With the end of this third great Indian war and the public announcement by General Clarke that the country might now be considered open to settlement, immigration began to pour in, and on ranch and river, in mine and forest, the well-known labors of the American state-builders and home-builders were displayed. The ever-new West was repeating itself. Almost immediately upon the tidings of General Clarke's proclamation, a motley throng of prospective miners, cowboys, pioneer merchants, promoters and adventurers of all kinds began to pour into the "Upper Country." The fur-traders, foreign missionaries, scouts, and advance guard of pioneers were passing off the stage and the modern builders were coming. The varied activities and enterprises of these builders of the foundations during the decades of the '60s and '70s, which may be styled the first division of the era of modern times will compose Part Two of this volume.
PART II
SETTLEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER I
THE PERMANENT ORGANIZATION OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY AND FOUNDING OF THE CITY
In an earlier chapter we have narrated the first attempts by the first Legislature of Washington Territory, in 1854, to establish Walla Walla County. It consisted of the entire territory east of a line running north from a point on the Columbia River opposite the mouth of the Des Chutes River, practically at the present Fallbridge. Thus the county included all of the present Eastern Washington, with the entire present State of Idaho and about a fourth of Montana. The only settlement in that vast area was around Waiilatpu and Frenchtown. Though officers for the proposed county ware appointed, they did not qualify and the proposed county never completed its organization. Then came on the Indian wars, lasting till Colonel Wright's decisive victory at Spokane in August and September, 1858, closed that era. Following that event General Clarke's proclamation opened the "Upper Country" to settlement. Not till the spring of 1859, however, did Congress ratify the treaties for the three reservations, Nez Percé, Umatilla, and Yakima. But almost immediately upon General Clarke's proclamation the impatient immigration began to enter the Walla Walla Valley. We may consider the immigrants of 1858 and 1859 as the vanguard of permanent settlement. Yet, it should not be forgotten that several names of permanent importance are found in the annals of 1851-55, during the period between the Cayuse war and the Great War of 1855-58. Those names appeared in the chapter on the Indian Wars.