Is a very beautiful city of 60,000 inhabitants, and situated on the
Willamette river twelve miles from its junction with the Columbia. It is
perhaps true of many of the growing cities of the West, that they do not
offer the same social advantages as the older cities of the East. But
this is principally the case as to what may be called boom cities, where
the larger part of the population is of that floating class which follows
in the line of temporary growth for the purposes of speculation, and in
no sense applies to those centers of trade whose prosperity is based on
the solid foundation of legitimate business. As the metropolis of a
vast section of country, having broad agricultural valleys filled with
improved farms, surrounded by mountains rich in mineral wealth, and
boundless forests of as fine timber as the world produces, the cause
of Portland's growth and prosperity is the trade which it has as the
center of collection and distribution of this great wealth of natural
resources, and it has attracted, not the boomer and speculator, who
find their profits in the wild excitement of the boom, but the
merchant, manufacturer, and investor, who seek the surer if slower
channels of legitimate business and investment. These have come from
the East, most of them within the last few years. They came as seeking
a better and wider field to engage in the same occupations they had
followed in their Eastern homes, and bringing with them all the love of
polite life which they had acquired there, have established here a new
society, equaling in all respects that which they left behind. Here are
as fine churches, as complete a system of schools, as fine residences,
as great a love of music and art, as can be found at any city of the
East of equal size.
[Illustration: PORTLAND, ORE.
On the Union Pacific Ry.]
But while Portland may justly claim to be the peer of any city of its
size in the United States in all that pertains to social life, in the
attractions of beauty of location and surroundings it stands without its
peer. The work of art is but the copy of nature. What the residents of
other cities see but in the copy, or must travel half the world over to
see in the original, the resident of Portland has at his very door.
The city is situate on gently-sloping ground, with, on the one side,
the river, and on the other a range of hills, which, within easy
walking distance, rise to an elevation of a thousand feet above the
river, affording a most picturesque building site. From the very
streets of the thickly settled portion of the city, the Cascade
Mountains, with the snow-capped peaks of Hood, Adams, St. Helens, and
Rainier, are in plain view. As the hills to the west are ascended the
view broadens, until, from the extreme top of some of the higher
points, there is, to the east, the valley stretching away to the
Cascade Mountains, with its rivers, the Columbia and Willamette; in the
foreground Portland, in the middle distance Vancouver, and, bounding
the horizon, the Cascade Mountains, with their snow-clad peaks, and the
gorge of the Columbia in plain sight, whilst away to the north the
course of the Columbia may be followed for miles. To the west, from the
foot of the hills, the valley of the Tualatin stretches away twenty odd
miles to the Coast Range, which alone shuts out the view of the Pacific
Ocean and bounds the horizon on the west. To the glaciers of Mt. Hood
is but little more than a day's travel. The gorge of the Columbia,
which in many respects equals, and in others surpasses the far-famed
Yosemite, may be visited in the compass of a day. The Upper Willamette,
within the limits of a few hours' trip, offers beauties equaling the
Rhine, whilst thirty-six hours gives the Lower Columbia, beside which
the Rhine and Hudson sink into insignificance. In short, within a few
hours' walk of the heart of this busy city are beauties surpassing the
White Mountains or Adirondacks, and the grandeur of the Alps lies
within the limits of a day's picnicking.
There is no better guarantee of the advantageous position of Portland
than the wealth which has accumulated here in the short period which
has elapsed since the city first sprang into existence. Theory is all
very well, but the actual proof is in the result. At the taking of the
census of 1880, Portland was the third wealthiest city in the world in
proportion to population; since that date wealth has accumulated at an
unprecedented rate, and it is probable it is to-day the wealthiest.
Among all her wealthy men, not one can be singled out who did not make
his money here, who did not come here poor to grow rich.
Portland enjoys superb advantages as a starting-point for tourist
travel. After the traveler has enjoyed the numerous attractions of that
wealthy city, traversed its beautiful avenues, viewed a strikingly
noble landscape from "The Heights," and explored those charming
environs which extend for miles up and down the Willamette, there
remains perhaps the most invigorating and healthful trip of all--a
journey either by