Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (May 1, 1882)
The West Bhoke. VOL. 8 No. 5. L. Samuel, fublUher, I Washington St, . Portland, Oregon, May, 1882. Butml at Um PwtoWoa. Pr AnnooL IklniU SPECIMEN NUMBER. Any one receiving this copy of The West Shore will please consider it an invitation to become a regular subscriber. WASCO COUNTY AND WHAT IT IS. . ; , ITS LEGEND. Wasco, like all our original names, h.3 its peculiar origin. Tradition tells us that once upon a time, a young itl.-.i's wife died, leaving two bright, he' "ess little children, whose only care ar 1 succor was found in the love of tl grief-stricken father; their con s';:. ;d cries for their forever departed c . er caused the children's parent to try tU manner of means for the quiet in of their grief; so one day, he, with a h .rt full of sadness, while out with hU little ones on a hillside for a walk, four. a piece of an elkhorn, and with his f-int knife cut the string from one of i 'i moccasins and tied a broken flint to it, and after quenching his thirst at a bez.-liful spring of sparkling cold wa ter, ut down beside it on a large rock ar. I egan pecking small holes in it, yl' h so amused his loved ones, he cc;: J.uded to make three in a row, mak ir - :he center one as large as a basin, )i represented to them, the three a.' ! in the world. His relations, ob- s ag the devotion and attachment f. : "iese helpless ones, estranged them f. i him as it was not in accord with t" ' ; old traditions, and cut him off from t' ; association, which, with their bar I us habits, forced him to seek refuge t from the home of his childhood i t took his skin-robes, made them in r !, tied up his war clubs and spear. ( set his face with his little darlings C ird the Shin-ni-na-klath mountain .he setting sun : " So he journeyed westward, westward, Passed the mountain of the prairie . -To the kingdom of the west wind," re he found himself in a land he xl ; Win-quatt, because the new it was walled in by high rocky ( V This is the original, which we call "The Dalles." Such was the origin from whence sprang into exist ence the once powerful tribe of Indians known to-day as the Wascos, signify ing makers of basins, or more literally horn, basin." This like all other tribes who have sounded the war whoop with its savage glory, have faded and are still fading, as the pale face makes the warpath the highway for the iron horse, and his hunting-ground the source from which supplies are rent abroad to marts of the world, for the satisfying of the wants of the millions. ITS TOPOGRAPHY. The topographical appearance, or general feature of the country lying between the two great ranges of moun tainsCascade and Rocky suggests to the casual observer the thought, that in ages past, hidden agencies and fe vered breathings with convulsive throes beneath earth's bosom, burst with gi gantic force the arid plain, forming and bringing into existence the long line of dykes and canyons, which furnish now the way for the rapid flowing streams that find their course to the Columbia, leaving its upland sandy loam to be come rich and fertile with the age of years, and its new-formed valleys to grow in alluvial deposits on which man may sow and reap abundant harvests The western portions of the county, which is more or less mountainous,' has an abundant supply of timber, sucl pine, fir, larch and, lastly, oak. In the interior portion there is a scarcity of this essential element, save along the small streams which are supplied with a limited quantity of fuel. The fencing is mostly of wire construction, costing less per mile or rod, and more durable and satisfactory to the farming com munities. Its health-giving climate and rich fertile plains prompted many to push out on its borders, and in 1853, the first actual settlers made their homes in its confines, having immigrated from Western Oregou, although many, in those pioneer days, came overland di rect from the western states and made themselves permanent homes here, While we speak of the early settlement we do not include missionaries who came into this region in 1837 and 184& for the purpose of civilizing and Christ ianizing the aborigines, nor the few . traders who we're searching for gain, but the permanent settlers who are the bone and sinew of the land. They Had ' their trials and hardships in this fron-' tier border in those early days,' as well as those who followed them with their families, having sacrificed their old home comforts and pleasures to open up a ' 1 ...l i. i ' wuuerncw iwnosc occupants were me red men), for the coming generations who are to reap where they had sown. Years have passed, and as circumstan-' ces change men's fortunes, so it does ' the development of the resources of its once supposed wealth (that of stock, raising), to the more steady and perma nent growth, that of agriculture. ' ITS AREA. The county has an area of 13,000 square miles. Were the states of Mas sachusetts and Connecticut set down bodily on its surface, it would have 500 square miles left to furnish homes for 3,000 families. Its arable land, which is one of the best wheat-producing sec tions in the far west, has 3,560,000 acres of grain producing soil. This does not include the vast pasturage do main for its thousands of stock, consist ing of 45,867 head of cattle, of which ' number 16,780 have been sold this year, realizing $335,600.00; and over 19,000 head of horses and mules, of which 3, 310 have been sold, bringing an income. of $96,300; and last, but not least, there are in the different parts of the county over 301,000 sheep, whose wool clip this year, in round numbers, will be not less than 1 ,900,000 pounds, worth to day as we write 33 cents per pound, at The Dalles, or $437,000. Then there has been sold out of this large stock on hand, for slaughtering, 39,700 head af ter the fleece was taken off, which brought $60,000, so that the, total amount of receipts that goes into the, hands of the owners, for 1883, makes no mean sum, l when we say $938,900. This amount of cash, that has been dis tributed among the people of this coun ty, does not include the product of the farming sections, whose exports are as a handful compared with the vattnett of the producing resources.