tUcekly Cbemawa American
VOL. 14
O CTOBER 13, 1911
In d ia n L e g e n d .
Those who travel today up and down
the great C olum bia R iver valley first
d rin k their fill of the m agnificent scenery
of this m ightiest of the W estern rivers,
which well has been christened, ‘‘the Ach
illes of rivers.” Then, if they have a busi
ness tu rn of m ind, which, if they are
A m ericans, they probably have, th eir a t
tention will be directed to the great
economic im provem ents th a t have been
wrought along the hanks of the great
stream .
Chief am ong these are the two ra il
roads th at follow the river The canal
which m akes possible w ater tra n sp o rta
tion around the Cascades is an o th er great
m onum ent of m an ’s activ ity , w hile above
The Dalles, the half com pleted G overn
m ent work upon the locks which will open
the river from Lewiston to the sea, p res
en t a strik in g picture of enterprise and ac
tivity. Also there is the uncom pleted
bridge across th e Colum bia, the work of
the Oregon T runk R ailroad, which will
supply rail connection between the N orth
Bank Road and the new H ill line up the
D eschutes R iver into C entral Oregon.
All tins latter work is near The Dalles
of tin* Colum bia. How m any travelers
NO. 7
interested in the present-day activities
of railroad and canal builders, thin k of
the v astly in terestin g history of this
now active region through which they
rush on the m odern tra in s? For not
only is the great river, in this section,
rich in pioneer ad v en tu re, in tim ately
connected with the beginnings of Ore
gon, hut also it possesses a rarely
fascinating legendary history.
The legend of The Dalles, passed
down from the In d ian s, is one of the
m ost en tertain in g , and well hears the
telling in these days when this portion
of the Colum bia is seen by so m any
and att*acts so much atten tio n because
of the deeds of m odern men enacted on
its shores
To pass from the railroad engineers of
today to the legendary dem ons of the
red m an ’s folk lore. At Pasco the two
great forks of the Colum bia unite. There
the northern branch, now the Colum bia
proper, form erly known as C lark ’s Fork,
and the Snake flowing from the south,
m eet after d rain in g a vast area of con
tin en t west of tin* Rocky M ountain w ater
shed. Thence the big river Hows west
erly some 120 mile.-, u n til it reaches the
d reary region where the o u tlying ridges