USA > Idaho > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 44
USA > Montana > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 44
USA > Washington > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 44
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The road was so far completed that a small immigration passed over it with wagons and cattle, reaching their destination with less suffering than usual. Had it been more numerons, it would have been better for the next immigration. But congress never reimbursed the road-makers. In the fol- lowing sninmer Richard Arnold exhausted the $20,000 appropriation without much improving the route, making but a single change to avoid the steep hill on the Puyallup, where wagons had to be let down with ropes. This, like all the military roads on the coast, was a miserable affair, which soon fell into disuse, as the people were unable to complete it, and the Indian wars soon practically put a seal upon it.
Early in 1854 F. W. Lander undertook at his own cost the survey of a railroad route from Puget Sound by the valley of the Columbia to the vicinity of the South pass, or Bridger's pass, of the Rocky Mountains, with a view to connecting Puget Sound by rail with a railroad to California, Lander's idea
383
SURVEYS AND PETITIONS.
being that a direct line to Lake Superior would be exposed to severe cold, in- jurious to the material and the service of the road. He objected, besides, that, in the event of a war with England, it would be too near the frontier, and also that a railroad on a frontier was not in a position to develop territory. Lander's Railway to the Pacific, 10-14. Lander made his reconnoissance, of which I have given some account in my History of Oregon, the territorial legis- lature memorializing congress to make an appropriation compensating him for the service. Wash. H. Jour., 1854, 167. His report was published, and congress appropriated $5,000 to defray the expense of the survey. U. S. Stat. at Large, 1854-5, 645; Gov. Stevens without doubt having influenced both the territorial and congressional action. The legislature, at its first session, en- acted laws for the location of territorial roads from Steilacoom to Seattle, from Steilacoom to Vancouver, from Seattle to Bellingham Bay, from Olym- pia to Shoalwater Bay, from Cathlamet to the house of Sidney S. Ford in Thurston county, from Shoalwater Bay to Gray Harbor, and thence to inter- sect the road to Olympia, from Puget Sound to the mouth of the Columbia, from Seattle to intersect the immigrant road, and from Olympia to Monti- cello. Wash. Stat., 1854, 463-70. These various acts were intended to pro- vide a complete system of communication between the settlements as they then existed. Others were added the following year. They were to be opened and worked by the counties through which they passed, the costs to be paid out of the county treasury in the manner of county roads.
George Gibbs and J. L. Brown undertook to explore a route from Shoal- water Bay to Olympia in Dec. 1853, and had proceeded a part of the way, when they were compelled to return by stress of weather and scarcity of provi- sions. The exposure and hardships of the expedition resulted in the death of Brown. In the following July, E. D. Warbass, Michael Schaffer, Knight, and Geisey set out from Cowlitz landing to locate a road to Shoalwater Bay, which resulted in opening communication between the settlements on the coast, and points along the route inviting settlement. By this route, also, Astoria, the distributing point for the mails, could be reached. The first legislative body had memorialized congress relative to establishing a mail-route between Astoria and Olympia, but by the course marked out for the territorial road to Cathlamet. Subsequently, in 1866, $10,000 was asked for to open a wagon-road from the Columbia at Cathlamet to the Boisfort prairie, to there intersect the road to Olympia. Neither request was granted, though the latter was repeated in 1873. The legislature of 1854 also required their delegates in congress to endeavor to procure an appropria- tion of $50,000, and a section of laud in each township along the different territorial roads, to be located hy the road commissioners, to aid in the con- struction of these highways and the necessary bridges. It asked, moreover, for $30,000 to be expended in opening a practicable wagon-road from Van- couver to Steilacoom; for $25,000 for a military road from The Dalles to Van- couver; and for $25,000 to complete the military road over the Cascades, and to pay the people the amount expended by them in opening it. Wash. Jour. House, 1854, 163-6. To the propositions for roads connecting the military stations, congress lent a willing ear and granted the appropriations asked for, but gave no heed to the appcal to complete and pay for the road to Walla Walla, for which the legislature continued to petition year after year. Dur- ing the summer of 1835 a reconnaissance was made of a line of road from The Dalles to Vancouver, and from Vancouver to Steilacoom. The first was com- pleted Nov. 23, 1856, but in the following winter was so injured by heavy rains as to require ten thousand dollars to repair it, which was expended on it in 1857. The road to Steilacoom was begun at Cowlitz landing, on the west side of the river, and constructed as far as Steilacoom by Nov. 1, 1857.
Upon petition from the legislature of 1855-6, $35,000 was appropriated for a road from Steilacoom to Bellingham Bay, and a reconnoissance was made the following year. In 1863 a franchise was granted to complete the military trail to Whatcom, followed by another petition in 1864 to congress to continue the road to its northern terminus.
384
EXPLORATIONS, ROADS, AND RAILROADS.
In Jan. 1858 an appropriation was asked to construct a road from Fort Townsend down the west side of Hood Canal to intersect the road to Cowlitz landing and Vancouver, which was refused. The legislature of 1859-60 com- bined two rejected projects in one, and asked in vain for a military road from Baker Bay, at the mouth of the Columbia, via Shoalwater Bay and Gray Har- bor, to Port Townsend. Again a military road was asked from Port Townsend to False Dungeness, where the town of Cherbourg was located, afterward called Port Angeles, with a like failure. Another memorial in 1866 prayed for an appropriation for a military road from Port Angeles to Gray Harbor, upon the ground that the character of the Indians in Clallam co. deterred set- tlement and improvement; and also that in the event of a blockade of the straits by a foreign power a road to Gray Harbor would be useful in transport- ing military stores to any point on Puget Sound. But as no foreign war threatened, the other reasons were found lacking in cogency.
By act of congress approved Feb. 5, 1855, $30,000 was appropriated, at the recommendation of Stevens and others connected with the Northern Pa- citic railroad survey, for the construction of a military road from the great falls of the Missouri to Fort Walla Walla, a distance not far short of 700 miles, John Mullan being the officer assigned to the survey. See Mullan's Military Road, in which he relates the inception of this project. Mullan was a mem- ber of Stevens' exploring party. His report contains a great deal of informa- tion, and the topographical map accompanying it, the work of T. Kolecki, is the best in the whole series of transcontinental explorations. This expedition determined the existence of an atmospheric river of heat, varying in breadth from one to a hundred miles, giving mild winters in the lofty regions of the Rocky Mountains. This work was interrupted by the Indians. In the suc- cess of this road the people of Washington saw the realization of their dream of an inunigrant highway from the east direct to Puget Sound, the northern location being peculiarly acceptable to them for the reason that it made necessary the completion of a route over the Cascade Mountains.
No difficulty seems to have been experienced in procuring appropriations for this road, which was looked upon as the forerunner of a Pacific railway, besides being useful in military and Indian affairs. As to its use iu peopling the Puget Sound region, it had none. A few troops and one small party of immigrants entered the territory by the Mullan road previous to the coming of the gold-seekers, who quickly peopled two new territories. Next to the original immigrant road, it has been a factor in the history of the north-west. Mullan was assisted in his surveys hy A. M. Engell and T. H. Kolecki topog- raphers, C. Howard civil engineer, B. L. Misner astronomer, J. Mullan phy- sician and geologist, Talalem and Smith general aids, and E. Spangler wagon- master. Or. Statesman, May 10, 1859. His escort consisted of 100 men of the 9th infantry under N. Wickliffe. Lewis Taylor was assistant surgeon, George E. Hale private secretary, Augustus Sohon and Kolecki topographical engi- necrs. David Williamson superintended the advance working party. S. F. Bulletin, May 26, 1861. The cost of the road was $230,000. Mullan's rept, in Sen. Doc., 43, 37th cong. 3d sess .; Bancroft's Hand-Book, 1863, 321.
In Jan. 1859 the legislature memorialized congress relative to a military road from Seattle via the Yakima pass to Fort Colville. The merits of this pass had long been understood. Its repute among the Indians had deter- mined the location of Seattle. Bell's Settlement of Seattle, MS., 7. Mcclellan, in 1853, had surveyed it and pronounced it practicable for a wagon-road or railroad. In the summer of 1859 the citizens of King co. had expended about $1,300 in opening a wagon-road from Snoqualimich prairie to Rattlesnake prairie, but failed to receive an appropriation for their work. In the summer of 18GO some settlers of the Snohomish Valley explored a route through the Cascade Mountains between the sources of the Skihomish River and the Wanatchee. Snoqualimich pass was explored in 1862 through the efforts of Robert Smallman, who circulated a petition and obtained the means to open a horse-trail by this route to the east side of the mountains, an appropriation of two townships of land being asked for the following year to construct a
385
THE MOUNTAIN PASSES.
wagon-road from Seattle to Walla Walla, the petitioners averring that the Snoqualimich pass was of less elevation than any yet discovered. As in the other instances, some work was done upon this route by the county of King and by the territory, amounting in 1869 to $13,000, the road being still 'almost impassable by reason of its incompleteness.' Still other attempts were made to secure roads over which wagons could pass between some point ou Puget Sound and the open country east of the mountains, where, with the exception of some grading and bridging, natural roads existed in any direc- tion. A memorial setting forth the need of a post-road from Bellingham Bay to Fort Colville, and declaring Parke pass of the Cascades the best hereto- fore discovered, was addressed to congress in Jan. 1861, with the usual failure to gain the end desired. In Jan. 1862 the Nisqually Road Company was in- corporated by the legislature, with the object of constructing a wagon-road from a point on the Nisqually River near the mouth of the south fork, in an easterly direction, to the junction of the head waters of the Cowlitz River, thence through the Nisqually pass to Red Lake Valley, and thence to inter- sect the road leading from Simcoe to the Wenass River near the mouth of the Nachicss River. After exploring and expending the means at their command, the company, through the legislature, asked congressional aid in January 1864, but not receiving it, their work remained uncompleted.
In January 1860 a memorial was passed by the legislature relative to es- tablishing a military road from Fort Vancouver to Fort Simcoe by a ' good pass discovered through the Cascade Mountains between Mcclellan and the Colum- bia River passes, of less elevation than any yet discovered, except that of the Columbia." This could only refer to the Klikitat pass, which could not be said to have been 'discovered' within the period of American occupation of the country, though for all purposes of a memorial it sufficed to say so. Capt. Crane, in 1835, made a reconnaissance from the Columbia opposite The Dalles to the catholic mission on the Ahtanam River, and beyond to the Selah fishery, estimating the cost of a military road to he $15,000. He also made a rconnoissance the same year from The Dalles to the Blue Mountains via Walla Walla, placing the cost at $20,000, which showed no great difficulties to be overcome, the distance to Walla Walla being 176 miles. Sen. Doc., 26, 40, 34th cong. Ist sess. In point of fact, a pack-trail had been opened through it to the Yakima country in 1858. Oregon Argus, July 31, 1858; Portland Standard, Aug. 5, 1858. But all this interest in and effort to secure roads, better than a volume of topography, explains and illustrates the natural in- accessibility of western Washington except by the highway of the sea and the Fuca Strait. There never had been an immigrant wagon-road to Puget Sound, nor had all the money apropriated by congress been sufficient to make one good one from Walla Walla to Stcilacoom, whereas it was squandered in fruitless trail-making west of the mountain barrier, which for so long kept all the world away from the shores of that wonderful mediterranean sea which hears upon its placid bosom the argosies of the north-west.
Naturally there has been much rivalry' between the towns situated nearest the different passes as to which should secure the terminus of a government road or railroad. Taking them in their order north of the Columbia pass, there are the Klikitat, the Mcclellan, the Cowlitz or Nisqually, the Nachess, the Yakima, the Snoqualimich, the Cady, and the Parke passes, that were explored. The first is a short pass from the Columbia River to the Yakima Valley. The Mcclellan pass is at the head of the Cathlapootle River, trend- ing south and east around the spurs of Mount Adams, and entering the Ya- kima country by the most western fork of the Klikitat River. Pac. R. R. Repts, i. 203-4. The Cowlitz pass appears from the best descriptions to be identical with the Nisqually pass, both rivers heading at nearly the same point in the Cascade Range, whence the trail runs north-east by a branch of the Nachess to the Nachess trail and river. This gap was partially explored in 1838 by William Packwood and James Longmire, the legislature of that winter passing an act to locate a territorial road through it, and appointing HIST. WASH .- 25
386
EXPLORATIONS, ROADS, AND RAILROADS.
the explorers commissioners to make the location, in company with G. C. Blankenship. A further survey was made the following summer, resulting in the incorporation of the Nisqually Road Company, already mentioned, in 1862, whose road was never completed. The height of the Cowlitz pass is given by the surveyors of the Northern Pacific Railroad, whom Packwood accompanied on their explorations, at 4,210 feet. The height of the Nachess pass, next north of the Cowlitz, was said by Mcclellan to be 4,890 feet. The Yakima pass, called by him interchangeably the Yakima and Snoqualme, was measured by barometer also, and found to be 3,468 feet. Pac. R. R. Repts, 192. The railroad survey makes it nearly 700 feet higher. McClellan did not survey the true Snoqualimich pass, but the railroad survey makes it about 330 feet lower than the Yakima pass, which Mcclellan pronounced 'barely practicable,' while he gave his preference to Seattle as a terminus of the Pacific railroad. The elevation of Cady pass was given as 6,147 feet, and of Stampede pass, a recent discovery, at 3,690 feet.
The difficulties to be overcome in exploring among the mountains west of the summit of the Cascade range might well deter the public from a knowl- edge of their features and resources. But a few adventurous spirits from time to time made some slight advance in the practical study of Wash- ington topography. Among the earliest of these were S. S. Ford, Jr, R. S. Bailey, and John Edgar, who subsequently perished in the Indian war. In August 1852 these adventurers ascended Mount Rainier, or Tacoma, as it is now popularly named, being the first Americans to visit this noble peak. The route pursued by them was by the Nisqually River, which brought them to the base of the main mountain, 53 miles south-east of Olympia. Other parties have ascended this and other pcaks.
James G. Swan is said to have been the first explorer of the Quillehyute country; at what date is uncertain, but in 1869 a trail was cut from Pisht River, emptying into the Fuca Strait twenty miles west of Port Angeles, to the Quillehyute River, by A. Colby, John Weir, D. F. Brownfield, J. C. Brown, and W. Smith, who took claims with the intention of remaining on the Quillehyute, the legislature creating a county for their benefit. But as their example was not followed by others, they returned in 1871 to the older settlements, since which time a few families have gone to the lower Quille- hyute prairie to reside. The Wynooche River, a tributary of the Chehalis, was never explored to its head waters until June 1875, when a company was formed in Olympia for that purpose. They found it a succession of rapids, and having a cañon three miles in length, with walls of rock from 200 to 300 fcet high. The first party to penetrate the Olympic range to the ocean was formed in 1878, on Hood Canal.
From the day the people of Washington learned that congress had appro- priated money for a survey terminating on Puget Sound, their constant ex- pectation was fixed upon a transcontinental railway. The territorial charter of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company was granted by the legislature Jan. 28, 1857, to 58 incorporators, the road to be commenced within three and completed within ten years after the passage of the act; the capital stock to be fifteen millions of dollars, which might be increased to double that amount.
It does not appear that the company took any immediate steps to raise the necessary capital. The legislature of 1857-8 passed a joint resolution to be forwarded to congress, giving reasons why the road should be built, and de- claring the route surveyed by Gov. Stevens to be the shortest and cheapest.
The political questions involved iu a Pacific railroad, and the struggle with secession, temporarily retarded the evolution of the grand project, al- though in the end its construction was hastened by the war. I find the Washington legislature of 1865-6 passing a resolution of congratulation upon the inauguration of the 'masterly project,' and declaring its purpose to aid by any and all means in its completion.
The next legislature, however, gave expression to its jealous fears lest
387
NORTHERN PACIFIC.
favoritism should prejudice the interests of the territory, congress having granted a magnificent subsidy in lands and money to the central and south- ern roads, without having done as much for the northern by several millions. The memorial represented, first, that Washington by its poverty was entitled to the bounty of the government, while California possessed sufficient private capital to construct a transcontinental road without a subsidy; and, sec- ondly, that from its geographical position the northern road would build up a national and international commerce of far greater extent and value than the central, from the nature of the soil along its whole extent, which guar- anteed a rich and powerful agricultural population, in view of which facts congress was asked to grant the same privileges to the Northern Pacific that were granted to the Union Pacific company. Meanwhile the other railroads were rapidly progressing, and the people of Oregon, who were alive to the benefits of a terminus, were desirous of a branch from the central road to Portland. Should this scheme be carried out it would delay, if not frustrate, the original design of a railroad from Lake Superior to Puget Sound. Hence congress was again memorialized that the adoption of the proposed branch from the Humboldt Valley to Portland would be 'a ruinous and calamitous mistake, detrimental alike to the nation and its interests on the Pacific coast.' Thus we see with what anxiety this isolated community were clinging de- votedly to the shores of their wonderful sea, and how they regarded the action of the government and the railroad companies. On the granting of the railroad subsidies in 1860, the Northern Pacific just failed of being char- tered by congress, as it had been by the Washington legislature, with I. I. Stevens as one of the board of commissioners. Before the friends of this route could again obtain the favor of congress, Stevens had died upon the battle-field. However, on the 2d of July, 1864, the Northern Pacific Rail- road Company received its charter, signed by President Lincoln.
The bill as passed withdrew the money subsidy and increased the land grant, thus giving the commissioners much more to do to raise the means for the construction of their road than had been required of the other transcon- tinental companies. When the two years allowed in the charter for begin- ning the road had expired, no money had been found to commence with, but by the help of Thaddeus Stevens another two years of grace was permitted to the company, which were wasted in an attempt to secure a government loan. Again congress extended the time for beginning operations to 1870, but limited the time for completion to 1877. The first firm step forward in financial affairs was in 1869, when congress authorized the company to issue mortgage bonds on its railroad and telegraph line. Another important change permitted the company to extend the Portland branch to Puget Sound in place of the main line, but required 25 miles of it to be built before July 1871. It was in the last months of the limit of grace that the banking- house of Jay Cooke & Co. took up the matter and furnished the money. Contracts were let on both ends in 1870. The 25 miles required in western Washington were completed before July of the following year, extending northward from the Columbia via the Cowlitz Valley, and the work went on along the several divisions till 1873, when Cooke & Co. failed and construction was suspended, after barely completing the distance in Washington from Kalama on the Columbia to Tacoma on the Sound. It was not resumed until 1875, after the company had gone through bankruptcy and been reor- ganized, after which time it proceeded with fewer drawbacks to its comple- tion in Sept. 1883, via the Columbia River pass and Portland, the main line across the Cascade Mountains remaining unfinished until 1887.
A territory without the population to become a state, and having such seri- ous obstacles to overcome, could not be expected to own many miles of rail- road built by private enterprise. The ambition of the people, however, always outran their means. The first charter granted by the legislature to a local railroad company was in Jan. 1859, to the Cascade Railroad Company, con- sisting of B. B. Bishop, William H. Fauntleroy, and George W. Murray, and their associates, to construct a freight and passenger railroad from the lower to
388
EXPLORATIONS, ROADS, AND RAILROADS.
the upper end of the portage at the cascades of the Columbia. Previous to this there had been a wooden track laid down for the use of the military department.
The charter required to be constructed a wooden railroad within three years, and in five years an iron track. This road, which about this time was a necessity, became the property of the O. S. N. Co. soon after its organi- zation. Rival companies incorporated at different times, but without effect. In Jan. 1862 a charter was granted to the Walla Walla Railroad Co. to oper- ate a railroad from Walla Walla to the Columbia at Wallula, the road to be completed by Nov. 1865. The time was extended two years in 1864. This company seems to have been unable to accomplish its purposes, for in 1868 articles of incorporation of the Walla Walla and Columbia River Railroad Co. were adopted by a new organization. The survey was made in the spring of 1871, and work commenced in the following Nov. A wooden road was decided upon, owing to the cost of iron. In 1872 sufficient flat iron to strap down the curves, and locomotives weighing each seven tons, with ten flat cars, were purchased. But the wooden rails, not answering expectations, were discarded in 1875 and replaced by iron. In Oct. the road was com- pleted, being a three-feet gange, costing $10,300 per mile, the entire road having been built by private capital, except $25,000 donated by the citizens of the county of Walla Walla. The first shipment of wheat was made from Walla Walla to Wallula in this month. In 1881 the road was sold to the O. R. & N. Co., when its bed was changed to the standard gauge. A branch was constructed to the Blue Mountains. In Jan. 1882 the Puget Sound and Gray Harbor Railroad Co. was organized, the object being to construct a line of road between Seattle and Gray Harbor, a distance of 58 miles.
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