USA > Oregon > Multnomah County > Portland > History of Portland, Oregon : with illustrations and biographical sketches of prominent citizens and pioneers > Part 6
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
is cosy, protected from the southern storm, sufficiently well watered to be green the year around, and is constantly fanned by the breezes of the river.
But while this formed the limits of the original city, the additions have spread far beyond these bounds, and manifestly if the city is to grow it must overflow, as it has already done far beyond its two or three square miles. The surface of the surrounding region, far from forbidding such extension, is favorable and inviting to it. It lias recently been recognized that the outlying hills are most advanta- geous for residence. They rise up in separate spurs and are steep and abrupt, having all the appearance of having been cut into their present forin by the erosion of sea waves, as was undoubtedly the case when the general level of Oregon was so much depressed in remote times, as to allow the flow of ocean water over the entire surface of the Willamette Valley. There may be reckoned at least six of these prominences. Beginning on the north back of Couch's Lake, we have Willamette Heights; next south are King's Heights, over- looking the City Park. South of this across the deep canyon of Tanner Creek is Carter's Hill, which was the first to be called Portland Heights. Next in order is Robinson's Hill, succeeded by Marquam's Hill, upon which is located the addition sometimes called Portland Homestead. To close the view are the South Portland Heights. There are upon all these highlands many knobs and knolls, separated from one another by small ravines all of which make back and disappear at length in the solid body of the cliain. The elevation attained by these heights is from six hundred to eight hundred feet. But they roll upward and finally culminate in a commanding ridge whose eastern terminus rises highest of all and is named Mt. Zion, over 1,000 feet in altitude. It looks eastward across the river. The western extension of the same ridge, Humphrey's Mountain, com- mands the prospect toward the Tualatin plains and the Coast Mountains. These heights, having an infinite variety of surface, with innumerable networks of ravines, afford an almost countless variety of sitely building spots. An exposure facing any sun or wind may be obtained and in the deeper depressions locations sheltered from all the storms may be readily found. South and east of Tanner
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POSITION AND ADVANTAGES.
Creek canyon, the heights, including Mt. Zion and Humphrey's Mountain, with their skirts and flanks, compose a region of about six square miles. North and west of the canyon, the ridge is some three miles broad, and extends parallel with the river indefinitely. Ten square miles are within easy reach of the city. Still south of the heights proper the chain of hills continue, although it breaks down to a imuch lower altitude, and form a rolling plateau two miles broad, by four or five in length. This makes a region extraordinarily sightly and sunny, and while not so much diversified as the heights, it is much more easily reduced to forin and use-indeed not betraying by contour its elevation, but presenting the appearance of an undula- ting plain. It is easily accessible to the city, and will one day be a portion of it.
From the highest points of all the elevations named the scenery is unrivaled. They command the prospect of the Willamette River, its winding and silvery way to its delta and union with the Columbia; and for many miles a connected view of that greater stream and its path from the heart of the Cascade Mountains and the chasin in their walls out of which it proceeds. There are also embraced wide strips of meadow land, plains, illimitable forests, buttes and romantic hills; the vanishing wall of the Cascade Mountains, with Hood, St. Helens, Rainier, Adams, Jefferson, all being volcanic peaks covered with perpetual snow, in unobstructed view. Seldom is there such a com- bination of water, valley, hill and mountain scenery to be embraced in one prospect. All in all there are twenty-five (or a much larger number if necessary) square miles of land ready for the use of Portland on the west side of the Willamette.
But this is exclusive of the east side, which by many is deemed the fairer of the two. Its surface is totally different from that which has just been considered, since it is not at all mountainous, and little broken. It is on the other hand, an imperial plain, with long easy slopes, wide expanses, and but occasional elevations. Beginning six iniles below Portland on the east bank of the river one finds at St. Johns the first highland, north of which are river bottoms and illuvial plains subject to the overflow of the Columbia. This eleva- tion rises sharply one hundred feet above the river and making a slow [5]
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
ascent gains another hundred feet of altitude before reaching its maximum. Its slopes are long and sweeping, maintaining their elevation with more or less regularity up to Albina nearly opposite Portland. Back some distance from the river the plain rises again fifty feet, or possibly in some places one hundred feet more, to a con- tinuous ridge, a bank of ancient washed gravel, brought down in long ages past by torrents from the Cascade Mountains, and here deposited while yet the sea rolled in. The gravel ridge once attained, the surface steadily falls to seek the level of the Columbia on the farther side. Highland, Piedmont, Columbia Heights, and other names significant of the elevated region are bestowed upon various portions of this gravel ridge. From Albina southward the surface sinks by sınall degrees, broken here and there by ravines, until at the site of East Portland, three profound chasms or gulches, unite to forin an illuvial bottom, making easy ingress from the river, but a bad water front. The first of these on the north is Sullivan's Gulch, fifty feet deep and two hundred yards across; its bed a morass. It is down this cleft that the O. R. & N. R. R. finds a passage from the plain to the river level. Next south is Asylum Gulch, leading back to a powerful spring which leaps from under the plain behind, giving birth to a stream of water sufficient for the supply of the water works of East Portland. A mile south of this is Stephens Gulch, bearing off another clear stream, of many times the volume of the foregoing, which also springs bodily from the ground. It is by this depression that the O. & C. R. R. passes out of the city. South of the month of Stephens Gulch, the ground once more rises, gaining an altitude about the same as that of Albina, and it is called Brookland. On the obverse slope, however, it sinks to a considerable vale.
The strip of alluvium in front of East Portland, at the mouth of the gulches, is but a few hundred paces across, and thence the sur- face rises easily, nowhere attaining an elevation of more than one hundred feet, and develops into a plain with many variations of surface leading out three miles further to Mt. Tabor. This is a solitary hill seven hundred feet in height with a commanding front and long approaches. Its slopes are most inviting for residence property, the soil is congenial to gardens and orchard trees, and its
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POSITION AND ADVANTAGES.
rocks of basalt give birth to a multitude of delicious springs. It is in truth a reservoir of water, as are the hills on the west. East of Mt. Tabor the plains extend for many miles with an occasional little butte or ridge; and to the south the surface rolls away in a woody expanse with frequent hills which break down at length on the margin of the Clackamas, a half score of miles distant. Comprelien- sively, therefore, the east side of the river opposite Portland is a plain -with undulations and a few hills-eight or ten miles long, and as many wide. The site of Portland may therefore be briefly described as a sloping plateau within the elbow of the Willamette, surrounded by hills, opposite a great undulating plain. This situation is unsur- passed for a great city.
The Willamette river, immediately above the city, spread out in shallows and enlarged by alluvial islands, is there above half a mile wide. Obstructed, however, by the high point of Brookland, and thrown from the east to the west shore, it rapidly narrows, being but fourteen hundred feet across at Morrison street, near the center of the city. Thrown again from the solid bank of the plat on which the city stands to the east shore, striking a mile further down upon the elevated plains of East Portland, below the gulchies, it is forced into one strong deep channel, wearing the face of the upland into an almost perpendicular bluff fifty feet high-the formation exposed being lacustrine clay, over-lying a mixture of coarse sand and washed gravel. At this point the river is but eight hundred feet across. It thence expands slightly ; still wearing the Albina shore, as its course is deflected westward; swelling at Swan Island to as great a width as at Ross Island. The depth of water at Ross Island is but nine feet. Below this obstruction the depth rapidly increases, reaching sixty feet off the lower wharves of the city, near the railroad bridge. At Swan Island the narrow channel hugging the east shore gives a depth of twenty-six feet which is frequently doubled by the vast rise of the Columbia in the summer.
NATURAL ADVANTAGES.
The term "advantages" is relative, being always used with reference to the purpose in view. The advantages of a city relate to its adaptation to the uses of commerce, manufacturing and
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
residence. Under the head of commerce, facility for both water and land communication is to be regarded, together with the extent and variety of commodities available for exchange. Under manufactur- ing advantages, power, labor, and availability of raw material, fall into the account. As to residence one must consider salubrity, beauty of natural surroundings and contiguity to his business operations, together with social, educational and religious privileges.
The geographical position of Portland, which has already been described, gives her superior advantages as a commercial center. That will be a commanding commercial point which readily effects exchanges of commodities and equates supply and demand. Chicago is a center of lumber trade, controlling this great branch of business throughout the Lake basin and the Mississippi valley, for the reason that she can most readily reach the lumber manufacturing districts of Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Canada, and can keep in supply millions of feet of seasoned and assorted lumber, ready for the greatest number of places in the surrounding regions. Her control of this trade is sometimes spoken of as due to the superior enterprise of lier merchants. But this is true only in a secondary degree. From the circumstance of her geographical position there is a greater number of builders and others who can more easily find at her yards the lumber they desire, than at any other city. They find the quickest and cheapest route between them and the sawmills, to lead through Chicago. If they can save a few hours time and a few dollars in money upon every bill, they are certain to send to Chicago. The extent of patronage, the rapidity of their sales, the speedy return of their money and the consequent large margins of profit, enable the Chicago dealers to enlarge their stock and to supply still more quickly and satisfactorily all the needs of their customers, and by this to attract more and more business, and finally to under-sell the sinaller and less equipped houses of even distant cities. In like man- ner from her proximity to the grain fields, and from her shipping facilities, she largely controls the wheat business ; in like manner she is a center for market and sale of the beef and pork of the Mississippi valley.
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POSITION AND ADVANTAGES.
. Any great commercial city, as London, New York, or the younger cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis, would serve an equally good purpose by way of illustration. A commercial city is the point of storage, account and exchange for the commodities of the region.
The advantages of Portland as such a center are at once apparent As noticed above she is the " cross-ways" of the track between the mountains from California to Alaska, and the path made by the Columbia River from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. At this point are made four right angles, fixing the center of a circle a radius of which a hundred miles long embraces solid land only, and at four hundred miles includes within the western arc a portion of the ocean, which is by no means an unproductive segment. It must fol- low from this position that she can reach a greater number of producers and consumers than any point not located at such a natural center. This fact, other things being equal, simply assures her com- inercial pre-eminence.
But to make this commanding position certain it will be neces- sary to be assured as to the avenues of approach from the four cardinal points of the compass. If it be true that Portland is at the natural center of the Pacific Northwest, a region six hundred miles square, and the avenues of approach are easy and secure, no one can doubt that she will continue to be the metropolis of this country, and perhaps rival San Francisco, as being the center of a region more extensive and productive. This is no fancy, as is evidenced by tlie impression made in by-gone times upon commercial men as they examined her geographical situation. Looking at the map of old Oregon, while he was still in Boston half a century or more ago, Hall J. Kelley, a patriot, and originator of a scheme which was much patronized by leading men in Massachusetts, laid off a great city as a capital for the new commonwealth which he was to establish on tlie Pacific coast. He put this chief city on his map at the junction of the Willamette with the Columbia, not knowing that this site was flood land. Portland now occupies the spot nearest available to Kelley's city. Still further, when the Hudson's Bay Company wished to build a fort from which to reach mnost easily all points of the Northwest, both by land and sea, they selected a site as near to our city as their
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
necessities would admit-building a fort at Vancouver. They would probably have brought it nearer the Willamette, on the south side of the Columbia if the land had been fit for building, and if they had not anticipated that England would not secure the south bank. This tells the tale of the natural center of the Pacific Northwest.
To examine the avenues of approach and to see if they are suffi- cient to supplement this imperial position, it will be most convenient to begin our scrutiny from the west. Here is found a water-way at tide level of over a mile in width leading up from the Pacific between the hills to the docks of our city. The Columbia River on this lower course, is one of the most inajestic of streams, and is unrivaled for navigation. Its fresh waters destroy those forins of marine life inimi- cal to dock-yards and wooden piling, and clear the ships of their accretions of barnacles, as they come in from the sea. It is true that it is obstructed to some extent by a bar at its entrance, but under the operation of the jetty constructed by the government this is being constantly cut down by confinement of the waters, and a depth of thirty feet or perhaps more, at low water, sufficient for the deepest vessels will be secured. There is now a sure depth of twenty-six feet at low water. By the use of dredgers, jetties, and wing dams the bars in the river between the sea and Portland, are rapidly disappear- ing and in a very few years all obstructions will have ceased to exist. It is simply a matter of improvement, which is wholly practicable, to make the lower Columbia and Willamette fit for the largest craft that floats. This improvement is now progressing and the commerce of all the world, or such part of it as floats on ships, may therefore be brought to Portland. The entrance from the sea could not be more Puget Sound.
advantageous. It is not so deep or wide as the Straits of Fuca, and But it does not appear that one or two hundred feet of depth or five miles of width more than necessary would give even the Straits of Fuca any decided advantage. Both are royal water ways from the sea, naturally, or easily made, ample for the largest vessels. The superior width of the Straits allows of sailing more casily than in the Columbia, while the fresh water of our river is a great advantage to foul keels.
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POSITION AND ADVANTAGES.
The gap through the coast mountains formed by the passage of the Columbia makes also a pass at tide level for the construction of rail- ways from the ocean to Portland. The route is easy and direct, and from Hunter's point, opposite Kalama to Portland it is occupied by the track of the Northern Pacific. The convenience and speed attained on the river has retarded rather than otherwise the construction of a road from Astoria, but there is no natural obstruction.
Toward the North, to Puget Sound, British Columbia and Alaska, there is a natural route, passing through the valley of Cowlitz River and thence by water, or, as ultimately will be the case, the whole distance by rail. On the whole course of the lower Columbia numerous small rivers enter the great stream, navigable by steamers of light draft, the towns beside which are, and will be more and more supplied from the markets of Portland. The numerous sea coast towns, at the mouth of the small rivers, and on the small bays, con- veniently find a market and emporium at Portland.
Toward the south extends the Willamette Valley, making a way practically level for a hundred and fifty miles. Beyond this the gen- eral slope of the country is still upward-across hills and valleys-to the crest of the granite Siskiyou Mountains three hundred miles dis- tant on the California border. This whole region of Western Oregon, most productive in grain and fruit, finds its emporium at Portland. It is large enough and has the resources for sustaining a population of four millions. When this figure is reached, one-sixth this number will be found at Portland. Not only may this country of Western Oregon be reached from Portland by lines of rail which slope thither, but a very large portion of the Willamette River is a water-way directly to her docks. This is an easy and inviting path to enterpris- ing steamers, and while not now bearing and perhaps not likely to bear the great bulk of freight, has great and permanent value in preventing railroad monopoly and in keeping freight rates at a normal figure. It is not improbable that the value of water as an agent for moving heavy and bulky products will be more and more recog- mized by the agricultural population, and the hundred streams that meander from the mountains to the Willamette, across level plains and through deep valleys, will be cleared of drift wood, deepened
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
and straightened, and as they flow on will carry also along with them a multitude of loaded barges. Each such stream is the basis of a canal, and this abundance of water will make every farming commu- nity independent, and forever keep down extortionate rates of trans- portation. As all the water of this great valley flows past Portland, so minst all the commerce which it bears.
But broad and easy as are the avenues of approach from the west, the north, and the south, and large as is the region thus brought within the reach of her commerce, it is from the east that the greatest portion of her trade must come ; and it is true beyond all controversy that the city which is the emporium for the Columbia Basin will lead all others. On those immense plains and uplands with multitudes of valleys upon their environs, leading back into the old hills and towering mountains, there is room for the seat of a nation equal to France. Here are two-thirds of Oregon and Washington, all Idaho, and large parts of Montana and British Columbia. It is a region where the cereals average twice as much per acre as in Dakota ; where fruits flourish in sheltered localities as in the deep valleys, beside lakes, and along the rivers ; where live stock of all kinds transform the wealth of the pastures into valne, and where inineral treasures are of vast and unknown extent.
By many it will be strenously denied that Portland can be the emporinin for this region. Some other point it is contended, as upon Puget Sound, will most readily command the trade. But Portland's strength is assured by the following considerations : The trade of the Columbia Basin will flow westward to the Pacific Ocean. It will seek the most direct and easy route thither, since thereby its producers will pay less rates for transportation of their products. The tributa- ries of the Columbia, from the borders of Utah, to the borders of British Columbia and from the eastern flanks of the Cascade Moun- tains spread out like the ribs of a fan; all converge upon the main Columbia, and thus unitedly pass through the gap of the Cascade Mountains on to Portland. It is simply a principle of physics that any body, whether a ball or a train of cars, will roll most readily down an inclined plane, and that friction or traction is increased by the attempt to go up hill. But from the head of Snake river to the
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POSITION AND ADVANTAGES.
head of the Columnbia, or of any tributary of either river, to Portland, is an inclined plane hither. To be sure the canyons of both these rivers and of many of their tributaries, are rugged, but once let a road be laid alongside their banks or down the general valley, and there is a preceptibly down grade the entire distance, adding the force of gravity to the wheels of the engines to help them with their loaded trains. The gap of the Columbia is the only pass through the chain of the Cascade Mountains at the level of tide water. All other passes lead over the main axis of the range at an elevation of three to four thousand feet. It is manifestly more expensive of time and force to draw a train over the back of the Cascade Mountains to Puget Sound than to bring it through the gap of the Columnbia on a down grade. It is the inland farmer and merchant who must pay the difference, and however slow they may be in recognizing this, they will, with the certainty of water finding its level, choose the route which inakes their bill the least. It is true that the roads to Portland may not always charge their minimumn, but if they are able, by reason of nat- ural advantages, to carry at a less rate than is possible for the roads across the mountains, they will at the scratch come down to it, and make that advantage the make-weight in their struggle. Any road which can persistently carry merchandise at one cent per hundred or even per ton, less than its rivals, will beat them in the long run. The natural grade to Portland from all parts of the inland country gives her thius much advantage. But, to complete the circle of ex- change, if the wheat, live stock and ores of the upper country come down to Portland, this will be the most advantageous point at which to procure merchandise and necessaries for that entire region. Port- land can thereby most readily receive the products of the Columbia basin, and supply the mercantile wants of her people.
The above reasoning not presented as a special plea in favor of Portland, but simply as a statement of the facts in the case, is absolutely conclusive of the natural pre-eminence of the city at the entrance to the gateway of the upper Columbia.
But this only half states the case. While the waters of the Columbia and its tributaries have made passes to all parts of the river basin for the railroad, they are themselves a means of transportation
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
of the most gigantic power. To be sure, this river, and the rivers which feed it, are wild and violent streams. They flow with great force, often break into rapids, and are at many places obstructed by rocks. The Columbia has four impassable rapids, or cataracts, and half a dozen others of such strength as to strain a strong steamer in passing. The Snake river is swift and turbulent through a large part of its course and boasts the highest water fall of any great river in North America. Such streams as the Deschutes, John Day, Klickitat, Yakima, Spokane, Palouse, Pend d'Oreille, Okanagon and Kootenai, or the tributaries of the Snake, for the larger portions of their way are fierce torrents cutting their canyons hundreds and in places thousands of feet deep into solid rock. But it is by no means impossible to bring most of these rivers into use for the purposes of commerce. By canals, locks, boat railways, wing dams and removal of obstructions, the Columbia may be made navigable for all sorts of river craft, for one thousand miles. It will thereby become an artery of commerce bearing a fleet of steamers and barges loaded with grain and ores. Any product might thus be brought even from the British line at prices which literally "defy competition." The opening of the Snake river to its head waters would be a matter of more difficulty, but to the Salmon Falls the river may be improved so as to accommodate steamboats of all kinds. Every one of the hundred minor streams might likewise be made fit for bearing off the abundant products of the soil. The time may come when a net work of canals, both for irrigation and for the uses of commerce will cover the surface of the Columbia Basin. Such commerce will necessarily flow to the Columbia, and to Portland. The value of water will be better understood. The railroad as an agent for transportation has been exaggerated somewhat out of its natural proportions. Its great speed will always commend it to travelers, but in the movement of such heavy articles as grain and minerals, rocks and wood, the slower but less expensive water will play a very important part. As population increases in the continental areas, there will spring up a class of hydraulic engineers and inland navigators bringing our numberless rivers to their highest use as generators of power, as means of irrigation and of transportation.
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