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

by William Denison Lyman

Officials and Representatives of the National and State Governments, and Fellow Citizens of the Northwest:

It is my honor to welcome you to this historic spot in the name of the people of the Walla Walla Valley; the valley of many waters, the location of the first American home west of the Rocky Mountains and the mother of all the communities of the Inland Empire. On the spot where we stand the past, the present and the future join hands. Here passed unknown generations of aborigines on the way from the Walla Walla Valley to ascend or descend the Great River, to pass in to the Yakima country, or to move in either direction to the berry patches or hunting grounds of the great mountains; here the exploring expedition of Lewis and Clark paused to view the vast expanse of prairie before committing themselves to what they supposed to be the lower river; here flotillas of trappers made their rendezvous for scattering into their trapping fields and for making up their bateau loads of furs for sending down the river. On this very spot was built the old Hudson's Bay fort, first known as Nez Percé, then as Walla Walla; here immigrants of '43 gathered to build their rude boats on which a part of them cast themselves loose upon the impetuous current of the Columbia, while others re-equipped their wagon trains to drive along the banks to The Dalles. Each age that followed, the mining period, the cowboy period, the farming period, entered or left the Walla Walla Valley at this very point. Here the first steamboats blew their jubilant blasts to echo from these basaltic ramparts, and here the toot of the first railway in the Inland Empire started the coyotes and jackrabbits from their coverts of sagebrush. Wheresoever we turn history sits enthroned. Every piece of rock from yonder cliffs to the pebbles on the beach, fairly quivers with the breath of the past, and even the sagebrush moved by the gentle Wallula zephyr, exhales the fragrance of the dead leaves of history.

But if the past is in evidence here, much more the present stalks triumphant. Look at the cities by which this series of celebrations will be marshalled and the welcome that will be given to the flotilla of steamers all the way from Lewiston to Astoria. Consider the population of the lands upon the river and its affluents, nearly a million people, where during the days of old Fort Walla Walla the only white people were the officers and trappers of the Hudson's Bay Company.

But if the present reigns here proudly triumphant over the past, what must we say of the future? How does that future tower! Where now are the hundreds, there will be thousands. Where now are the villages, will be stately cities. We would not for a moment speak disrespectfully of the splendid steamers that will compose this fleet by the time it reaches Portland; but we may expect that after all they will be a mere bunch of scows in comparison with the floating palaces that will move in the future up and down the majestic stream.

Therefore, fellow citizens of the Northwest and representatives of the National Government, I bid you a threefold welcome in the name of the past, present and future. And I welcome you also in the name of the commingling of waters now passing by us. While this is indeed Washington land on either side of the river, this is not Washington's river. This shore on which we stand is washed by the turbid water of Snake River, rising in Wyoming and flowing hundreds of miles through Idaho and then forming the boundary between Idaho and Oregon before it surrenders itself to the State of Washington. And, as many of you have seen, half way across this flood of waters we pass from the turbid coloring of the Snake to the clear blue of the great northern branch, issuing from the glaciers of the Selkirks and the Canadian Rockies nearly a thousand miles away, augmented by the torrents of the Kootenai, the Pend Oreille, the Coeur d'Alene and Spokane, draining the lakes, the snow banks, the valleys and the mountains of Montana and Idaho. And two or three miles below us this edge of river touches the soil of Oregon, to follow it henceforth to the Pacific. This is surely a joint ownership proposition. And, moreover, this very occasion which draws us together, this great event of the opening of the Celilo Canal, is made possible because Uncle Sam devoted five millions of dollars to blasting a channel through those rocky barriers down there on the river bank. It is a national, not simply a Northwest affair.

But while we are thus welcoming and celebrating and felicitating and anticipating we may well ask ourselves what is, after all, the large and permanent significance of this event. I find two special meanings in it: one commercial and industrial, the other patriotic and political. First, it is the establishment of water transportation and water power in the Columbia Basin on a scale never before known. Do we yet comprehend what this may mean to us and our descendants in this vast and productive land? It has been proved over and over again in both Europe and the United States that the cost of freightage by water is but a fraction, a fifth, a tenth, or sometimes even a fifteenth of that by land—but, note this is under certain conditions. What are those conditions? They are that the waterways be deep enough for a large boat and long enough for continuous long runs. The average freight rate by rail in the United States is 7.32 mills per ton mile. By the Great Lakes or the Mississippi River it is but one-tenth as much. Freight has in fact been transported from Pittsburgh to New Orleans for half a mill a ton a mile, or only a fifteenth. Hitherto, on account of the break in continuity in the Columbia at Celilo, we have not been able to realize the benefits of waterway transportation. The great event which we are now celebrating confers upon us at one stroke those benefits. Not only are the possibilities of transportation tremendous upon our river, but parallel with them run the possibilities of water power. It has been estimated that a fourth of all the water power of the United States is found upon the Columbia and its tributaries. By one stroke the canalization of rivers creates the potentialities of navigation, irrigation and mechanical power to a degree beyond computation. Our next great step must be the canalization of Snake River, and that process at another great stroke will open the river to continuous navigation from a point a hundred miles above Lewiston to the ocean, over five hundred miles away. Then in logical sequence will follow the opening of the Columbia to the British line, and the Canadian Government stands ready to complete that work above the boundary until we may anticipate a thousand miles of unbroken navigation down our "Achilles of rivers" to the Pacific. Until this great work at Celilo was accomplished we could not feel confidence that the ultimate end of continuous navigation was in sight. Now we feel that it is assured, the most necessary stage is accomplished. It is only a question of time now till the river will be completely opened from Windemere to the ocean. We welcome you, therefore, again on this occasion in the name of an assured accomplishment.

The second phase of this great accomplishment which especially appeals to me now is the character of nationality which belongs to it. While this is a work that peculiarly interests us of the Northwestern States, yet it has been performed by the National Government. Uncle Sam is the owner of the Celilo Canal. It belongs to the American people. Each of us owns about a ninety millionth of it and has the same right to use it that every other has. This suggests the unity, the interstate sympathy and interdependence, which is one of the great growing facts of our American system. In this time of crime and insanity in Europe, due primarily to the mutual petty jealousies of races and boundaries, it is consolation to see vision and rationality enough in our own country to disregard petty lines and join in enterprises which encourage us in the hope of a rational future for humanity. It is a lesson in the get-together spirit. Every farm, every community, every town, every city from the top of the Rocky Mountains and from the northern boundary to Astoria shakes hands with every other this day. And not only so but every state in the Union joins in the glad tribute to something of common national interest. But while we recognize the significance of this event in connection with interstate unity we must note also that the Columbia is an international river. It is, in fact, the only river of large size which we possess in common with our sister country, Canada. About half of it is in each country. Its navigability through the Canadian section has already been taken up energetically by the Canadian Government. Think of the unique and splendid scenic route that will sometime be offered when great steamboats go from Revelstoke to Astoria, a thousand miles. Scenically and commercially our river will be in a class by itself.

Such are some of the glowing visions which rise before our eyes in the welcome with which we of the Walla Walla Valley greet you. I began by a threefold welcome in the name of the past, present and future. I venture to close in the name of the native sons and daughters of Old Oregon. There are many of these within the sound of my voice. Perhaps to such sons and daughters a few lines of "Our Mother Oregon" may come with the touch of sacred memory. Let me explain that Old Oregon includes Washington and Idaho, and in composing these lines I used the name "Our Mother Oregon" to include our entire Northwest:

Where is the land of rivers and fountains,
Of deep-shadowed valleys and sky-scaling mountains?

'Tis Oregon, our Oregon.
Where is the home of the apple and rose,
Where the wild currant blooms and the hazel-nut grows?