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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 1881)
THE WEST SHORE. October, 1881 344 supposed fortune left. The road were operated for years by the German owner, under the management of Mr. ViMerd, who frt hcrr n their pjcnf, and whose fame U too well known to need comment. Under hi manage ment the road will oon lc constructed through to San Francisco, lie ha replaced the old itcamcrt of Ilolladay's time with the cla of iron ttcamcn, and no safer or more elegant or com modious ship now aail the ocean than thote employed in thii trade. Scarce more than two year ago Mr. Yillard came back to Oregon with a tcheme to buy out the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, and construct a railroad tytcm for the entire agricultu ral regloni cant of the Cascade range. One lingular fact concerning him it the boldne and openneM with which he Operate. The efTect of hi continued aucce U that he need les ccrcy than moot men require and win hi way by plain, open dealing. So he came and 1olilly announced hi purpose to build a railroad down the Columbia and the O. S. N. Company sold out to hint and hi associate. Two year ago thi winter he announced that the policy of hi associate wa to obtain control of all transportation facilities of the north coast and to day they have them all secure. There i not a route of importance they do not own, and the management promise lilcial treat ment, far more liberal than could be afforded if the different line had to lc molvcd back into their original coron ations. The Northern Pacific R. R. St one ol the great enterprise of the world and wa apparently on the most prospcroti bait and beyond the reach of interfer ence. It had finally achieved the moot positive Mice and had money in hand to build it line through from Lake Superior to the Pacific. To-day Yil lard U it pretident and blend thi vast enterprise into hi magnificent scheme, that now extendi for two thousand mile acro the continent and include main and branch line 6,000 mile long. Oregon pinned Iter faith on the North ern Pacific, to te grievously ditap pointed, but now we have the apparent certainty that It will be a connected line In operation before iSSf. It doc not need that we recite the history of Jay Cooke career, of the Billing's management, and all the change that have interfered to keep back this line, for the present aspect showe that we shall have thi road through as soon as labor nrul money rnn possibly accom plish it. The history of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company is one of the romance of the present generation. It completed the fame of Mr. Villard as a railroad projector and financier, and strange to say, it is this, comparatively local enterprise, that has drawn to itsclt the great northern transcontinental road and all the other transportation lines on land and sea, north of California. Soon it will push an iron highway into every grain producing section of the upper country, and go south, to Hakcr city, to meet the Oregon Branch of the Union Pacific railroad, that is rapidly coming thi way. Thi last mentioned route will give us the first through connection with the world in any direction and other route will follow until we shall have two, outlets to the eastward and one along the coast to California. The Villard management has also taken in the control of the narrow gunge road commenced in this valley, that promised competition in transpor tation, in the near future. Those roads have lecn the subject of much public interest on that account, but they also yield to the inevitable and come under the common way. The only separate railroad enterprise remaining is the Oregon Pacific Railroad that is being constructed from Yaquina Hay to Corvalli and promises to relieve the freight market of the upper Willamette country. It remain to be seen whether it programme for this valley and also for an eastern connection can be carried out, or whether it too will in time, if built, come into the Villard combina tion. It friend claim that it i to be the terminal portion of a great line that shall reach direct from Chicago west to Yaquina Hay. We shall toon ace what it will do. OUR ILLUSTRATION'S. Our view of the Pacific Northwest scenery presented in thi number em brace very wide range, and arc, per. hap, the bet variety we have ever published in any one number. The picturesque Castle Rock on the headwater of the Sacramento river on the Oregon and California ttage route, the awe-inspiring canyon of Annie' creek, in Jackson county, the beautiful falls of the Rogue river, and the collec tion of Jackson county's best buildings, together with Mr. A. Klippel's com prehensive article on Southern Oregon, will give our readers a far better idea of the southern portion of Oregon than any thing heretofore published. As an old land-mark, we furnish the old block -house at the Cascades of the Columbia river, a place of refuge. dur ing the early Indian wars, but now use less and rapidly going to decay. The group of Oregon cereals are taken from nature, and their size will, no doubt, astonish eastern subscribers. The picturesque view ot an Oregon hop-yard may lead some e-f our readers to suspect that human hands twined the vines as represented; such, how ever, is not the case. The picture is a true one, and was made from nature at the hop-yard of Lee Bros., in Lane county, without preparing the place for photography. The U. S. light-house, at Cape Foul" weather, is now looming into promi nence, from the fact of it being the very first light-house north of the pro posed great city on Yaquina bay. The 0. &. C. R. R. bridge, at Har risburg, is the largest and most sub stantial structure of the kind in 4he Pacific Northwest. It spans the Wil lamette river, and despite the storms and floods of several years, is to-day as staunch as the day it was first finished. The view of the principal business street in Salem, Oregon, the capital city, will be interesting to many. Lake Cour d' Alene, the Mecca of Pacific coast tourists for iS8j. To reach it we pass all of the Columbia river's grand scenery, and the famous falls of the Spokane. In the elegant steamers and cars of the O. R. 4 N. Co., and N. P. R. R it can now be reached in twenty-four hours from Portland, and by next summer when the Dalles branch is finished, in less time. The proximity of Fort Cour d Alene, with its usual number of hand some officers in irresistable regimentals! will, perhaps, be an additional attrac tion to tourists of the fairer .sex. The residence of E. B. McFarland, of McFarland & French, of The Dalles, is one of the many elegant structures lately erected at this thriving city, and is, perhaps, the best proof that the men
