Lyman's History of old Walla Walla County, Vol. 1 / Embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties

by William Denison Lyman

CHAPTER IV

ASOTIN COUNTY

We have described the topography and climate of this latest of the three children of Mother Walla Walla County, in the first part of this volume. We also gave some of the general facts relative to first discovery and settlement. We find, however, in case of Asotin, as of her sisters, Columbia and Garfield, that the demands of clearness and unity call for some repetition. We shall therefore bring up once more the first comers who have already appeared, besides entering more minutely into the tale of the early days.

We have endeavored to find some distinctive features in the natural conditions, history, or present state of each county in the family. While the physical features and climate of the four counties are essentially the same, each has some characteristic of its own. That of Asotin is the fact of its long frontage on Snake River, extending from the southern boundary across the mouth of the Grande Ronde, the only considerable river in the entire area, facing the entrance of the Kooskooskie or Clearwater and then still providing the margin for the Snake to a point just below the entrance of the Alpowa. With this long river frontage there goes naturally a remarkably varied surface, the most of the county being an elevated plateau running northward from the Blue Mountains, and this is cut up by profound cañons alternating with nearly level plains. While this feature of the uplands is most characteristic, there is an extensive lowland in the triangle beginning with Asotin and including the great area sweeping around to, and for some miles west of, the promontory just opposite the mouth of the Clearwater on which Clarkston is located. This lowland rises by a series of benches toward the west and south to the high prairies, though separated from them by the abyss of Asotin Creek.

As might be expected from such a topography, the scenery of Asotin County is conspicuously grand and beautiful. It would doubtless be acknowledged by residents in other parts of Old Walla Walla County that there is no one view equal from a scenic standpoint to that extending from Asotin to Clarkston, unless it be that fronting the Columbia at its junction with the Snake. On a clear bright day in spring (which comes very early in this favored land) go in a launch from Clarkston to Asotin up the rushing river, look north toward that infinitely varied and curiously sculptured margin with which the vast farming plateau of Whitman and Nez Percé counties fronts the junction of the rivers, then view that superb unfolding of rising prairie on the east with the azure Craig mountains on its edge, then turn your eyes to the frontage of Asotin prairie on the west and view the immediate foreground with that marvellously picturesque "Swallow's Nest" rock parting the two regions of high land and lowland—and you will be dull indeed if you are not entranced and if you do not say: "There must sometime be a race of poets and artists in such a land."

The rythmical native name of Asotin means "Eel," that fish being very common about the mouth of the creek.

Like most Indian words the sound, and hence the spelling, varies. It appears frequently with two s's, that being the spelling for one of the two rival town sites, Asotin and Assotin City, which finally merged into the present city.

The Nez Percé Indians, who ought to be an authority, are said by old-timers to sound it "Shoten." It has frequently been given as "Hashoteen" or "Hasoten" or "Ashoti."

One of the mooted and interesting points in first discovery is whether it was the Asotin or the Alpowa which Lewis and Clark on their return trip from the Pacific in 1806 descended, and hence their route from this region to their appointed meeting place on the Kooskooskie with the "Chopunnish" Indians with whom they had left their horses. The language of the journal of Captain Lewis indicates that, descending the plains, they went "for four miles to a ravine, where was the source of a small creek, down the hilly and rocky sides of which we proceeded for eight miles to its entrance into Lewis (Snake) River, about seven and one-half miles above the mouth of the Kooskooskie." That would obviously indicate the Asotin Creek. But it is improbable that the party would have taken so laborious a route as to have struck the Asotin eight miles above its mouth. Moreover, the general route indicates the Alpowa. Perhaps conclusive in the matter, however, is the fact that the journal of Private Gass states that they kept down a creek "until we came to Lewis River, some distance below the forks of the Kooskooskie" (seeming plainly to mean the junction of the Snake and Clearwater). "After lunch," he says, "we proceeded up the south side of Lewis River about three miles," where they crossed it. Furthermore, Gass says that the next day, being on the north side of Lewis River, "at about ten o'clock we passed the forks, and kept along the north side of the Kooskooskie." In view of these records Elliott Coues, acknowledged to be the authoritative editor of the Lewis and Clark journals, decided that the word above in Lewis' journal is a slip and that below was intended and should be substituted. If we accept this version, we must admit that these first white men were not actually on the site of Asotin. However, it is clear that the region became soon familiar to the trappers. The McKenzie division of the Hunt party in the first descent of Snake River in the winter of 1811-12 evidently passed, though we have no record of their stopping places. Later the Hudson's Bay trappers, Bonneville with his party, and others, made their way down the Grande Ronde and "Wayleway" (Wallowa) and stopped on the Asotin, to proceed thence over the Peola, Alpowa, and Pataha regions, toward Fort Walla Walla, the great emporium of the whole region. The region is historic ground. The "bar" at the mouth of the Asotin seems to have been for many years a favorite gathering spot for the Nez Percé Indians. We are informed by Mr. Edward Baumeister that the Joseph band of Nez Percés claimed the place, and that the disputed possession of it was one cause of the Nez Percé war of 1877, in which Joseph (Hallakallakeen, or Eagle Wing) played so famous a part. Mr. Baumeister states that the Indians had obviously used the point as camping ground for a long time, for at the time of his coming in 1883, the place was covered with "cache-holes" and grave-yards.