Far different was the action and spirit of Tinkham. He had just arrived at Walla Walla from a remarkable and arduous trip, during which he crossed the Rocky Mountains by the Marias Pass, proceeded to Fort Benton, recrossed the mountains by a more southern pass to the Bitter Root valley, and thence crossed the Bitter Root Range on snowshoes by the rugged southern Nez Perces trail, when he received Governor Stevens’s instructions to push to the Sound by way of the Snoqualmie Pass. Starting from Walla Walla on January 7 with two Indians, he proceeded up the Yakima to its head on horseback, and there leaving his animals, he crossed the mountains on snowshoes, and reached Seattle on January 26, seven days after leaving the eastern base of the divide, and twenty days from Walla Walla. He carefully measured the depth of snow and reported:—
“From Lake Kitchelus to the summit, some five miles, and where occurs the deepest snow, the average measurement was about six feet, but frequently running as high as seven feet. Passing on to the west side of the Cascades, the snow rapidly disappears; fourteen miles from the summit there was but eight inches of snow, and thence it gradually faded away as approach was made to the shores of the Sound: for only a few miles was the snow six feet deep; the whole breadth over twelve inches deep was somewhat less than sixty miles in extent.”
Thus Tinkham actually crossed the range and reached the Sound, making the very trip that McClellan pronounced “impracticable” and would not even try, only ten days after the latter’s failure.
But McClellan’s pride was hurt by this incident. He took Governor Stevens’s opinion as to the snow question, and his action in sending Tinkham across the pass, in high dudgeon as a reflection on himself, and, regardless of the true friendship shown him and benefits conferred upon him by the governor, treated him with marked coldness. In his usual generous and magnanimous way, Governor Stevens took no notice of this changed attitude of McClellan, but gave him all possible credit in his reports. Some years afterwards, when Governor Stevens was in Congress, their mutual friend, Captain J.G. Foster, came to him, and said that McClellan wished to meet him again and renew their old friendship. Accordingly they met at Willard’s, and McClellan appeared as cordial and agreeable as of old.
Captain McClellan had been instructed, after completing his reconnoissance of the Snoqualmie Pass, to examine the harbors on the eastern shore of the Sound as far as Bellingham Bay. But he gave up this duty also, after proceeding a single day’s trip in canoes about twenty miles north of the mouth of the Snohomish River to the northern extremity of McDonough or Camano Island, where he encamped for the night, alleging as usual the inclemency of the weather: “During that night six inches of snow fell and a violent gale arose, so that on the next day we were unable to proceed. On the next day (14th), the wind still continuing dead ahead and very violent, I turned back,” etc.
Yet at this very time Governor Stevens was making a complete tour of the Sound in a small open sailboat, regardless of wind and weather.
McClellan also failed to do anything towards opening the military road across the Cascades between Steilacoom and Fort Walla Walla; and Lieutenant Richard Arnold, under the governor’s general supervision, relieved him of the charge of the road, and completed it in 1854.
It will be remembered how Governor Stevens had placed this road in McClellan’s hands, had furnished him with information and correspondence relating to it, and had advised him to consult with the prominent settlers in regard to the best location of it. Of these people the governor remarks in his report:—
“They have crossed the mountains, and made the long distance from the valley of the Mississippi to their homes on the Pacific; they have done so frequently, having to cut out roads as they went, and knowing little of the difficulties before them. They are therefore men of observation, of experience, of enterprise, and men who at home had by industry and frugality secured a competency and the respect of their neighbors; for it must be known that our emigrants travel in parties, and those go together who were acquaintances at home, because they mutually confide in each other. I was struck with the high qualities of the frontier people, and soon learned how to confide in them and gather information from them.”
Contrast with this McClellan’s assertions in his letter to Secretary of War Davis, of September 18, 1853:—