Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 1, 1883)
268 THE WEST SHORE. November, 1883 The president of the Oregon & California in Henry Villard, while R. Koehler ii vice-president and general manager, 't he road ii now being operated under a lease by the Oregon & Trans continental, which company is also constructing the extension. Manager Koehler brings to bear in the handling of the road an experience and judgment that are invaluable. lie ti a pleasant, courteous gentleman, enjoying the confidence and respect of all who come in contact with, him either socially or in business relations. 1 1 is office and the general j headquarters of the company are at Portland. WHATCOM COUNTY. TllR Wkst SltoKKlias at different times given descriptions of the various impoitant features of Whatcom county, and now presents engravings of its most considerable towns and harlwrs. Nearly every sectit n of Washington territory has had its " Ihmiiii " during the past few years, and the pros perous condition of all shows that there was some thing to support and justify il. The Whatcom boom, of which the initial steps were taken the present season, will begin in earnest the coming spring, and will lead to a permanent increase in population, real estate values, cultivated lands and marketable products. The resources of the county consist of vast tracts of fine arable land, immense bodies of magnificent fir, cedar and spruce, large deposits of excellent coal, waters teeming with fish, and large mineral wealth as yet undeveloped. The coast line along the sound abounds in fine hnilxirs, Ilellingham bay having no superior for safety, ease of access, depth of water, good an chorage ground, and all that renders a harbor desirable for large seagoing vessels. The vast tracts of fertile land lying north of the Nooksack, the tide marshes along the coast and the river bottom lands, all combine to give, Whatcom the greatest amount of desirable agricultural area in the territory west of the Cascades, The timber interests are enormous, 40,000,000 feet of logs being floated down the Skagit river alone in 1SS2. A railroad is projected from Ilellingham bay to llrilish Columbia, upon which work was begun this fall, but has now been suspended until spring, when it will be pushed vigorously forward. P. I). Cornwall, I). O. Mills and others, who are proprietors of extensive coal mines, will about the first of April put 1,000 men at work building a railroad from lUllinghniu to the mines, The I'ugel sound and Idaho K. K. Co,, has lutn in Coipoiulcd to build up the Skagit ami across the Cascades. Much money will be txendcd during the coming year in improvements by the above i'oiiiunivs, by bundled of rncigctic men in erect ing buildings and founding husim-st enterprises in the various towns, und ihoiiNinds of immigrants will Miur into the county to settle Uhmi the vacant government lands. Our engravings show the town sites of I.a Conner, Whatcom and Schome, or New Whatcom, as they apcarcd a few months since when sketched by one of our stnfl artists, but so great has liecn the subsequent improvement and to many stores, icsidcncct, etc., have been erected, that they fall far short of doing the towns justice. In some of them the number of buildings hat been doubled since the sketch was taken. This progress it still going on, and an engraving of the placet at they exist In-day, would hardly be recognized tix months hence. Added to the local resources and the large enterprises already initiated, is the possibility of the Oregon Short Line or some other Jgreat transcontinental road, building through one of the northern passes of the Cascades to a Pacific terminus in Bellingham bay. That this will eventually come to pass is the belief of many, while not a few are sanguine of an early realization of their hopes. MOUTH OF THE WILLAMETTE. We reproduce another of Capt. Cleveland Rockwell's excellent paintings of familiar scenes on the Pacific coast. Probably no locality in the state is as familiar to our people as the place where the Willamette river unites with the Col umbia on its journey to the sea. Daily river and ocean steamers and clipper ships from far across the trackless ocean, plow these waters with their loads of passengers and freight, and more people have passed the mouth of the Willamette than any other point in this whole northwestern region. The view is taken from the hills bordering the west bank of the river, and looks to the northeast, showing the snow covered cone of St. Helens in the central back ground and the icy crown of Mount Tacoma thrust far above the intervening mountains to the left. In the immediate fore ground, but many feet below the point of view, is a river steamer plowing its way up the Wil lamette, while in the middle ground is the dua' mouth of the river, divided by a little island, the Columbia running transversely across the picture to the left. The left bank of the Willamette is not that of the main land, but of Sauvie's island, on the other side of which runs what is now termed the Willamette slough, but what was once the main channel of the stream. This island extends down the Columbia for eighteen miles, the slough running parallel with the stream' for that distance and discharging into the river at a point that was at some time in the past the only mouth the Willamette had. The present mouth and ship channel was no doubt made by the water at some season of unusual floods forcing for itself a passage across this long peninsula and converting it into an island. The original title of this narrow strip was Wapatoo island, named from the abundance of a root plant so-called by the Indians. This plant, which is prolific in marshy ground, is the sagit taria variabilis of lratanists, and like the camos is used largely for food by the Indian trilies living in the region where it abounds. The name Sauvie has since teen given to (he island in honor of an old Hudson's Hay Company man who years ago made it his residence.' Though annually ovei flowed by the "June rise," the bland is veiy valuable for the raising of vegetables and for dairying. During the rainy season it is alive with waterfowl, and daily from October till March sxrtsmen from the city visit it and inva riably return with large bags of game. The Willamette, or the Wallamet, as the pion. eers still correctly spell and pronounce it, for it is of Indian origin and not French, as is commonly supposed, was discovered by Captains I.ewis and Claike on the second of April, 1806, for in pass ing down the north bank of the Columbia the fall before they had failed (o observe this stream pouting into it from the other side. After pass. ing the winter on the south tide qJ the Columbia, at in mouth, where dwelt the Clatsop Indians, they set out upon their return and came unn pectedly upon this large river. Finding tome Indians in a house near its mouth ami Wing relused anything to eat, Captain Clarke entered the domicil, sat down beside the file and threw into it some sulphur matches. The savages were frightened at the result and looked upon him at 1 " Big Medicine," and hastily bringin; him food supplicated him to extinguish the "evil fire," In their journal the Indian name of this stream was tecorded as Multnomah, but many of the early settlers, who of course had a better oppor tunity to learn, maintain that the Indian name of the river from its source to its mouth wis Wallamet, the name now borne by both river and valley, and that Multnomah, or as the natives called it " Mathloma" was the name of an Indian village on Sauvie's island near the mouth of the sir. 'am, probably the one where Captain Clarke obtained his information. In approaching the mouth of this river while coming up the Columbia on the evening of 1 clear day in June, just after the sun has retired behind the forest-rimmed hills of the Coast Range, a most entrancing picture is spread 'out before the eye. Gazing up the stream, whose banks are fringed with trees, deep tinted by the darkening shadows of twilight and casting sombre reflec tions on either side, between which leads the avenue of light up which the vessel is passing, the eye rests upon the great gorge of the Colum bia. A little to the right, rising grand and majestic above the long range of deep blue mountains, stands the kingly Mount Hood, its snowy crown bathed in the roseate hues of sunset. Sweeping the eye along the horizon of hills, it catches t glimpse of Jefferson, Adams, St. Helens and the gigantic Tocoma, their mantles of snow painted by the declining sun, each with a different tint. Such another scene the realm of nature does not possess: YONCALLA VALLEY. In the northern end of Douglas county, Oregon, lies one of the most beautiful of the many moun. tain-locked valleys of the Pacific coast It l some eight miles. in length from north to south and about three in width, and is watered by the Yoncalla, a stream of considerable size, tributtrjr to the Umpqun, which it enters nearly opposite old Fort Umpoua of the Hudson's IiavCo., built by Michael Lafiamboise, who came wiin parly in 1811 on the ill-fated Towuin. Throne it runs the Oregon California railroad, and ai the train enters the valley the traveler's eye rests with pleasure upon a lovely vale nestling two long rows ol protecting hills. The grew foliage, the fields of ripening grain, the bands of excellent sheep and cattle, the long rows of sub stantial fence, the large and ornamcniM dwelling" and commodious farm buildings, combine to gi color and life to the picture and lo sak of pros perity and peace. The village of Yoncalla, tor rounded by . a wealthy farming community sat enjoying a wholesome trade, Is an important it lion on the road, from which the product" of valley are shipped. In former years this was the home of the calla band of Umpqua Indians, a tmall remain of whom remain and till with the plow the lw over which their ancestors hunted. successful farmers intelligent, and many of