties out viewing and prospecting a road
through Noble's Pass, where it is proposed by some to carry the
Pacific railroad line.
That California will be covered with a network of railways is only a
question of time, and that time determined by the low rates of
interest that will cause capitalists to become interested in these
great works of internal improvement. Local trade and travel must
always be great, and must always increase so long as gold shall be
mined, and that period seems to be illimitable.
From Sacramento we took passage on the fine steamer Antelope, for San
Francisco, which in six hours and at a cost of $5 brought us to the
end of one section of our journey. There are no opposition steamers on
now and hence the monopolists command the river. The signs of the
devastation of the flood marked the entire distance from Sacramento to
the bay of San Francisco. But here and there we found the inhabitants
raising their dwellings a story, and by levees and other improvements
trying to reclaim their fields, as well as to defy the freshets of
coming years. No one can pass over this exceedingly interesting region
from Portland to Sacramento without feeling a thrill of pride and of
pleasure to see what American energy and American capital have
accomplished during the past fourteen years of its occupancy; and to
picture in imagination what the next fourteen years may produce, would
almost render oneself liable to such an unjust criticism that I would
forbear to enter upon a theme so pregnant with interest; suffice it to
say, let those who have not made the trip, make it at least once and
see for themselves pleasant homes and well-tilled fields, grand
mountains, useful rivers, forests of orchards, and oceans of grain;
miles of sluice boxes and tons of gold; and the beauty of a region
redolent with the songs of thrift and industry--and if they be not
well repaid for all the fatigues of a mountain journey, the fault will
certainly be theirs, and not the bounty of generous nature, who with
lavish hand has spread so many pictures of the grand and
beautiful--nor yet the fault of the inhabitants by the wayside, who
by culture and improvement have framed these pictures in gilded and
golden casements, and where contentment and happiness are the visible
garments in which everything would seem to be enrobed.