James Withycombe
Governor of Oregon
With 52 Illustrations
G. P. Putnam's Sons
New York and London
The Knickerbocker Press
1915
Copyright, 1915
BY
GEORGE PALMER PUTNAM
The Knickerbocker Press, New York
Dedicated to
THE EMBLEM CLUB
INTRODUCTION
HEN one has lived in Oregon for forty-three years, and when one's enthusiasm for his home increases year after year, naturally all that is said of that home is of the most vital interest. Especially is it acceptable if it is the outgrowth of a similar enthusiasm, and if it is well said.
For a considerable span of time I have been reading what others have written about the Pacific Coast. In the general western literature, it has seemed to me, Oregon has never received its merited share of consideration. Just now, with the Expositions in California attracting a worldwide interest westward, and with the Panama Canal giving our development a new impetus, it is especially appropriate that Oregon receive added literary attention. And it is reasonable to suppose that the stranger within our gates will find interest in such literature, provided it be of the right sort, just as Oregonians must welcome a sound addition to the State's bibliography, written by an Oregonian.
So, because I like the spirit of the following pages, admire the method of their presentation, and deeply desire to promote the success of all that will tend toward a larger appreciation of Oregon's possibilities, I recommend this book to the consideration of dwellers on the Pacific Coast, and those who desire to form acquaintance with the land it concerns.
Governor of Oregon.
Salem, Oregon,
January 20th, 1915.
PREFACE
FTEN enough a preface is an outgrowth of disguised pretentiousness or insincere humility. Presumably it is an apology for the authorship, or at least an explanation of the purpose of the pages it introduces.
But no one is compelled to write a book; and, in truth, publishers habitually exert a contrary influence. It is a fair supposition, therefore, when a book is produced, that the author has some good reason for his act, whether or not the book itself proves to be of service.
Among many plausible apologies for authorship, the most reasonable is, it seems to me, a genuine enthusiasm for the subject at hand. If one loves that with which the book has to do the desire to share the possession with readers approaches altruism. In this case let us hope that the enthusiasm, which is real, and the virtue, which is implied, will sufficiently cloak the many faults of these little sketches, whose mission it is to convey something of the spirit of the out-of-door land they picture—a land loved by those who know it, and a land of limitless welcome for the stranger who will knock at its gates.
The Oregon Country, with which these chapters are chiefly concerned, has been the goal of expeditioning for a century and a quarter. First came Captain Robert Gray in 1792, by sea. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, twelve years later, tracked 'cross country from the Missouri to the mouth of the Columbia. In 1810, the Astor expedition, under Wilson and Hunt, succeeded, after hardships that materially reduced the party, in making its way from St. Louis to the Columbia and down the river to the mouth, where was founded the town of Astoria. Finally, after a half-century of horse-and-wagon pioneering, the first railroads spanned the continent in 1869. But the Union Pacific and Central Pacific were more the concern of California than of Oregon, for the Northwest had no iron trail to link it with the parent East until in 1883 the Northern Pacific Railway, under the leadership of Henry Villard, reached Portland.
So Oregon was discovered by sea and land, and finally, as highways of steel replaced the dusty trails of the emigrants, she has come into her own. From within and without she has builded, and what she has done for her sons, and offers to her settlers, has established a place for her in the respectful attention of the world.
Now, in the year nineteen hundred and fifteen, a new era is dawning for Oregon and for all our Western Coast, through fresh enterprise, this time again by sea. The waters of the Atlantic and Pacific have been joined at Panama, our continental coast line, to all intents and purposes, being made continuous, and the two Portlands, of Oregon and Maine, become maritime neighbors. Our East and our West have clasped hands again at the Isthmus, and comparative strangers as they are, there is need for an introduction when they meet.
Not strangers, perhaps; better brothers long separated, each unfamiliar with the attainments and the developed character of the other. The younger brother, the Westerner, has from the very nature of things changed most. His growth, in body, mind, and experience, is at times difficult for the Easterner to fathom. A generation ago, he was such an immature fellow, so lacking in poise, in accomplishments, and even in certain of those characteristics which comprise what the East chooses to consider civilization; and his country, compared with what it is to-day, was so crudely developed.
The Easterner this year is the one who is coming to his brother of the West, because of the Canal, the Expositions celebrating its completion, and an immediate inclination to "see America first" impressed upon our public for the most part by the present war-madness of Europe.
It would be rank presumption for any one person to pretend to speak a word of explanation to that visitor on behalf of the Coast. As a fact, no explanation is required; the States of the Pacific are their own explanation, and their people must be known by their works. Secondly, the Coast is such a vast territory that what might be a reasonably intelligent introduction to one portion of it would be utterly inapplicable elsewhere.
So this little book does not undertake to present a comprehensive account of our westernmost States, or even of the Oregon Country. It is intended simply to suggest a few of the many attractions which may be encountered here and there along the Pacific, the references to which are woven together with threads of personal reminiscence pertaining to characteristic phases of the western life of to-day. For the stranger it may possess some measure of information; it should at least induce him to tarry in the region sufficiently long to secure an impression of the byways as well as of the highways. For the man to whom Oregon, California, or Washington stands for home, these pages may contain an echo of interest—for we are apt to enjoy most sympathetic accounts of the things we love best. But for visitor or resident, or one who reads of a country he may not see, the chief mission of these chapters is to chronicle something of their author's enthusiasm for the land they concern, to hint of the pleasurable possibilities of its out-of-doors, and, mayhap, to offer a glimpse of the new West of to-day in the preparation for its greater to-morrow.
G. P. P.
Bend, Oregon,
December 25, 1914.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Some of the material in this book has been printed in substantially the same form in Recreation whose Editor has kindly sanctioned its further utilization here.
For the use of many photographs I am indebted to the courtesy of officials of the Oregon-Washington, and Spokane, Portland and Seattle railways.
CONTENTS
| CHAPTER | PAGE | |
| I. | —"OUT WEST" | [1] |
| II. | —THE VALLEY OF CONTENT | [9] |
| III. | —THE LAND OF LEGENDS | [19] |
| IV. | —THE LAND OF MANY LEAGUES | [37] |
| V. | —HOW THE RAILROADS CAME | [54] |
| VI. | —THE HOME MAKERS | [64] |
| VII. | —ON OREGON TRAILS | [76] |
| VIII. | —UNCLE SAM'S FORESTS | [90] |
| IX. | —A CANOE ON THE DESCHUTES | [105] |
| X. | —OLYMPUS | [116] |
| XI. | —"THE GOD MOUNTAIN OF PUGET SOUND" | [130] |
| XII. | —A SUMMER IN THE SIERRAS | [153] |
ILLUSTRATIONS
| PAGE | |
| The Columbia River Valley and Mount Adams | [Frontispiece] |
| Copyright, Gifford, Portland, Ore. | |
| "The Man from Boisé Describes God's Country in Terms of Sagebrush and Brown Plains" | [2] |
| "The Palouse Dweller Pictures Wheat Fields." The Grain Country of Eastern Washington | [2] |
| From a photograph by Frank Palmer, Spokane, Wash. | |
| A Western Mountaineering Club on the Hike | [6] |
| From a photograph by Kiser Photo Co., Portland, Ore. | |
| Along the Willamette | [12] |
| Mount Shasta | [12] |
| From a photograph by Weister Co., Portland, Ore. | |
| Mount Hood from Lost Lake | [20] |
| Copyrighted photo by W. A. Raymond, Moro, Ore. | |
| Natives Spearing Salmon on the Columbia | [22] |
| Copyright 1901 by Benj. A. Gifford, The Dalles, Ore. | |
| Coasting on Mount Hood | [22] |
| From a photograph by Weister Co., Portland, Ore. | |
| The Pacific | [24] |
| Copyright 1910 by Kiser Photo Co., Portland, Ore. | |
| Along the Columbia. "Grotesque Rocks Rise Sheer from the River's Edge" | [24] |
| Copyright 1910 by Kiser Photo Co., Portland, Ore. | |
| Celilo Falls on the Columbia | [28] |
| Copyright 1902 by Benj. A. Gifford, The Dalles, Ore. | |
| The North Abutment of the Bridge of the Gods | [28] |
| Copyright 1902 by Benj. A. Gifford, The Dalles, Ore. | |
| Where the Oregon Trunk Railway Crosses the Columbia. "The River Rolls Between Banks of Barrenness" | [30] |
| Copyright 1912 by Kiser Photo Co., Portland, Ore. | |
| Columbia River. The Land of Indian Legends | [30] |
| Copyright 1909 by Benj. A. Gifford, The Dalles, Ore. | |
| The Dalles of the Columbia | [32] |
| From a photograph by Weister Co., Portland, Ore. | |
| Along the Columbia River. "A Region of Surpassing Scenery" | [34] |
| Copyright 1912 by Kiser Photo Co., Portland, Ore. | |
| Central Oregon Travel in the Old Days | [38] |
| A Central Oregon Freighter. "You will Find them everywhere in the Railless Land, the Freighters and their Teams" | [38] |
| In the Dry-Farm Lands of Central Oregon. "Serried by Valleys, where the Gold of Sun and Grain, and Vagrant Cloud Shadows, Made Gorgeous Picturings" | [42] |
| Crooked River Canyon, now Spanned by a Railroad Bridge | [56] |
| In the Deschutes Canyon. "The River Winds Sinuously, Seeking First One, and then Another, Point of the Compass" | [56] |
| Copyright 1911 by Kiser Photo Co., Portland, Ore. | |
| Along the Canyon of the Deschutes | [62] |
| Copyright 1911 by Kiser Photo Co., Portland, Ore. | |
| Irrigation--"First, Parched Lands of Sage; then the Flow" | [68] |
| Series Copyright 1909 by Asahel Curtis. | |
| Irrigation--"Next, Water in a Master Ditch and Countless Man-made Rivulets between the Furrows" | [68] |
| "It Was a very Typical Stagecoach" | [70] |
| In the Homestead Country | [70] |
| A Valley of Washington. "The Big Westland Smiles and Receives them All" | [74] |
| From a photograph by Frank Palmer, Spokane, Wash. | |
| A Trailside Dip in a Mountain Lake | [78] |
| "Sliding down Snow-Fields Is Fun, though Chilly" | [78] |
| On the Trail in the Highlands of the Cascades | [80] |
| "A Sky Blue Lake Set like a Sapphire in an Emerald Mount" | [80] |
| The Trails Are not all Dry-Shod | [84] |
| "Our Trail Wound Beneath a Fairy Forest" | [84] |
| An Oregon Trail | [86] |
| From a Photograph by Kiser Photo Co., Portland, Ore. | |
| "Packing Up" at a Deserted Ranger Station | [96] |
| Using the Forest Fire Telephone at a Ranger Station | [96] |
| An Oregon Trout Stream | [100] |
| From a Photograph by Raymond, Moro, Ore. | |
| Canoeing and Duck Shooting may be Combined on the Deschutes | [108] |
| On a Backwater of the Deschutes | [108] |
| Along the Deschutes, the "River of Falls." "It Roars and Rushes, in White-Watered Cascades" | [112] |
| Copyright 1911 By Kiser Photo Co., Portland, Ore. | |
| "Canoeing is the most Satisfactory Method of Travel Extant" | [118] |
| The Pack Train above Timber Line | [118] |
| From a photo by Belmore Browne | |
| "The Humes Glacier, over which we Went to Mount Olympus" | [128] |
| "Our Nature-made Camp in Elwha Basin" | [128] |
| The "God Mountain" of Puget Sound | [132] |
| Copyright 1910 by L. G. Linkletter | |
| "The Live Oaks of Berkeley's Campus" | [156] |
| From a photograph by Wells Drury, Berkeley, Cal. | |
| Looking across the Clouds to Mount Adams from the Flanks of Rainier | [156] |
| Copyright 1909 by L. G. Linkletter | |
| "We Gloried in the Sheer Mightiness of El Capitan" | [158] |
| "A Vast Flower Garden Maintained Enticingly by Dame Nature" | [160] |
| Copyright 1912 by Kiser Photo Co., Portland, Ore. | |
| Light and Shadow in Yosemite | [160] |
| Sunrise at Hetch-Hetchy | [164] |
| The Government Road that Leads to Mount Rainier | [164] |