T H E TORCH OF REASON, S IL V E R T O N , O R E G O N , OCTOBER 11, E. M. 300 (1900.)
2
T ra v e ls :— T h e
H udson
an d
th e By accident, ra th e r th an sense, the the ships and business move up the shall call the beauty acquiring riv
Oregon or C o lu m b ia.
BY T. B. W A K EM A N .
nam e of Capt. G ra y ’s m erch an t
ship, “ The C olum bia,” was given to
the m outh of this river, or ra th e r
the adjoining land; but C arver and
the other first explorers down from
its source in d ista n t m ountains had
given it the I r d ia n nam e, th e O re
gon , “ the great w ater.” So was it
generally known, and its consecra
tion was th u s begun by B ry an t in
1817 in those ever m em orable
lines of the T hanatopsis:
T he rivers and m ountains of a
country were its o riginal Deities—
and such they should ever rem ain;
for winds and waters, indeed all,
depend upon them .
T hink them
over,—the Nile, Jo rd a n , Tigris,
Ganges, The Yellow, Danube, Seine,
Tham es, H udson, M ississippi, Ore
“ Take the wings
gon or C olum bia: all are m oun Of m orning, pierce the Barcan wil
tain begotten. Yet they are h u m a n
derness,
ly begotten, for they repeat and
Or lose thyself in the continuous
echo back the souls of the people
woods
who deified, or as we say m odernly,
poetised and thus consecrated them . W here rolls the O regon , and hears
no sound,
U ntil this consecration grow sover
the Rivers and M ountains of a Save his own d a sh in g s—yet the
country it is, to and in the heart,
dead are th ere.”
the “ Devil’s C o u n try ,” where new
T his passage should have fixed
homes m ay be located and “occu
pied” but not really lived.
The the nam e forever, for it was ap p ro
reason is th a t we are the creatures, priate, and the nam e more nearly
the growths of environm ent, as D ar given by “ the dead who are th e re ,”
win and Spencer have proved, th a t than any other.
(See H. H. B an
is, we are at bottom, Fetichists. We
croft’s H istory of Oregon, Vol. 1,
cannot help it; we only live as we
invest our m inds, h earts and lives pp. 17-25.)
“ C olum bia,” a foreign nam e taken
in the great G od-the Environm ent
which creates and sustains us. from C apt. G ra y ’s ship, would have
When we are tran sp lan ted to a new done for the A m ericans to give to
and very different co untry we are country, territo ry or state so as to
like trees, and we cannot feel it to honor Colum bus and W ashington
be home— never! u n til our new in their two u ltim ate and ad jo in
Oregon
roots pierce it and feed our hearts ing states on th e Pacific.
from it. Then it m ay become “ God’s was the riv er’s common nam e in
C ountry,” but it is h ard for old the whole territo ry . Columbus and
trees. “ Were you homesick when C olum bia had no more application
you first cam e to th is wonderful to this river th an th e m an in the
o o u n try ?” we said to a venera moon— not half as much as Queen
ble old lady. “ ‘Sick’ d o n ’t begin,” E lizab eth ’s A dm iral D rake, who
she replied, “ I just squalled .uid first sailed to its m outh in 1579.
The Indians, the discoverers, the
howled like a dog!”
Such are the thoughts n atural to explorers, the P resident Jefferson,
a m odern thinker who sails up th e who had it annexed to the U nited
Oregon, wild and wonderful, m is States, the great consecrator B ry
named the Columbia, and yet re an t, called the G reat River the O r
members the H udson. The reason egon, and so it m ay be, even though
is th a t the H udson, one of the the State has been nam ed from it.
world’s p rettiest, hum anest rivers
We used to say the H udson, or
and sea in lets— half tide and half N orth riv e r—but now we say “ T he
river, is one of the few places on H udson” only. So may it be “ the
this co n tin en t th a t has become Oregon or C olum bia,” until possi
really consecrated by its people. bly “ the O regon” revives. C ertain
J t was not terrible, but all useful, ly th a t should be its home, poetic
fruitful, cheerful, benign and beau and sacred nam e; though geograph
tiful to begin w ith; and from it, ers m ay for a long tim e use the
.every year since the- “ H alf Moon” other, or both. T he nam e th a t B ry
dropped its anchor in it, has it fed a n t adopted can never be w holly
.milder feelings into the souls of washed out, for T hanatopsis alone
those who have lived, or passed or is likely to live as long as there is
lingered over it. T hus P aulding, I an y th in g hum an to die.
Poe, B ryant and Irv in g have helped
The river is large, broad and
to infuse deep into its landscape m ostly with good c u rren t; and
the soul-life of a m ighty people. sweet, clear, em erald w ater, like
In nearly the same latitude over
more than 3,000 m iles of dusty
plains, rocky deserts, and arid
m ountains a sim ilar people have
now liegun to hum anize and con
secrate their m ightier, th eir won
derful river, the O regon . It is a
hard task, but they will not fail,
for they are invincible.
The first
difficulty is struck in its false name.
mile-wide, slan tin g shored river to
P o rtlan d , which is 12 miles up the
W illam ette.
Soon after passing th isg en tle riv
er, the banks of the Oregon became
more ab ru p t. The m orning m ists
vail the sight until finally M ount
Hood looms above them with its
snowy peak— as if to forbid fu rth e r
progress. Soon the sun and breeze
sweep th e m ists aw ay and the se
cret they would hide stan d s re
vealed.
Those snows cam e ages
ago to quench and freeze a volcan
ic hell. T hrough th a t frozen hell
our stu rd y little steam er works its
way against a stiff cu rren t all the
day, till at sunset we reach The
Dalles. I t is moHtlv all the sam e
story of an invested and solidified
Inferno; th at is told with grotesque
and w onderful variatio n s of rocks,
now p erp en d icu lar alm ost to the
sky, now colum ned, now’ tw isted,
gnarled and distorted so as to defy
the im agination as to how they
came, unless they once lived and
cavorted like the Hell Crags in
F aust:
“ And Crags g ian t shouted— ho! ho!
How they sn o rt and how they blow.”
er “ the Oregon;’’ the now m eaning
less “ Rooster R ock” will take its
new nam e, “ C astle Rock,” and so
m atch the “ C ath ed ral.”
Yes, the
w onderful will be clothed by the
ap p ro p riate and beautiful in tim e,
for the people who are to do it are
living, or being born every day.
W here do they live? W hy, in th a t
awful p urgatory, “ the great m id
dle W est” , with heat or cyclone
swept prairies, with scorching a l
kali deserts, with the barren soli
tudes of parching and freezing
m ountains! Ye m iserable who are
doomed to live in th a t to rtu rin g
p urgatory, save up your m oney, so
as to get a sum m er’s breath of
heaven by the clear m ountain riv
ers and shores east of the Alliga-
nies or west of the Sierras and Cas
cades. Of all places the valley of
the Oregon is and will be more and
more the unequaled w atering place
of the West.
The sum m er air, al
ways pleasant by day, ju st cool
enough at night, and (only th in k
of it!) never a m osquito!! T he
water alw ays fresh,
clear and
d rin k ab le, alw ays ready to kiss
you all over when you en ter it for
But all this you have,or will have
learned, from sight, hooks, photos
or pictures. M ilder features relieve.
There are breaks through the
walls th a t tell of fruitful and hab
itable backgrounds and valleys,
like the shaded gate to the Hood
river peach and fru it valley. Then
there are a few d rift banks and
shelves along the river th a t begin
to sm ile with a hum an echo.
But
these are rare, even the few brooks
on the m ountains having to run
off into th e air, all become a sp ra y
ing m ist before they reach the riv
er below.
“ Ah m e!” as Dante said when
he entered the Inferno.
W ho
shall tra n sla te th is frozen hell in
to a lovely and blessed pathw ay
and bower of “ T he E a rth ly P a r a
dise.
The people will feel it and
are com ing. T here is no delight
w ithout co n trast.
There could be
no heaven unless founded upon
hell as its co n trast. To open these
valleys, and spread new homelife
over these lava rocks and ledges will
m ake those who do it most sensible
of the value of th a t new life which
is alread y replacing the In d ia n
b arb arism ,-sp rea d in g the tu rf c a r
pet, stippling the landscape with
trees, and veiling the petrified hor
rors of the hell th a t was, with the
m an tlin g vines of the com ing p a r
adise. Of th a t paradise those hor
rors are, by reason of the co n trast,
the best possible foundation as to
both chem istry and sen tim en t; for
lavas m ake the richest soils; and
agonies past m ake only more ex
quisite the com forts and joys th a t
overgrow them .
Y ear by year th is chaos of won
a bath. And if you follow these ever
the green N iagara; which shows
th a t it ru n s m ostly over alu m in
ous, or clay soils.
The ocean re
ceives it with a “ h a r” and a broad
and beautiful bay, ten miles or so
in diam eter, the finest salm on fish
pond in the world. A storia, perched
on a prom ontory on the south-east
shore, is an em byro city struggling ders will become properly clothed
We
w ith fish and lum ber, hut most of an d even properly nam ed.
talking w aters to th eir
home you
will find it in those m ighty rollers
of the Pacific which will lift you in
th eir em brace a t “ Seaside.”
An esteemed E astern friend says
th a t the people should m ake the
river of th eir country its bride, and
th a t they can only be well-to-do,
happy and blessed in co n stan tly
recognizing and sustainin g
m arriage.
th eir
She finds a u th o rity for
it in her favorite a rtis t w riter, Van
Dyke, th u s:
“ The life of a river, like th a t of a
hum an being, consists of th e union
of soul and body, the w ater and
banks.
They
other.
They
act
and
belong
react
The stream
together.
upon each
m oulds and
m akes th e shore; hollowing out a
bay here, and building a long point
there.
The shore guides and con
trols the stream , now detaining,
now advancing it, now bending
it
in a hundred beautiful sinuous
curves, and now speeding it
straig h t as a wild bee on its hom e
ward flight, to its ocean hom e.”
These travels m ust end here.
B ut we now know th a t next sum
m er the d u st begrim m ed
and p e r
spiring victim s of the “ m iddle W e st”
will miss the great delight of the
year unless they wait upon and en
joy the “ G reat W a te r” of the W est
as she journeys from The Dalles to
the Ocean— helping to m arry to her
the newly civilized landscape, as
the C atskills to the H udson, and
old Venice to the sea.