By JOHN MINTO.
There was a tradition among the Indians of the central portion of the
Willamette Valley at the time when the missionaries of the Methodist
Episcopal Church attempted christianization from 1834 to 1840, that a
trail or thoroughfare through this natural pass had formerly been much
used by their people and that its use was abandoned after, and as one
of the results of, a bloody battle between the Mollalas (who claimed
the western slopes of the Cascades from the Clackamas River south to
the Calapooia Mountains,) and the Cayuses who were originally of the
same tribe, but who had become alienated by family feuds, of which the
battle or massacre of their tradition was the end. The superstitious
belief of the Indians in the transmigration of the souls of dead
warriors into the bodies of beasts of prey, like panthers, bears, and
wolves, would of itself go far to cause the Indians to abandon the use
of such a trail, but the formation of the gorge by which the river
cuts its way through the roughest portion of the range is such as to
give great numbers of opportunities for ambuscades--a common resort of
Indian warfare. Certain is it that for some cause the Indians of
Chemeketa, Chemawa, and Willamette spoke with dread of going up that
river. They did, however, have trails on each side of this natural
pass,--that to the south being first used by a pioneer settler named
Wyley. It became known as the Wyley Trail, and subsequently was
adopted as a general route over which the Willamette Valley and
Cascade Mountain Military Wagon Road was located. The other to the
north comes into the Willamette Valley via the Table Rock and down the
Abiqua. Both these trails were used exclusively by the Indians of the
east side of the range as means of coming into the Willamette Valley
with the exception of the Mollalas, who were intermarried with the
Warm Springs Indians and the Klamaths when the settlement by the
whites began. The free trappers and the retired Canadians, who had
settled as farmers and trading parties of the Hudson Bay Company,
continued to use the trail up the North Santiam Valley until 1844-45,
when, in addition to the country reached by it being "trapped out,"
furs fell in price in the general market so that it temporarily ceased
to be used by the engagees of the Hudson Bay Company. In the summer of
1845 Dr. E. White, then a sub-agent of the United States for the
Indians of Oregon, examined, or claimed to have examined, the route as
a means of getting immigration into western Oregon more easily than by
way of the Columbia River Pass. Either the doctor did not examine
closely or was very easily discouraged; at all events no beneficial
results followed. At this same time Stephen L. Meek was leading a
party of the immigration of that year with the purpose of entering the
Willamette Valley by that way. Meek had trapped on the head waters of
the John Day River a few seasons previous, and had here met Canadians
from the Willamette, who had come over the trail and doubtless thought
he could easily find it; and there is little reason to doubt that he
would have done so had it not been that by reason of their much
wandering in searching the way from the mouth of the Malheur to the
waters of the Des Chutes, the people he led were in such desperate
straits that he had to flee for his life. There was another reason: a
ridge makes out on the east side of the main range, but parallel with
it, which completely shuts the pass from being seen in outline from
the east.
The failure of Meek to get his party through raised the question in
the settlements as to whether there was so easy a means of passing the
Cascade range at that point as the Hudson Bay Company trappers and
traders represented, and in the spring of 1846 a public meeting was
held at Salem and a committee of six citizens was selected to go and
make an examination of the trail. Col. Cornelius Gilliam was the head
of the committee of the American portion of the party, and Joseph
Gervais, a Canadian trapper, preëminent for general intelligence among
his class, went along to show the way. The Hon. T. C. Shaw, nephew of
Gilliam, was of the party (the youngest). He is at present (1887)
county judge of Marion County, and recently went over part of the
ground they then passed. From him it is learned that the trail did not
then pass through the narrow gorge which has been spoken of, but took
over the tops of the most broken and rugged portion of the range. The
party proceeded until they came to what they termed the "scaly rock
mountain," which Colonel Gilliam pronounced impassable for wagons. The
party returned and reported accordingly, and from that date till late
in 1873 that pass way was unused and to a great extent forgotten.
In October, 1873, two hunters in search of good game range penetrated
up the north bank of the river through the gorge before mentioned, and
found that about twelve miles from the then settlement on King's
Prairie that the valley widened out and the mountains seemed lower;
narrow belts of bottom land lay between the mountains and the river,
and appeared to continue up to near the base of Mount Jefferson,
which, in fact, they do. One of these hunters (Henry States) sent for
John Minto, being unable, on account of a sprained ankle, to go to the
latter, and told him of their findings. This rediscovery or new
discovery revived recollections of statements made by Joseph Gervais
and others, and Minto took sufficient interest in the subject to go
before the board of county commissioners of Marion County and repeat
the statements of the hunters, volunteering the suggestion that it was
important if such a natural pass existed as was thus indicated the
county had an interest in making the fact known. One of the
commissioners, Hon. Wm. M. Case, had long lived near neighbor to the
famous Hudson Bay Company's leader, Tom McKay, and had often heard him
speak of that as the shortest and best way across the Cascades. A
short consultation resulted in the "order" that Mr. Minto take two
comrades and proceed up the valley of the North Santiam until he was
satisfied whether it made such a natural cut into the range or not.
After an absence of twelve days the party returned and Minto reported
a deep valley apparently almost dividing the range, and so sheltered
that several varieties of wild flowers were found in bloom on the
eighteenth of November. Upon this representation a petition for the
survey of a road was presented to the board of county commissioners
early in 1874, and the viewing out and survey of such a road ordered,
Porter Jack, Geo. S. Downing, and John Minto to act as viewers, and T.
W. Davenport as surveyor. The survey was made and the viewers' report
in favor of an excellent roadway was made to the county commissioners
of Marion County, August, 1874. The results were got by following up
the north bank of the Santiam River, generally within sight or sound
of its waters, from the point where it enters the Willamette Valley to
its most eastern springs. Starting from the bank of the Willamette
River at Salem, where its course is east of north parallel with the
Cascade range, the survey leads up its Santiam branch eighty-three
(83) miles, to the true summit of the Cascades, here found in a
narrow cut or pass lying across the summit ridge, the general course
of the survey being southeast by east. From the summit thus found it
is an estimated distance of only five (5) miles down to the Matoles
branch of the Des Chutes River, here running east of north parallel
with the range, the same course as that of the Willamette on the west
side; but taking down the eastern declivity with an easy grade for a
wagon road, the plain of the Des Chutes would be reached in about
seven miles and the Willamette Valley and Cascade Mountains Road,
where it skirts the base of Black Butte, three miles into the Des
Chutes plain, in about ten miles. In making this view and survey an
old and deeply worn trail was frequently crossed, and such a trail,
less deep, was found leading over the pass eastward. The first
observed trail gives some support to the Indian tradition of a former
native thoroughfare down the valley.
The trail out of the pass is not so much worn, neither is the Strong
trail leading off towards the west from a point about seven miles
eastward, used by Lieutenant Fremont as he passed the locality in
1843. The trail so noted reaches first the immense springs of Matoles,
where a full grown river rises from under the northeast base of Black
Butte, into which the salmon ascend in July and August for spawning
purposes, at that date and since making a valuable fishery for the
Indians, and scarcely less valuable as fisheries where the numerous
lakes to the westward, which, taken in connection with abundant game
of the entire region, make it a hunter's paradise. At the date of
Fremont's march, of which had Meek been informed in 1845, he would
have almost certainly succeeded in getting the people he led into the
Willamette Valley by that way easier than they reached The Dalles
after he abandoned them.
After the viewing out and survey of the wagon road as before related,
parties incorporated or filed articles of incorporation for a
projected railroad through the pass to Winnemucca. It was a mere
speculation on the part of persons who had neither money nor credit of
any kind. It had the effect of weakening the public interest in having
a common road constructed, so that after the lapse of the legal hold
on the pass thus attained, there was little disposition to spend money
on the opening of a common road which was liable to be destroyed at
any time by a railroad interest. An association was formed, however,
and a stock trail was opened at a cost of $1,800, in labor. As much
more spent at that time would have enabled wagons to pass. For lack of
this small sum the trail constructed did not attract the public use
except in a small measure for horses. In 1880 Hon. John B. Waldo,
while enjoying a summer recreation trip along the summit ridge, came
to a point some seven or eight miles south of the point to which the
survey had been made and over which a trail had been opened, which he
felt confident was lower than it. He spoke of it to Mr. Minto, who,
the next spring, had a small sum ($200) placed at his disposal by
Marion County in order to remove obstructions which had fallen into
the trail. After removing these obstructions that had fallen in during
the previous four years, Mr. Minto had $111 of the money left which he
asked permission of the board of commissioners to use in viewing out
and surveying the most southern of the two main branches of the Upper
North Santiam. The suggestion was made that this arm of the stream
trended so far southward that it would probably be found to reach the
summit by a greater meander and consequently afford a more gradual
approach to this supposed lower point of the summit, and therefore be
more favorable for railroad purposes. The order was made in accordance
with the suggestion, and Capt. L. S. Scott, Geo. S. Downing, and John
Minto were appointed viewers and T. W. Davenport surveyor. After some
loss of time by efforts to locate a line of communication, Minto took
one comrade and went eastward through the old pass, taking the
altitude of it as he went and finding it, according to an ordinary
barometer, such as is used by railroad surveyors, to be five thousand
five hundred and thirty-six feet above the sea, and proceeding
southward and then westward on the same day found the instrument to
read at the point indicated by Judge Waldo, four thousand nine hundred
and eleven feet above the sea. From this point a line was struck and
surveyed, which by way of the southeast branch of the North Santiam,
connects with the original survey by an easy grade for railroad
purposes and of which the projectors of the Corvallis and Eastern
railroad were immediately informed. An examination of the whole route
from Gates to Summit via the last viewed section, was made by Colonel
Eccleson, civil engineer, and Summit was reached by a fraction over a
two per cent grade. Construction began at the Summit with the least
possible delay and rails were hauled by wagon from Albany and laid in
order to hold the pass. From the pass westward more than half of the
right of way was cut and much of the grade made ready for the ties
between this lowest pass and the junction with the original Marion
County survey at what the party making it called Independence Valley,
directly south of and as the bird flies about eight miles from the
apex of Mount Jefferson. From Idanha, the terminal of railroad track
laid, four miles east of Detroit, fully twelve miles of right of way
and grade were constructed when work was suspended by the original
railroad company. From Mill City eastward to the Summit, the company
appropriated fully ninety per cent of the original surveys made at the
cost of Marion County. This need not be objected to, but in addition
to this these railroad promoters often exercised an assumed right to
name points that will be of permanent interest which they did not
discover. This seems hardly fair. From my point of view the Hon. John
B. Waldo, who first observed the apparent lowness of the pass, and
called my attention to it, is more entitled to have his name attached
to it than Col. T. E. Hogg, whose name I understand was given to by J.
I. Blair, the railroad magnate of New York, who was one of the chief
supporters of Colonel Hogg's enterprise.
As a matter of some historical interest I will close this paper by
inserting some of the original names given places and things by the
first white explorers of the valley.
The stream named Breitenbush was named by Henry States, Frank Cooper,
and John Minto on the first legal examination for the pass for John
Breitenbush a hunter who had cut his way to it ahead of them. Detroit
was named by the man from Michigan who first opened a house for
entertainment there. Boulder Creek was named by T. W. Davenport on his
survey notes in 1874. It makes in from the north at Idanha which was a
Muskrat Camp of first surveying party, but renamed by the proprietor
of the first summer resort house. Minto Mountain was named by some one
unknown to the writer, after he had led to the opening of a trail to
Black Butte, in Crook County, in 1879. It was the grass covered
mountains seen by Minto from the top of a fir tree into which he
pulled himself to get a view of their surroundings when first seeking
the pass in November, 1873, and which grass land his associate, Frank
Cooper, asserted was in eastern Oregon, to his, Cooper's, personal
knowledge, though he would not risk climbing the tree to see it, being
a very heavy man. This mountain will for all time be an attractive
object to summer recreationists and the most easily reached from the
center of the Willamette Valley when the railroad is extended twelve
miles farther east. The first stream making in from the northeast of
Boulder Creek was called, by the surveying party of 1874, the White, a
first fork from Jefferson. In August the snow melts from the southwest
slopes of Jefferson and runs through volcanic ash as fine as bolted
flour and it enters the main Santiam like thickened milk, coloring it
down to Mehama sometimes. Custom has adopted the name "Whitewater." In
1879 I gave the name Pamelia Creek to the next stream which flows off
the south face of Mount Jefferson and the same name now attaches to
the lake at its south base. The name was given for Pamelia Ann Berry,
because of her cheerfulness as one of the girl cooks of the working
party, of which her father and sister were valued members.
Independence Valley was so named by the road viewing party in 1874.
Our party rested there on the fourth of July. The first waterfall on
the east branch was named Gatch's Falls for Prof. T. M. Gatch, by
election of the party, the young members all having been his students.
Marion Lake and Orla Falls at the head of it were named at the same
time. The latter by the younger members of the company who had danced
with Miss Orla Davenport, the oldest daughter of our surveyor. The
most of the water of Marion Lake seems to come over these falls from
the northern declivities, a rocky peak of many pinnacles, locally
called "Three-fingered Jack," but to which the name of Mount Marion
was given in the report of this survey. This peak rises from the
summit ridge south of Mount Jefferson and north of Mount Washington
about equal distance of seven miles from each and about fifteen miles
from the most northern of the Three Sisters. There are inviting
situations for delightful summer residences on or near the ridge, both
north and south of Mount Marion, which will in the near future
probably become sites of permanent homes. The climate, as indicated by
plant life, is that of the Highlands of Scotland, as here the American
congener of both purple and white heather is found on and near the
summit ridge.
The writer, who was an active member of these first exploring,
surveying, and road constructing parties, closes this with the
statement that the rugged labor sometimes involved was the very best
kind of summer recreation, where nature in all her varying phases was
enjoyed and the sights of the day made themes of camp fire talks,
intermingled with subjects connected with social, educational,
business, and public interests. There was little difference in this
respect between the camp fires of a party of professional men seeking
rest and that of road makers constructing lines of development.