Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 4, 1920)
VOL. XXXIX. , PORTLAND, OREGON, SUNDAY MORNING,. JANUARY 4, 1920. NO. 1 i FRESH-WATER SALTS INVESTIGATE RIVERS OF ROMANCE Career .of Adventure Had by Inland Mariners Rivals Even the Spiciest of Tales Related of the Spanish Alain. l It,', a s i : S I S - M ,,4 . r - iyVW;rfS Jy . S-;rW -r ! . rr-K-1; " "-f'- "". w- 7 M.UJ4 2?-- wr"s H 'V in- ' i 'V Hr- f 7" '""li ill t IIS 1 W . v-1 riiflUUtiii 4 VJ'i -4 ; ? " . i 21 I ' V-i i kWJ ;v',"'!'""; 1 ill H ISr, 4l ; BT DB WITT HAERT. Copyrig:ht by Emma Hyatt Morton.) FACTS outdo fiction. People are more interested in the achieve- ments of flesh and blood men than In the imaginary deeds of aome hero who Is the figment f an lmpres aio'nlotic author's mind. '- No one be grudges men worldly wealth when they gain it by-sheer ability and fore sight. Tb almost unwritten pages f Columbia river history hold the Investigator -breathless. ' The hardy race of river pilots and navigators that were developed' in Oregon with the inception and spread of navigation of the interior streams ef the northwest had no peer in the annals of American literature. Some ef their achievements were told in a previous chapter; now comes a fur ther continuation of their alluring deeds. , Thoroughly Imbued with the essen tially American characteristic of in dividuality, they were quick to seize opportunity and needed no precedent for their work. They neglected no chances, they were creators; made their own openingsand, once started, saw the thing through to the finish. It Is a. difficult matter.- even at the present late day, to adequately real ize the value of their pioneer services to the Oregon country. ' . PortiBM Founded Here. . Fortunes that were reaped from the rivers of the northwest were le sion, and these pioneer accumula tions of wealth were the foundation for some of the largest of the estates - now existent in the country. The capital that was thus attracted to Oregon has been of incalculable value in snaking possible the present-day prosperity of the . region. Why this phase of life in the -pioneer growth of this corner of the United States has never received more attention will ever remain a mystery. From the day when Lot Whitcomb conceived the idea of building the famous river craft that bore his name, to the present, the steamers that tiusily ply the Columbia and its net work of branches have been making mstory. one hundred and twenty seven years ago Admiral Vancouver, the British explorer, made the first soundings at the mouth of the Colum bia and sent the first accurate chart of the bars and spits to the admiralty ''"In London. Ever since these sound - Ings have been the basts for work at the Columbia's mouth. They showed, in detail, the conformation of the I channels at the point where the huge ' river met the sea, and the river itself " to above Astoria. Could Vancouver visit this stream today he could not believe his senses. for here, at Portland, is located an ocean harbor over a hundred miles! from the sea. ' ' Should he place his leadsman in the chains' and start sounding he would hardly credit his senses when the chart, as the line reeled ouf to the distant bottom, would call for from 45 to 160 feet and he could find no bar. But his aston ishment would be greater should he start a journey inland, as he would find an almost uniform channel way through of more than 35 feet depth. Bar Project Begins. When Vancouver first charted the mouth of the river he found the depth about 27 feet. This was in 1792. In 1882 the river mouth had Bhoaled alarmingly and the United States en gineers recommended a Jetty project, with the result that congress appro priated the necessary funds and the south Jetty was started.' At this time the river depth was about 21 feet in the main channel and ocean craft de siring to enter frequently bad to lay to outside for days and even weeks for a favorable opportunity when tide and weather would ' allow them to make the perilous bar passage. : With the progress of the jetty and the scouring action of the current the channels -were changed and the depth gradually Increased, until Clat sop spit began moving north and man aged to again close the channel, which, some 20 years later, placed the engineers face to face with a totally Incomprehensible problem, as they dis covered that the channel was but two feet deeper and that they had less than an inch a year to show for their work' and expenditure of money. Im mediately they set about the solution of this difficulty, with the result that a further extension of the south Jetty was recommended and the additional construction of a shorter work on the north, the purpose of the two confin ing arms being to hold the current of the river in check and force it to dredge its own channel. Safe Harbor Results. ' This recommendation met with gov ernment approval and the work was again ' taken up. wlth the result that the most sanguine predictions of the men in charge of the work have been fulfilled, and the Columbia river bar Is no more, it being possible for any ocean-going vessel to enter in perfect safety in almost any wather. And while this work has been going on at the mouth of the river the develop ment of the upper reaches of streams has been by no means neglected. - Expenditure of some $14,000,000 in various projects of dredging and channel opening, the most essential being the construction of the-Celllo locks, has produced a system of in land waterways that has but one peer m - in in 4 is. f6j " ENTRANCE TO . COLUMBIA RI VER ADMIRAL VANCOUVER'S SURVEY 1792 STATUTE MILES ' i. i t i Soundings ore r et fane of rfcrence oof 3? : 048' 27 27 24 1 High m dry. one of the fast little steamers sets annual overhauling. 3 R. R. Thompson, who went to Sew York and sold $2,000,000 of Oregon river navlamtlon atoek. 3 In the old days Dan O'.Vell was admiral of a Hudson's Bay company bateanx fleet. 4 Willamette locks opened n Ions; stretch of navlarable waters, S The J. IV. Teal Is n type of the fast hlsh-powcred boats developed la Oregon. 6 Captain and crew of the old Portland rode to tbelr death over Oregon City Palls. 7 One hundred and twenty-eight years ago Ad miral Vancouver made this chart of the Columbia's month. x f in the country. Recently the-state of New York, with government co-operation, disbursed some $150,000,000 in the development of a barge canal that has but a small percentage of the tonnage value that the streams of the Oregon country possess. Mature has done more for this region than any amount of skillful engineering and money could accomplish. But while all this has been going on, while man has been co-operating with natural forces to make sate the ingress and egress at the river's mouth, and the safe and rapid naviga tion of her upper reaches and tribu taries, the pioneers among tfie navi gators have been steadily doing their best to demonstrate the necessity for the immense projects that have been carried to a successful conclusion. It was their exploration and demonstra tion of the -value of the traffic that forced the nation to take a hand to aid the territory served by the nat ural streams, and while engaged on this work the first-hand river men and their craft have had' ma-" v ad ventures. 1 River Kits With A?-itnrr. Starting wit Oie launching of the Columbia at Astoria by General Adair and of the Lot Whitcomb at Milwau kie, the annals .of river history are rife with almost unbelievable tales of breathless adventure. On - the upper reaches of the rivers, barred as they were by rapids at Oregon City on the Willamette and at Cascades and The Dalles on the Columbia, make shift means for handling the freight offered were employed, the solution of the difficulty depending on the Inventive genius of the men engaged. Even prior to the advent of steam navigation of the lower river by the two boats launched in 1850 the upper reaches of the Willamette were being developed.' Captain James D. Miller owned a flatboat 65 feet long with which he made two round trips weekly between Canemah and Dayton and Lafayette. Captain George Pease had a larger boat on the same run. and the two alternated. On the down trip they carried from 300 to 400 bushels of wheat each voyage, for which they received 60 cents per bushel freight, and on the uprlver run they charged $35 per ton measurement and had all the business they could care for. Indian Motors on Boots. . Of course, these bofets had to have power, but this was an easy matter of solution for the doughty captains, for they likely, had in. mind the. ex ample set by the ancient Roman tri remes and employed paddlers, not slaves as in' days of old, but 'swarthy Indians, skilled with the canoe and expert river navigators. Captain Miller had four of these units in his Indian engine, and paid them at the rate of $16 per day. The beauty of this type of motor was that it wast elastic and additional cylinders could be placed in operation at need, and Cap tain Pease had & more up-to-date af fair, as his was a six-cylinder motor. Gasoline and ignition troubles were unheard of, and it was not necessary to even crank the engine at start ing, though a certain amount of care ful priming was no doubt necessary at times. There . Is no record, but there is more than a possibility that at certain times a Judicious mixture of fluids to the carburetors of the cylinders assisted materially in the rapid propulsion of the craft. The Columbia of Astoria did a profitable business from the time of her launching In the river trade, ply ing between Portland and the river mouth, 24 hfurs each way, with fre quent trips to the portage at Cascades. The charge was $25 per head for passengers and the same amount for a ton, of freight, and requently the passengers wero Jammed aboard as thick as possible. The Columbia lived but a short time and her engines were transferred .to the Fashion, and the hull was swept to sea during a June freshet. " Bateaux Handed Trade. Writing of this period, Dan O'Neil, the veteran purser, describes some of the difficulties of navigation. Open boats and man power were the only means of getting goods through, and on several occasions he took charge of fleets of bateaux belonging to the Hudson's Bay company. The boats carried about a five-ton cargo each and were handled by a crew of six Indians, about five of them being in a fleet- Vancouver would be left in the afternoon and te first landing and night's camp would be made near where St. Johns now stands. This was prior to 1850, when the river steamers entered the field. Milwaukie would be reached the second night, and the following .night Oregon. City. But it was In getting through the first rapids just below Oregon City that the first trouble was encoun tered. Here the Indians woifld wade and tow through the swift current, "patient and enduring, good-natured and .willing, as long as they received their dollar a day and plenty of fresh beef," said O'Neil. One of the events that O'Neil tells of was the arrival of a cargo of schoolma'ams for the Oregon schools. At this time, in 1851, he was in com mand of ths Columbia snd had the pleasure of taking this delightful con signment through to their destination. It would be Interesting "in view of the certainty that these - more than fascinating women must certainly have, in a great number of cases, later relinquished their books for marriage to trace some of their ad ventures. 0 Lot Whitcomb Braves Ocean. The Lot Whitcomb, after her launch ing at Milwaukie on Christmas day, 1850, engaged in river traffic until 1854. with an unvarying: career of prosperity. However. In this year, her owners decided that she was too expensive a- boat to run and sold her to a San Francisco firm, and in that year she steamed out to sea, was picked up at the bar by the steam ship Peyton ia and towed to San Fran cisco. Rough weather was encoun tered, but the staunch little Willamette-built craft made the trip success fully and passed through the Golden Gate with three feet of water In her hold. Her name was then changed to the Annie Abernatby and she ran for a number of years on the Sacramento river. From 1851 on the development of river traffic in Oregon was exceed ingly rapid. In this year half a dozen boats made their advent into the prosperous trade along the ribbons of water that stretched into the interior. On the upper Willamette this year the dimunitlve Hoosler made her bow In the trade between . Canemah, and uprlver points. She was made from' a ship's longboat, lengthened out. and her motive power supplied from a pile-driver engine and boiler. George Pease was the pilot and pur ser and she- was in service for a long time. In this year Captain Alexander Sinclair Murray, brought the steamer Washington, which he had purchased on the Sacramento river, to Portland on the bark Success and placed her on the Canemah-upper Willamette run. This trade did not prove profitable and Murray ran her down to Port land in 1852 and placed her on the Portland-Oregon City run, where she ran until superseded by another Murray-owned craft, the Portland. Barrel Boat Makes Uebst. Then came the Multnomah, another of the famed pioneer boats, and a real queer customer, for she arrived in sections and was called the barrel construction, as she was built oCr stave-like timbers. She went into service from. Canemah to Corvallis and was the first boat to ascend. the river to the present agricultural col lege city. On some of her trips" the Multnomah brought down as high as 1500 bushels or grain and enjoyed quite a profitable trade. The Cane mah. an opposition boat, made her initial trip on the same route about this time, and managed to obtain tho mall contract, and ''Nathaniel Coe was IConcludsd on Fijo i vv