The Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society, Vol. IV / March, 1903-December, 1903

by Oregon Historical Society

Walla Walla, Wash., August 7, 1903.

FROM WALLA WALLA TO SAN FRANCISCO.

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.