History of Benton County, Oregon, Part 48

Author: David D. Fagan
Publication date: 1885
Publisher:
Number of Pages:


USA > Oregon > Benton County > History of Benton County, Oregon > Part 48


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


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We have thus seen what means have been used to produce ends. The end and ultimatum of the means used is a home for man in the Willamette valley.


The prairies of the Willamette are various, rolling, flat, with low swales, and without, many being of a dark rich mold, others, whitish or aluminous, some siliceous, as Baker's prairie, to the north of Molalla. The prairies or plains of Clatsop also, are siliceous. All others, so far as the knowledge of the writer extends, are mostly diluvium, as follows : French Prairie, Howell, Salem, Mill creek, Santiam, Cheholpum (which means pleasant), Albany (the largest in the Willamette), La Creole (the Creole) now called Rickreal, La Camas (an esculent root) now written Luckiamute, Soap creek (so called because the clay-alumnious-is soft and miry along its mar- gins). The prairies are extensive in the Willamette below and above Corvallis (heart of the valley), on Oak creek, above Mary's river, on Long Tom (so called from a mountain man of that name who, in crossing with his companions, rode a low animal and his long legs reached down into the water, so that he "waded and rode" across the river, making the crowd merry-this was over thirty-six years ago). The last named prairies are low and miry in winter, having swales, or clay lands, almost desti- tute of silicia, lime, potassa and soda. Nearly all of the white, low strips through the prairies of the Willamette, are like the Long Tom flats or swales.


There are some of the prairies slightly gravelly, as the Santiam and the prairie south of and along the Willamette river below and around Eugene City. Except the small portion of gravel and clay swales, the prairies of the Willamette are the finest agricultural lands known. They are diluvium ; and were made, in a large measure, during the glaceous, or glaceo-aqueous period, sometimes called the drift period. This is demonstrated by the deep gravelly beds below the surface, by logs and other debris, often found in digging wells, ditches, etc., by erratic blocks of granite and basaltic bowlders, gneiss, clay-slate, mica slate, greenstone and felspar. " The last are of a drift origin, and decomposing, have formed the prairie soil.


Whenever granite mnolders away, there is a strong wheat soil. The yellowish white soils on the northern sides of the hills are all diluvium and were in a large measure brought down from the great granite mountains, north, during the drift era, on masses of ice, which, scouring the mountain sides, rocks and other debris, fell on the ice, floated south, until the warmth melted it, and, when in a state of solution, or


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broken by storms, eddies, strong current, etc., were deposited on the now prairies, but then submerged valleys. How wonderful the means used to accomplish ends !


Howell Prairie was like Labash is now-a bog-hence its richness. The surface is now, not as when the " waters dried up," smooth, turfy and muddy, but undulating, picturesque and dry. It was through corrugation and slight pressure from below, that this beautiful valley now presents its exquisite wave-like appearance.


Well may the residents of Oregon be proud of the prairies of the Willamette; proud of its hills ; ite copses of oak ; its groves of fir and pine, hemlock and spruce ; its unequaled climate; its eternal snow-clad mountain chains; its vast resources, and its illimitable grandeur !


The soil of Benton county, especially, may be considered as consisting of three varieties : an alluvial deposit of vegetable mold along the bottoms of the Willamette and Mary's rivers and their branches, which is very rich, and when brought under cul- tivation produces grass, grain and vegetables of the most luxuriant growth. Leaving the river bottoms the soil of the praries and the land along the base of the foot-hills, although perhaps properly speaking alluvial, has a base of clay with a liberal mixture of Siberian lime, peroxide of iron, ammonia and sand loam, with many other ingredi- ents favorable to the production of wheat, oats, barley, buckwheat, potatoes, turnips, and all the different varieties of garden vegetables. The various kinds of fruit generally raised in the eastern climate do well here, while all kinds of small fruits may be pro- duced in abundance. The peach, maize and tobacco can be raised successfully in many localities in the county, when properly cultivated and well cared for. Grass of the most fecund growth, both of the tuni and native varieties is produced in abundance making it well adapted to the rearing of cattle, sheep and horses. The various kinds of timber exist in sufficient quantities in the eastern part of the county to more than supply the home demand for lumber and fuel, while along the Coast Range and West- ern portions the timber lands largely predominate. The quality of the water in the county, like almost all other inhabited portions of Oregon, is soft and pure, and for general, domestic and mechanical purposes is abundant, being supplied by brooks, springs and running streams from the hills and Coast range of mountains, while it can also be obtained by digging wells of moderate depth, when not existing in living springs.


In addition to these products there are those of the fisheries along the coast, and the produce of the oyster beds in Yaquina bay, a history of such industry we cull from the San Francisco Bulletin of March 13, 1868.


" Natarch's bay is a small lagoon situated some fifty miles south of the Columbia river. The first oysters were taken from here by Captain Millyer in the schooner Cornelius Terry and proved to be rather superior to the Shoalwaters. But the bed afforded only a limited supply and besides, the entrance to the harbor was very shoal and dangerous, having but eight or nine feet of water on the bar at high tide. The Indians of this vicinity told the oystermen of another oyster " mine " further south, at a place called Yaquina bay. Samples from this locality showed a superior article to any of the former discoveries. The fish were longer and of more delicate flavor than either the Shoalwater or Natarch and the shell not so thick and heavy as the latter. The entrance to Yaquina is in Lat. 44° 40.' The bay and oyster bed proved to be an


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BENTON COUNTY.


Indian Reservation and a collision soon occurred between the oystermen and the Indian agent. The oystermen claimed that they had a right to take oysters from any of the navigable waters of the United States, while on the other hand the agent contended that they were, in this instance, part of the Indians' subsistence and demanded a subsidy or impost of fifteen cents for every bushel taken away. In the winter of 1862 a lease of the privilege of working this bed was obtained by Winant & Co., of San Francisco, by which it was stipulated that the lessee should have the exclusive right to gather and ship the oysters by paying to the agent the sum of fifteen cents per bushel. Other parties attempted to make common property of the bed. The agent was compelled to drive them off by force, using United States troops for the purpose. The interloping oystermen brought suit against the agent to recover heavy damages. Important ques- tions were raised involving the rights of navigation of fisheries and of Indian reser- vations. The result was carried to the Supreme Courtof Oregon when it was eventually decided in favor of the agent. Winant & Co., under their lease, gathered and shipped a large quantity of Yaquina oysters, employing two or three vessels and supplying nearly the whole California market for a year or two. Their first venture from there was the ship- ment of some eighteen hundred bushels, which was brought down to San Francisco and planted near Ship Island, up the bay. These succeeded very well and was sold at prices ranging from one to two dollars per hundred. In the meantime during the diversion from Shoalwater bay, the bed there in a good measure recovered from its depletion and by planting and cultivation a better supply of oysters is now afforded.


"The three foregoing places are the only ones where oysters have been obtained north of San Francisco, except that a few are brought occasionally from Vancouver's Island. Of the vessels engaged in the oyster trade, the schooners Ann G. Doyle and Cornelia Terry have been lost at Yaquina bay."


The present status of the oyster trade will be laid before the reader when treating of Yaquina bay as a special subject.


Among the vast resources of the county none, perhaps, are more notable and at the same time more neglected than the lumber interests. For a number of years the finest and best lumber was procured from the forests contiguous to Mary's river. In addition there are the vast timbered districts of Yaquina and Alsea, which are very extensive and consist of the best quality of oak, maple, pine, spruce, cedar, fir, etc., while at the head-waters of the Luckiamute, in the vicinity of and west from King's valley is another fine body of trees. In the county there are several saw-mills (descriptions of which will be found elsewhere in this work) which turn out a large quantity of lumber annually.


Not very long ago the belief was almost universal that Oregon was a barbarous, uncivilized country, full of Indians and ferocious wild beasts, where no person was secure from the fatal tomahawk and disfiguring scalping-knife. It was also put down as a fact that the climate was extremely cold and people in the latitude of New Jersey, Southern New York and Pennsylvania, where the rivers are blocked with ice during several months of the year, shuddered at the idea of going so far north as Oregon, for with these, and such as these, the only criterion of temperature is latitude and north is cold while south means warm.


As a fact many persons living out of Oregon labor under the very erroneous


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impression that the "rainy season" is a long dreary period of many months duration, which renders life a burden and so accustoms the people to constant rain and damp that they become web-footed. From November to April-five months of what is usually called the rainy season-there are not more than a hundred wet days, and an average of fifty of them, out of the one hundred and fifty, are dry and bright. This rainy season that comes with such remarkable regularity, is the foundation of the agricultural wealth of the State and the guarantee that their crops will never fail of rewarding the labor of the diligent. During these five months the climate is so mild that it does not interfere with stock grazing out all the time, and very partially with the cultivation of the land by good farmers. Frost and snow are never excessive, except in the Cascade Range of mountains and snow peaks; the former from three thousand to seven thousand feet high and the latter from nine thousand to fourteen thousand feet above the level of the sea. Contrast this state of facts with the frost and snow blockade of the Eastern and Western States, Canada and many parts of Europe, where the land is locked up for the entire winter and where it takes the six months of a hot summer to provide for the six months of a hard winter.


The climate of the spring, summer and fall, commencing with April and terminat- ing with October - seven months-is not excelled on the American continent for mild- ness, cheerfulness and healthfulness. Every variety of climate can be had within the bounds of the State, from the mild and gentle air of the great valleys of Western Oregon, the warm genial heat of Southern Oregon, the refreshing and comfortable atmosphere of Eastern Oregou, to ti 9 bracing air from the north and the invigorating and life-giving breeze from the Paci . ocean. The material and latent resources and wealth of the State, consisting of rich sou, agricultural lands of great productiveness, extensive grazing and profitable stock-raising; vast water power for manufacturing pur- poses, forests for lumber and wood-work of all kinds to an almost unlimited extent; mineral, beds of coal, iron, lead, copper and gold of great extent and richness; salmon fisheries of incalculable value, and fruit raising to a great extent must make Oregon an irresistible attraction to the friends of industry, the sons of toil and men of capital, to the end of time.


The crowning attractions of Oregon, however, are its mild winters and delighuul summers; these will ever give her the ascendency above all competitors as an attractive place for visitors, tourists, invalids and permanent settlers. Her summer resorts make an important item in favor of Oregon for variety, extent, beauty and grandeur. The valley, mountain, river, lake and forest scenery cannot be easily surpassed. The hunter can find deer, antelope, elk, bear and hare in the forests and woods. If other game is preferred, there are grouse, snipe, woodcock, partridge, geese and duck. The angler has in the numerous rivers, creeks and mountain streams salmon and trout in vast profusion. The bays and sea coast abound in delightful places for bathing, boating, fishing or riding, with numerous hotels and boarding-houses of great comfort, where the tables are supplied with all the good things that land and sea can provide in the shape of game, fish, oysters, clams and crabs.


With respect to Benton county the climate in the eastern portion is of about the same temperature as in other portions of the Willamette valley, while in the western


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BENTON COUNTY.


part it is not so warm in summer nor so cold in winter, the atmosphere being tempered in a great degree by the mild sea-breeze from the Pacific Ocean.


From " Two Years in Oregon " an interesting, truthful and well-written work by Mr. Wallis Nash of Corvallis we find him stating: The average rainfall for four years reported by the United States Signal-Service Station at Portland is 52 82-100 inches. At Eola near Salem (the State Capitol) the average of seven years is 37 98-100 inches. At Corvallis (the county seat of Benton) the average of the last three years (1879, 1880, 1881), taken at the Agricultural College by Professor Haw- thorne, is 31 62-100 inches; but this last low average is produced by the fact of the months of October and November, 1880, being unusually dry. The average rainfall for October, in 1878 and 1879, was 2 86-100 inches, and for November 4 12-100 inches; while in 1880 the rainfall for those months was only 80-100 and 50-100 of an inch.


" During 1879, from May to December, there were at Corvallis thirty-five rainy days and five snowy. During 1880 there were sixty-nine rainy days and nine snowy. In these figures are taken in several days which were only showery at intervals, and there are omitted several days when a slight shower or two fell, with bright sun in between, but which it would not be fair to call rainy days. But the distribution of the rain is of more consequence, both to the farmer and to the mere resident, than the aggregate. So I will set out the rainy and snowy days for the several months at Cor- vallis :


" 1879 .- From May 17th to 31st, 5; June, 1; July, 2; August, 3; September, 4; October, 2; November, 7; December, 11, and 5 snowy.


" 1880 .- January, 10, and 3 snowy ; February, 5, and 2 snowy ; March, 5, and 3 snowy ; April, 10; May, 8; June, 2; July, 1; August, 2; September, 4; October, 5; November, 5; December 12, and 1 snowy.


" 1881 .- January, 9 rainy, and 2 snowy ; February, 16, and 1 snowy ; March, 5 showery, no steady rain.


" At Eola, near Salem, about forty miles north of this (Corvallis), the figures differ slightly, as will be seen from the following table. But this is an average of the seven. years, from 1871 to 1878 :


Months.


Number of rainy days.


Snowy days.


Rainfall in inches.


January


14.6


1.8


5.01


February


14.4


.6


5.07


March


17.4


.6


!


6.01


April.


11.5


.28


3.01


May


9.5


0


2.00


June


5.


0


1.02


July


1.8


0


.24


August


2.1


0


.14


September


3.4


0


.78


October


7.4


0


2.93


November.


12.2


.58


5.56


December


12.5


.1


5.13


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BENTON COUNTY.


"The next question is as to temperature. The following figures speak for them- selves-the highest and lowest temperature in each monthly range, reported by the United States Signal-Service Station, Portland, Oregon.


1874


1875


1876


Months.


Highest.


Lowest.


Range.


Highest.


Lowest.


Range.


Highest.


Lowest.


Range.


January


56°


26°


30°


53°



50°


58°


20°


38°


February


60


31


29


54


24


30


59


32


27


March


65


33


32


55


34


21


59


33


26


April


77


37


40


83


28


55


67


33


34


May


83


43


40


75


40


35


82


36


46


June


82


45


37


82


39


43


99


45


54


July


88


49


39


95.5


46


49.5


90


49


41


August


84


46


38


88


46


42


84


43


51


September.


88.5


42


46


86


44


42


90


44


46


October


77


32


45


78


36


42


79


42


37


November


63


27


36


63


28


35


63


34


29


December


57


31


26


63


33


30


56


24


32


"For comparison's sake we give a similar table for 1878, 1879 and 1880, kept at the State Agricultural College, Corvallis :


1878


1879


1880


Months.


Highest.


Lowest.


Range.


Highest.


Lowest.


Range.


Highest.


Lowest.


Range.


January


55°


20°


35°


46°


20°


26°


50°


24°


26°


February


60


34


26


52


25


27


44


25


19


March


67


32


35


66


32


34


54


24


· 30


April


71


31


40


67


32


35


76


29


47


May


80


34


46


72


36


36


72


32


40


June


92


42


50


73


42


31


85


40


45


July


79


53


26


98


45


45


81


42


39


August


81


52


29


83


43


40


84


42


42


September


73


38


35


84


42


42


80


38


42


October


61


32


29


64


28


36


68


28


40


November


55


30


25


55


18


37


56


12


44


December


54


19


35


56


8


48


56


20


36


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A. G. Walling, Lith. Portland, Or.


FERRY AND RESIDENCE OF A. PEARCE. Opposite albany, Benton County, Oregon.


313


BENTON COUNTY.


" The average of temperature for the four seasons at these three points, Portland, Eola and Corvallis, are as follows:


Points.


Spring.


Summer.


Autumn.


Winter.


Portland


51.9°


65.3º


52.8°


40.1°


Eola


48.3


63.7


51.2


38,2


Corvallis


52


67


53


41


" The difference between the extremes is therefore for Portland, 25.2º; for Eola, 25.5°; for Corvallis 26°. Contrast this with similar figures from Davenport, in the State of Iowa. The mean winter there is 19.9º, the summer 75.2°; showing a difference of 55.3º."


"The coldest winter known in Benton county was that of 1867-68, when sleighing was indulged in for two whole weeks, but compare the following registration made during the month of January, 1868, with that of some of the States on the Atlantic sea- board and the advantage is very much in favor of Oregon.


Date.


7 A. M.


2 P. M.


9 P. M.


Date.


7 A. M.


2 P. M.


9. P. M.


1


42°


45°


38°


16



20°


10°


2


34


46


40


17


4


29


16


3


36


40


34


18


2


29


9


4


30


42


29


19


4


26


22


5


28


34


24


20


22


30


24


6


18


22


14


21


4


42


28


7


10


18


16


22


20


38


24


8


12


18


20


23


10


30


30


9


18


24


19


24


30


32


32


10


2


26


16


25


26


30


30


11


0


20


10


26


24


34


20


12


18


24


12


27


8


24


12


13


14


26


24


28


4


30


18


14


24


34


26


29


0


30


18


15


26


32


20


30


8


30


16


31


8


30


16


It may be that some of our readers who take an interest in natural phenomena will feel interested in the fact that the great earthquake in South America, which occurred August 13, 1868, was distinctly felt on the coast of Benton county in the shape of a tidal wave at Yaquina bay. This billow, on the coast of Equador and Peru reached an altitude of forty feet. Traveling northward, it got to the coast of Cali- fornia on the morning of the fourteenth, and was observed at the tide-gauge of the Coast Survey, at San Pedro. It rose and fell there five feet in eight minutes. It passed San Francisco the same day and reached Yaquina bay on the morning of the fifteenth, its force greatly diminished. It was observed at the tidal-gauge there that


41+


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BENTON COUNTY.


the water, on an ebb tide, rose and fell alternately from 1 30-100 feet to 1 50-100 feet in five minutes-one-fifth of a foot. The pulsation of the wave, therefore, commencing at forty feet, extended in forty-five hours from Arequipa, South America, to Yaquina bay, Benton county, Oregon, a distance of over four thousand miles.


For the benefit of the sportsman into whose hands this work may perchance fall we would state that the deer hunting in Benton county is restricted to that portion through which the Coast Range runs. At no very distant date deer were to be found anywhere in the Willamette valley, but the influx of settlers and the irresistible advance of civilization have driven them into the wilder recesses of the mountains.


Though at times, and especially in the early spring, deer may be seen traveling from the mountains to the sloughs, and densely timbered spots bordering directly on the Willamette these same deer are observed in the autumn on their homeward jour- ney. But they are few and far between and as years advance the likelihood of meet- ing with any migrating will be considerably lessened.


The white-tailed deer (cervus leucurus) though plentiful in early days is now becoming very rare, owing probably to the fact that they seem to prefer to range the more open country of the foot-hilis and so fall easier victims to the deadly rifle. He is easily recognized from his black-tailed cousin from the fact that when running, instead of keeping his tail erect, he alternately lowers and raises it. But the principal sport in the mountains is afforded by the black-tailed deer (cervus Columbianus). He is a fine beast, well worth the trouble of hunting. Two means are used, the one by running him with hounds till he takes refuge in the water and then shooting him from a stand ; the other, the older and more sportsman-like method of " still hunting."


It may not be amiss here to say a few words on the subject of running deer with dogs.


It is carried on to an alarming extent and shows signs of exterminating the deer at no distant period. Surely the State of Oregon should follow the example of others and pass and enforce a strict law to abolish the evil. One thing at any rate should be done, and that is, to declare the death penalty on those self-hunting curs who run through the hills, chiefly at night and in the early dawn, killing the weaker does and fawns and chasing many grown deer far from the district. It is not hard to stand hidden on some commanding spot and at fifteen or twenty paces murder with rifle or buckshot a wretched animal that has been hunted by the baying hounds. A few more years of this style of hunting and the next generation will not see a 'deer except in a wild beast show.


The more legitimate and sportsman-like way of killing deer is by the time- honored custom of " still hunting." There is little objection to using a dog as the companion of the hunter, just to jump the deer from him for a couple of hundred yards, or so, to give the hunter a fair shot. It is half a day's hounding over the country that does the mischief.


Still hunting is at the best of times hard work and the steep and log-encumbered hills call for endurance, skill and patience. But in a good range, with a stout pair of legs and a good rifle, there is plenty of sport to be seen. Early in the morning is, perhaps, the best time, just as the deer are leaving their night's lair for their morning feed. Some projecting spur of a hill, touched by the rising sun, is one of their favorite


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BENTON COUNTY.


resting places. As the huntsman climbs the lofty ridge, pushing aside the dew-laden bushes, he examines with bated breath and anxious gaze each likely spot. He may be deceived in the dim morning light by some old stump, showing amid the fern, and his rifle is raised only to detect his error as the rising sun shows his dazzling beams up the gloomy canyon. He stops for breath, his gaze perhaps rivetted by the glorious panorama which lies stretched before him. He sees the fertile valley and the distant river like a thread of silver showing itself among the line of firs, backed by the snow- topped peaks of the Cascades, all glittering and flashing in the rays of the orb of day. As he glances at each neighboring hill his practised eye catches a well-known form ; a majestic buck stands stretching his stately limbs, snuffing the morning air. As he shakes himself the beaded dew flies from his ruddy coat. One careless step, one cracking twig, and the monarch of the hills, pawing the ground, shows his recognition of danger near. A flash, a sharp report, a wild bound in the air, a sob, a groan, and the hunter's knife has finished the work and the form so lately instinct with life and grace lies at his feet.


There is yet another of the deer tribe to be found in Benton county; the wapiti (cervus Canadensis) or as it is commonly known throughout the west-the elk. This splendid quarry is now only to be met with in the wild and densely timbered spots round Mary's Peak, Table Mountain and a few other mountains of the range. Hard to kill and harder to find, the elk hunter must "pack" his blankets on his back and strike into the wilds after the band (they seldom range except in numbers) which is easily tracked as the ground passed over by them is cut up as by a stampede of wild cattle. On coming up with the drove the hunter can, by judicious manœuvering, such as keep to windward, and so on, secure several victims to his rifle. The temptation is great to keep on shooting, even when he knows he cannot possibly secure the meat. We have heard of instances where fifteen or twenty of these kings of the forest were left lying to spoil, where they were shot. It is to be hoped that as the game grows scarcer public opinion will utterly scout and frown down such wicked thoughtlessness and waste.




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