History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889, Part 24

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe, 1832-1918; Victor, Frances Fuller, 1826-1902
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: San Francisco : History Co.
Number of Pages: 880

USA > Idaho > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 24
USA > Montana > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 24
USA > Washington > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 24

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In good time Smith returned, having caused the arrest of Merryman for carrying away certain moneys, and the custom-house was established at Port Angeles, where two hundred people had gathered in anticipa- tion of soon building up a commercial city, Port Townsend being thrown into alternate paroxysms of rage and despair at being bereft of its prospects of great- ness. At the meeting of the grand jury at Olympia in October, four indictments were found against Smith; namely, for resistance to a duly authorized officer of the law, for embezzlement of the public funds, for procuring false vouchers, and for assault on the people of Port Townsend. Smith eluded arrest for a time, but finally surrendered voluntarily, and gave bail for his appearance at court, where no case appears to have been made against him which the courts were competent to try. The government which appointed him saw fit to remove him little more than a year afterward, and apppoint L. C. Gunn in his place.

With regard to the claim of Port Angeles to be considered the better point for a custom-house, Mc- Clellan, when surveying the shores of Puget Sound, reported favorably upon it,42 as the "first attempt of nature on this coast to form a good harbor." It was well protected from the north winds by the sand spit

12 Pac. R. R. Rept, xii. 278.

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THROUGH FOUR ADMINISTRATIONS.

of Ediz Hook, three miles in length, running out east- ward, and from the south-east gales by the mainland, and had a good depth of water, besides lying more directly in the path of commerce than its rival. The town site was also called superior to Port Townsend, although it had the same high bluff back of the nar- row strip of land bordering the harbor. Three small streams ran down from the highlands back of it and furnished abundance of water, the custom-house, a fine large structure, being built at the mouth of the cañon through which one of these rivulets ran, Smith's residence adjoining it, and the other buildings being near these central ones.

In the winter of 1863 a catastrophe occurred. For several days the stream just mentioned was dried up, the unknown cause being a landslide, which had fallen into the narrow gorge about five miles from Port An- geles, and by damming up the water formed a lake. On the afternoon of the 16th of December, it being almost dark, a terrible roaring and tearing sound was heard in the cañon, and in a few moments a frightful calamity was upon the until now prosperous new town. The earth which formed the dam had at length given way, freeing a body of water fifteen feet in height, which rushed in a straight volume, carrying everything before it, and entirely changing the face of the ground swept by it. Crushed like an egg-shell, the custom-house fell and was carried out into the harbor. Deputy Collector J. M. Anderson, formerly of Ohio, and Inspector William B. Goodell, lately master of the tug General Harney, stood at the front entrance of the building as the water and débris it carried struck the rear side. Their bodies were found two hundred feet away, covered four feet deep with earth and fragments of buildings and furniture.

Neither Smith, the late, nor Gunn, the newly ap- pointed, collector, were in Port Angeles. Mrs Smith, with four young children, and Mrs Randolph were in the dwelling adjoining the custom-house, which, be-

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ing partially protected from the first shock by a solid mass of piled-up lumber, fell, but was not carried away. Groping about in the darkness, stooping under the wreck, with the water up to her waist, Mrs Smith found and saved not only all her children, but another woman, who was lying under the water, held down with fragments of the walls. In a short time the flood had passed, and men in boats with lanterns were hurrying to the rescue of those in the direct course of the watery avalanche. No lives were lost except those of the two custom-house officers,43 but the town was in ruins, and although an effort was made to re- suscitate it by removing what remained to a better site higher up the coast, it never recovered from the calamity, and gradually diminished in population, until it was reduced to the condition of a small farm- ing community.

The custom-house safe being found with the office papers and books, the government sustained only the loss of the furniture of the building. The most serious damage fell upon Smith, who owned and had leased the custom-house for a term of four years. This, with his residence, furniture, books, and a considerable sum of money, was snatched away in a moment, while he was in Washington endeavoring to adjust his affairs with the government. In 1865 the custom-house was returned to Port Townsend, and in that year, also, the principal figure in the short and singular history of Port Angeles disappeared from the world's stage as suddenly as his town had done, eighteen months previous, when the steamship Brother Jonathan, Cap- tain De Wolf, struck an unknown rock near Crescent City, and went down with 300 passengers on board, among whom was the talented but eccentric Victor Smith.“

43 Collector Gunn, in a letter to the S. F. Bulletin, Jan. 28, 1864, says that Anderson was a refined, intelligent, amiable, and conscientious man, and an invaluable officer from his habits of industry and his strict adherence to the requirements of law. Goodell had been appointed only two weeks previous, and was a man much esteemed. He left a wife and three children.

" Smith brought out from Ohio several members of his family. The light- HIST. WASH .- 15

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THROUGH FOUR ADMINISTRATIONS.

By the catastrophe at Port Angeles all the papers relating to the statistics of commerce were destroyed, leaving a blank in this chapter of early history which can never be satisfactorily filled.45

house at Tatoosh Island was given in charge of his father. Two of his sisters long had in charge the light on the California coast near Wilmington. Another married Mr Stork of Olympia.

45 The collectors following Gunn in office were Frederick A. Wilson, M. S. Drew, Salucius Garfielde, Henry A. Webster, and Bash. Gunn came to Or. in 1852, and was associated with H. L. Pittock in the publication of the Oregonian, and was subsequently for many years editor of the Olympia Transcript. He died at Olympia, Aug. 23, 1885.

CHAPTER VII.

MINING AND TOWN-MAKING. 1861-1863.

ORGANIZATION OF THE FIRST WASHINGTON INFANTRY-COMPANIES FROM CALIFORNIA - GOLD DISCOVERIES- MILITARY ROAD - FRASER RIVER TRAVEL-COLVILLE MINES-THE MALHEUR COUNTRY-THE SIMILKA- MEEN MINES-AMERICAN MINERS IN BRITISH COLUMBIA-GOLD DISCOV- ERIES ON THE CLEARWATER-ON SNAKE RIVER-PROTEST OF THE NEZ PERCÉS-PIERCE CITY-ORO FINO-LEWISTON-VERY RICH DIGGINGS- CALIFORNIA ECLIPSED-SALMON RIVER MINES-POLITICAL EFFECT- WINTER SUFFERINGS-POWDER AND JOHN DAY RIVERS-FLORENCE AND WARREN DIGGINGS-BOISE MINES-ORGANIZATION OF THE TERRITORY OF IDAHO.

I HAVE related in Oregon II. how Colonel Wright was left in command of the department of Oregon when General Harney was invited to Washington upon a pretence of being needed to testify in the Oregon and Washington Indian-war-debt claims, in order to pacify the British minister and Governor Douglas by removing him from proximity to the San Juan Island boundary-war ground; and also that General Scott recommended merging the military department of Oregon in that of the Pacific, with headquarters in San Francisco. In the latter part of 1860 this idea was carried out, and General E. V. Sumner was placed in command of the Pacific depart- ment, relieving General Johnstone, whom the people of Oregon and Washington feared might be sent to command the Columbia district. Fortunately for them, since they had come to have entire confidence in Wright, that officer was retained in his important position during the critical period of the breaking-out (227 )

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MINING AND TOWN-MAKING.

of the rebellion. The depletion of his command, and the measures resorted to in order not to leave the north-western frontier defenceless, I have referred to in my History of Oregon.

The news of President Lincoln's proclamation call- ing for volunteers did not reach Washington until about the 1st of May, and on the 10th McGill, who was at that time still acting governor, issued a call for the organization of the militia of the territory under the existing laws, each company to report at once to headquarters and be at the call of the presi- dent should their services be required.1 Adjutant- general Frank Matthias immediately appointed en- rolling officers in each of the counties of the territory, both east and west of the Cascade Mountains, and required all men subject to military duty to report themselves to these officers. There were at this time twenty-two organized counties, and not more than six thousand men between the ages of sixteen and sixty capable of bearing arms.2 In the Puget Sound re- gion there was also need of able-bodied men to repair the damages sustained by several years of Indian wars and mining excitement.

Late in the summer of 1861 Wright was placed in command of the department of the Pacific, and Colo- nel Albermarle Cady of the 7th infantry succeeded to that of the district of the Columbia. About the last of the year Wright, now a brigadier-general, appointed Justin Steinberger, formerly of Pierce county, Wash- ington, but then in California, to proceed to Puget Sound, with the commission of colonel, and endeavor to raise-a regiment to be mustered into the regular service. Steinberger arrived in January; but the ut-

1 Steilacoom Herald, May 10, 1861; Olympia Pioneer and Dem., May 17, 1861.

2 The first company formed appears to have been the Port Madison Union Guards, 70 men; William Fowler capt .; H. B. Manchester Ist lieut; E. D. Kromer 2d lieut; non-com. officers, A. J. Tuttle, Noah Falk, William Clen- denin, Edgar Brown, S. F. Coombs, R. J. May, J. M. Guindon, John Taylor. This company was organized in May. In June the Lewis County Rangers, mounted, were organized at Cowlitz landing; Henry Miles capt .; L. L. Dubeau Ist lieut; S. B. Smith 2d lieut. Olympia Standard, July 20, 1861.

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MILITARY ORGANIZATION.

most he could do was to raise four infantry companies, one each at Whatcom, Port Townsend, Port Mad- ison, and Walla Walla.3 In California he raised four more companies, with which he returned to Vancouver in May, relieving Colonel Cady of the command of the district. As three others were then organized in California, enlisting was ordered discontinued in Wash- ington. In July General Alvord took command of the district, and Steinberger repaired to Fort Walla Walla, where he relieved Colonel Cornelius of the Oregon cavalry. The regiment was not filled, how- ever, until the close of the year. On the 5th of Jan- uary, 1863, Governor Pickering addressed a communi- cation to the speaker of the house of representatives, informing him that the First Regiment of Washing- ton Infantry, organized pursuant to order of the war department, October 1861, was full, and had been re- ceived into the service of the United States, and sug- gested to the legislature to give some expression, either by memorial or joint resolution, of the confi- dence of that body in this regiment, whether it re- mained where it then was or should be called out of the territory in the service of the United States, and invoking for it the favorable notice of the general government, praying that in the event of a reorgani- zation of the army this corps might be retained in service in Washington.4 It was so ordered.

A portion of the regiment was stationed at Fort Pickett, another portion was with Steinberger at Walla Walla, and the territory had at length and for a time the satisfaction of seeing men with no alien tendencies in its places of trust.

Although it was designed that the Oregon cavalry should be used against the Shoshones, who for eight years had grown more and more presumptuous and hostile, and the Washington infantry be kept to gar-

3 The enrolling officers were R. V. Peabody, H. L. Tibballs, Egbert H. Tucker, and Moore and Cannaday of Walla Walla. Steilacoom Herald, March 20, 1862.

4 Wash. House Jour., 1862-3, app. xxiii .- xxiv.

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rison the several posts in the territory, the companies east of the mountains were compelled to support the cavalry on several expeditions against the Indians, in which long and exhausting marches were performed, the history of which has been given in my History of Oregon, but to which some reference is also due in this place.

On the opening of the transmontane country east of the Cascades in October 1858, there was a sudden overflow of population into its sunny vales,5 attracted thither chiefly by the reputed gold discoveries both north and south of the Columbia, on the Malheur and other streams of eastern Oregon, as well as on the Wenatchee River, in the latitude of the Snoqualimich Pass, and about Colville. Many were discouraged miners, who found the soil and climate of eastern Washington so agreeable and productive as to suggest settlement.

The construction of the military road to Fort Ben- ton drew a considerable number in the direction of the Bitter Root Valley, forming a part of the immense and rather indefinite county of Spokane, attached for judicial purposes to the county of Walla Walla, and consequently far from the seat of any court.6 The stream of travel toward Fraser River, which crossed the Columbia at The Dalles, pursuing a north-east course to Priest Rapids, and a north course thence by Okanagan lake and river to the Thompson branch, or deflecting to the west, reached the main Fraser 200 miles above Fort Yale, stood in need of military pro- tection, as did also the boundary commission, one part of which was at Semiahmoo Bay, and the other at Lake Osogoos, near the Rock Creek mines.7

5 Ruble & Co. erected a steam saw-mill near Walla Walla in 1859. Or. Argus, Jan. 29, 1859. Noble & Co. erected another in eastern Oregon the same year. The first grist-mill erected at Walla Walla, in 1860, was owned by H. H. Reynolds, Simms, and Capt. F. T. Dent. Elliott's Hist. Idaho, 64-5. 6 Wash. Jour. House, 1860-1, 35-6.

7 Capt. D. Woodruff, with a co. of the 9th inf., was at Semiahmoo, and two companies of the samo regiment under Capt. J. J. Archer at Lake Osogoos, in the summer of 1859. Mess. and Docs, 1859-60, pt ii. 111-12.

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STEAMBOATS AND GOLD MINES.

For the safety of these disconnected groups of peo- ple, Fort Colville was established in May 1859. The Dalles, being the one entrepôt for so wide a region, rapidly developed into a commercial town, with a journal of its own,8 and a population ever increasing in numbers if not in worth; horse-thieves, gamblers, and all the criminal classes which follow on the heels of armies and miners giving frequent employment to the civil and military authorities.

In the spring of 1859, also, the little steamer Colonel Wright was built at the mouth of Des Chutes River, by R. R. Thompson and Lawrence W. Coe. She made her first trip to old Fort Walla Walla on the 18th of April, returning on the 20th, and taking a cargo of goods belonging to Joel Palmer, intended for the mines, as far up the river as Priest Rapids. In June she ascended Snake River to Fort Taylor, at the mouth of the Tucannon. A steamboat on the Upper Columbia gave trade another impetus, and Walla Walla, first called Steptoe City, became a rival of The Dalles in a short time.

The passage of gold-hunters though the Colville country revived an interest in that region. Many unsuccessful miners returning from Fraser River, or, prevented by high water from operating there, were led to explore on the upper Columbia and as far east as the Bitter Root Valley, where they made from five to eight dollars a day, and where living was less costly than on Fraser River. Even the military offi- cers and soldiers became gold-hunters, adding not a little information concerning the mineral resources of the country to that furnished by mining prospectors.9

8 The Dalles Journal, edited and published by A. J. Price, at $5 per year, weekly.

" Captain Wallen's expedition discovered gold in the Malheur country; and Captain Archer reported finding the color of gold almost everywhere on the march from Priest Rapids to the Similkameen, with the best prospects in the vicinity of the Wenatchee and Methow rivers. An extensive copper mine was discovered on the Okinakane River; and lead was found on Lake Chelan and Pend d'Oreille. Corr. Dalles Journal, in S. F. Alta, Ang. 12, 1859. Major Lugenbeel, in command of the new military post at Colville, informs the Portland Advertiser that the mines at the mouth of the Pend d'Oreille,

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MINING AND TOWN-MAKING.

The soldiers on guard at the commissioners' camp in October discovered gold on the Similkameen, where they could take out twenty dollars a day with pans, besides walking five miles to and from eamp. The discovery was as much as possible suppressed, from a fear that a crowd of persons would be attracted there at the beginning of winter, whom there was no means of supplying with food when the military stores should be removed for the season. Miners were warned also not to begin preparations too early in the spring, when the bars of the river would be under water; but the fact was not concealed that the quality of Similkameen gold was superior, being coarse, and equal in coin to seventeen or eighteen dol- lars an ounce.10

Nothing could, however, overcome the eagerness of men to be first upon the ground. By the middle of November companies were organizing in Portland, the mining fever threatening to reach the height of 1858; and by the end of February the first party set out, consisting of twenty men, led by J. N. Bell of The Dalles. These, with fifty others who had wintered there, were the earliest at the new diggings. In March all the floating population of the Walla Walla Valley, with some companies from Yreka, California, were on their way to Similkameen. They were fol- lowed by other Oregon companies, one of whom, led by Palmer, undertook the enterprise of opening a wagon-road from Priest Rapids to the Similkameen. Fifty or sixty tons of freight were shipped to the rapids on the Colonel Wright, whence it was taken in wagons the remainder of the distance.11 Several par- ties left the Willamette in small boats, intending to

which have been worked several times, yield very well to every successive working; that coarse gold exists on the Salmon River, a northern tributary of the Pend d'Oreille; and that miners working about forty-five miles from his post averaged $5 to $10 per day. S. F. Alta, Aug. 12, 1839; S. F. Bulletin, July 21 and 29, and Aug. 11, 1859.

10 Corr. Portland News, in S. F. Alta, Nov. 2 and 15, 1859. Shuswap coarse gold was worth $18.50. Pend d'Oreille gold was found in scales 17 or 18 carats fine. Similkameen gold resembled that of Yuba River, Cal.

11 Or. Argus, March 24 aud 31, 1800.

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MINING EXCITEMENT.

make the journey to the mines, a distance of 500 miles, with no other conveyance. Similar nerve was exhibited by companies from Puget Sound, which, as early as the 10th of March, were on the move to cross the Cascade Range at the different passes, and suc- ceeded in doing so. Those who arrived thus early could not make more than expenses, the best mining ground being under water. Many turned back; others pressed on to Quesnelle River; and others occupied themselves in prospecting, and found gold on Rock Creck, one of the head waters of Kettle River, which entered the Columbia near Colville, and on the Pend d'Oreille. During the summer the Similkameen mines paid well, and in September new diggings were discovered on the south fork of that river.12

The Rock Creek and Similkameen mines proved to be in British territory, American traders being taxed over $100 for the privilege of selling goods there.13

The Cariboo placers were discovered in August 1860, but their fame was not much spread before winter, and migration thither did not set in before the spring of 1861. When it did begin, it equalled that of 1858. Claims were taken up on Harvey's and Keethley's creeks, in August, that yielded all the way from cight to fifty dollars per day to the man. Five men in one company took out in six days $2,400. Four men took out in one day over eighteen ounces, worth over $300, and so on. There was sent out by express the first month $30,000, besides what re- mained in the hands of 250 men in the mines. The reports from Cariboo greatly stimulated mining dis- covery in the region lying on either side of the boun- dary line of United States territory.

There had been a discovery made in the spring of 1860 destined to work a rapid and important change

12 Ebey's Journal, MS., vi. 348.

13 Corr. Portland Advertiser, Oct. 26, 1860; Or. Argus, Dec. 29, 1860. In 1861 there were about 20,000 miners, mostly American, in B. C.

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MINING AND TOWN-MAKING.

in eastern Washington, although overshadowed for a time by the placers which I have here named. From a letter written April 30, 1860, to the Oregon Argus, the discovery appears to have been made a short time before.

E. D. Pierce, a trader among the Indians, had long known that the country east of the great bend of the Snake River was a gold-bearing one, but owing to the hostility of the Indians, he did not prospect it, and for several years resided in California. De Smet had known of it at an earlier period, and in 1854 a Mr Robbins of Portland had purchased some gold of the Spokanes, farther north.

In 1858 Pierce again visited the Nez Percé country but found no opportunity to search until after the ratification of the Nez Perce treaty, and the general cessation of hostilities. Early in 1860 he found means to verify his belief in the auriferous nature of the country on the Clearwater branch of Snake River, reporting his discovery in April at Walla Walla. It does not appear from the public prints that the story of Pierce received much credence, though the corre- spondent spoken of above reported that some returned Similkameen miners, and others from Walla Walla, had gone thither.

Pierce did not at once return to the Clearwater, on account of the opposition of the Indian and military departments, who dreaded the renewal of trouble with the Nez Perces and Spokanes should a mining popu- lation overrun their reserved territory. About the first of August, however, Pierce, with a party of only ten men,14 set out from Walla Walla to make a con- clusive examination of the country in question; having done which he returned with his party to Walla Walla in November, giving all the information which he

14 The names of the ten were Horace Dodge, Joseph L. Davis, J. R. Bene- field, Bethuel Ferrel, Jonathan E. Smith, W. F. Bassett, Frank Turner, David Diggings, Samuel B. Reed, and John W. Park. Olympia Pioneer and Demo- craf, April 20, 1861. Bassett is said to have discovered the first gold on Canal Gulch, where Pierce City is situated. Lewis' Coal Discoveries, MS., 16-17; Vic- tor's River of the West, 540-1.

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PIERCE'S DISCOVERIES.

himself possessed concerning the new gold-field lying 150 miles east of that place, and believed to be rich. The diggings were dry, and yielded eight to fifteen cents to the pan. The route to the mines was directly through the Nez Perce reservation. 15

Pierce now endeavored to organize a large company to return with him and winter in the mines; but the representations of those who feared to provoke another Indian war discouraged most of those who would have gone, and only thirty-three accompanied him. The party was followed as far as Snake River by a de- tachment of dragoons, whose duty it was to prevent their intrusion on the reservation, but who failed to execute it.

Pierce's party of less than forty men remained in the Nez Perce country preparing for mining when spring should open. The snow in December was six inches deep, and during a portion of the winter three feet in depth. The men occupied themselves building comfortable cabins, sawing out planks for sluice-boxes, and sinking prospect holes. They found the gold of the earth to be very fine, requiring quicksilver to col- lect it, though coarse gold was also discovered in the quartz with which the country abounded. The dig- gings were situated in gulches and cañons of streams of too general a level to make it convenient washing the dirt and disposing of the débris. The gold was found in a red, and sometimes a bluish, earth of de- composed granite mixed with gravel of pure white quartz. Much black sand appeared on washing it. Pierce himself, though convinced of the richness of the present discovery, freely exposed the disadvan- tages, and declared, moreover, his belief that these mines were but the outskirts of still richer mining territory.

Pierce had hardly reached his camp on the Clear- water before he received a visit from A. J. Cain, the

15 Or. Argus, May 12, 1860; Pioneer and Democrat, Nov. 9, 1860; Sacra- mento Union, Dec. 6, LSGO; S. F. Bulletin, Aug. 21, 1860, and March 21, 1866; Angelo's Idaho, 23.

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History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889, Part 24

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe, 1832-1918; Victor, Frances Fuller, 1826-1902 Publication date: 1890 Publisher: San Francisco : History Co. Number of Pages: 880

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe, 1832-1918; Victor, Frances Fuller, 1826-1902
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: San Francisco : History Co.
Number of Pages: 880