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