Thus that monumental work (monumental considering the times and resources available, though of course of small extent compared with the railways of the present) was brought to a triumphant conclusion.
A peculiar condition arose in the next year after completion which has historical bearings of much interest. According to the account as given by Col. F. T. Gilbert the advance of rates from $5 per ton to Wallula to $5.50 caused a revolt on the part of shippers, although the haul by team before was more than twice as much. Shippers urged the county commissioners to put the wagon road in good condition as a weapon to curb railway monopoly. As the directors of the road did not reduce rates, a movement ensued in the Grange Council looking to boycotting the railroad. The feasibility of a canal from Waiilatpu to Wallula was considered. Some wheat and some merchandise were transported by teams at $5 per ton. A movement was started at Dayton to haul freight to the mouth of the Tucanon, where the O. S. N. steamers might pick it up and carry to Portland for $8 per ton. It cost $4.50 to reach the boats. That was the state of affairs which produced Grange City at the point where the Walla Walla-Pendleton branch of the O. W. R. R. now leaves the main line between Spokane and Portland. It was thought at one time that Grange City might become quite a place. One interesting feature of that period was the construction of a steamer named the Northwest at Columbus by the firm of Paine Brothers and Moore and its operation on the Snake River for about two years. The Northwest did a fine business, but like its predecessors was absorbed by the O. S. N. Co.
It was discovered after sufficient experience that teams could not compete with the railroad and the attempts at that method of transportation were abandoned.
In the year 1876, the O. S. N. Co. received at Wallula 16,766 tons of freight, of which 15,266 came by rail and 1,500 by teams. It delivered for conveyance to Walla Walla 4,054 tons, of which all but 513 was conveyed by rail. Doctor Baker's ownership and management of the Walla Walla and Columbia River R. R. was brief but profitable, for in 1878 he sold out a six-seventh interest to the O. R. & N. Co. The remaining seventh was sold to Villard when he bought the O. R. and N. properties.
The pioneer chapter of railroading in Walla Walla was ended. Whatever the personal idiosyncracies of Doctor Baker and whatever may have been thought as to his aggressiveness in business, it becomes evident with the retrospect of history that he was a far seeing, sagacious, energetic, and successful business man and that his career in Walla Walla was one of its greatest constructive forces.
NEW ERA OF WATER TRANSPORTATION
It remains in this chapter only to take a glance at the next great stage in transportation. We have spoken of the old steamer lines as composing the first of those stages, the stage lines the second, and the railroads the third. The fourth may be called the new era of water transportation. This era is as yet only dawning, but it is obvious that the opening of the Columbia and Snake rivers to traffic by means of canals and locks and improvement of channels will create a new development of production and commerce. As far back as 1872 Senator Mitchell of Oregon brought before Congress the subject of canal and locks at the Cascades. The matter was urged in Congress and in the press, and as a result of ceaseless efforts the people of the Northwest were rewarded in 1896 with the completion of the canal at the Cascades. While that was indeed a great work, it did not, after all, affect the greater part of the Inland Empire.
Its benefits were felt only as far as The Dalles. The much greater obstructions between that city and the upper river forbade continuous traffic above The Dalles. Hence the next great endeavor was to secure a canal between navigable water at Big Eddy, four miles above The Dalles, and Celilo, eight and a half miles above Big Eddy. It is of great historic interest to call up in this connection the unceasing efforts of Dr. N. G. Blalock of Walla Walla to promote public interest in this vast undertaking and to so focalize that interest backed by insistent demands of the people upon Congress as to secure appropriations and to direct the speedy accomplishment of the engineering work necessary to the result. Like all such important public matters, this had its alternating advances and retreats, its encouragements and its reverses, but patience and perseverance and the strong force of genuine public benefit triumphed at last over all obstacles. It is indeed melancholy to remember that Doctor Blalock, of whose good deeds and public benefactions this was but one, passed on before the improvements were completed. But it is a satisfaction to remember, too, that before his death, in April, 1913, he knew that the appropriations and instructions necessary to insure the work had been made. In fact, the work continued from that time with no pause or loss.
The Celilo Canal was completed and thrown open to navigation in April, 1915. In the early part of May the entire river region joined in a week's demonstration which began at Lewiston, Idaho, and ended at Astoria, Oregon. Nearly all the senators, representatives and governors in the northwest attended. Schools and colleges had a holiday, business was largely suspended, and the entire river region joined a great jubilee. A fleet of steamers traversed the entire course from Lewiston down, 500 miles. Lewiston, Asotin, and Clarkston were hostesses on May 3; Pasco, Kenewick, Wallula and Umatilla on May 4; Celilo, where the formal ceremonies of dedication occurred, and The Dalles, May 5; Vancouver and Portland May 6; Kalama and Kelso May 7; and Astoria May 8, and there the pageant ended with a great excursion to the Ocean Beach.
As expressing better in the judgment of the author than he could otherwise do, the profound significance of that great step in the history of the commercial development of this section and as giving a view of the historic sequences of old Walla Walla County, he is venturing to incorporate here an address delivered by himself on May 4 at Wallula in connection with that celebration: