USA > Oregon > Marion County > Salem > Oregon and its institutions; comprising a full history of the Willamette University, the first established on the Pacific Coast > Part 2
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Some ten miles to the southwest of the city of Corvallis, so named from the fact that it occupies the center, or heart of the valley, rises the rounded summit of the most graceful and beautiful mountain
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belonging to the Coast Range, and known by the name of "Mary's Peak." A very trifling circumstance gave name to this mountain.
There is a small river which empties into the Wil- lamette River near the city of Corvallis. This river in an early day had to be forded by travelers in pass- ing through the country. It happened that in con- nection with one of the earliest parties that traveled through to California was an Indian woman by the name of Mary, who was the wife of a white man. When the company reached this river, Mary was rid- ing a very stuborn and willful mule, which she found
it quite difficult to manage. The mule, it seems, was very unwilling to go into the stream ; but at length, by whipping and scolding, and belaboring in various ways, he became excited, and rushed into the stream with great violence, where the water was so deep that donkey, Mary, and all went under, and had to strive hard for life. After struggling some time in the water, poor Mary and her mule were brought safe to shore. Subsequently, when the company had occasion to refer to this locality from this catastrophe, they invariably called the river "Mary's River," and this name was soon adopted throughout the whole country. Now Mary's River takes its rise in the Coast Range of mountains, and some of its princi- pal branches are from the reservoirs of Mary's Peak. Thus the name of the river issuing from this mount- ain was very naturally transferred to the mountain itself. Mary's Peak is perhaps the highest point in the Coast Range, and overlooks a vast extent of coull-
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try ; and the writer that will attempt to portray the scenery that presents itself to the astonished vision of one standing upon its summit has more confidence in his powers of delineation than the author of this sketch has in his own. The reader who has not the privilege of visiting the bald top of this beautiful mountain, and gaze upon the scenery for himself, must be satisfied to know that it absolutely beggars description. The summit of this mountain is becom- ing quite a resort for pleasure seekers, and admirers of the romantic and sublime in nature, and there is a tolerable bridle path to it. On the top, inclining a little to the south and east, is a section of a mile square or more of excellent prairie land, covered late in the season with a luxuriant growth of grass. Snow remains upon the summit generally until the middle of June, and it is often an excellent place to manufacture ice-cream on the Fourth of July. Im- mediately on the disappearance of the snow the sum- mit assumes a beautiful green ; but whether white- capped, or crowned with verdure, it ever presents itself as an object of interest to every lover of fine scenery. The cultivable character of a great portion of the land of this mountain region, in connection with the fact that great portions of the country are covered with an immense growth of excellent timber, would be of itself sufficient to stamp it with great valne ; but discoveries have been made recently which show clearly that vast mineral treasures also lie embedded in the midst of these mountains.
For some years past gold has been found in paying
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quantities in various parts of this range, especially on the Coquille, and on the lower part, and at the mouth of Rogue River. This has led many to sup- pose, with good reason, that it in all probability will be found in many other parts of the range. Besides this, silver, copper, iron, and coal have been found, most of them in considerable quantities. Coal especially has been discovered of late in the vicinity of Coose Bay in inexhaustible quantities, and mining is already carried on in the coal beds with considerable success. Indeed, there can be no question that the Coast Range of mountains, which has hitherto been considered as a great objection to our country, will, when properly understood and developed, and its eligible parts shall be occupied, as doubtless they will be, by an industrious population, become a source of immense wealth to the different states with which they are connected, and, perhaps, render them even more valuable than they would be if the mountains were not there.
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CHAPTER III.
THE LOWER VALLEYS AND THE CASCADE MOUNTAINS.
HAVING left the coast, and passed over this range of mountains, you descend on the north side of the Columbia into the valley of the Cowilitz, and on the south into that of the Willamette River; and in the southern part of the state of Oregon, you come down into the valleys watered by the Umpqua and Rogue Rivers and their numerous tributaries.
The Cowilitz valley forms an important part of the agricultural portion of Washington Territory. It is about fifty miles long, and varies in breadth from ten to twenty miles. It is watered by a river of the same name, which flows down from one of the magnificent glaciers of the Cascade Range, known as St. Helen's. The river discharges itself into the Columbia some sixty miles above the mouth of that stream. This valley is one of the oldest settled valleys on the Pacific coast, attracting at an early day, by its great beauty and fertility, the attention of the members of the Hudson's Bay Company.
The Chehalis River, which discharges its waters into the Pacific Ocean through Shoal Water Bay, runs through another delightful portion of Washing- ton Territory, fertilizing a valley of many miles in
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length. It is already occupied by an industrious and thriving population.
The valley of White River, in the northern part of the Territory, is also an interesting and valuable lo- cality. Besides these there are also many other val- leys and plains in various parts of the Territory, which together render this portion of the Pacific coast not only beautiful and interesting, but valuable as a place of settlement.
The Willamette Valley, in the state of Oregon, is by far the most extensive and important valley on the northwest Pacific coast. This valley lies between the Coast Range of mountains on the west, and the Cascade Range on the east. On the south it is sep- arated from the Umpqua Valley by the Callapooia Mountains, and northward it extends to the Colum- bia River. In round numbers it is one hundred and fifty miles long, and fifty broad. This boundary em- braces the foot hills extending down from the mount- ains on either side of the valley, and the small valleys watered by the numerous tributaries of the main river. This calculation, which is a careful one, gives the valley seven thousand five hundred square miles. This, reduced to acres, would show that the Willa- mette Valley contains four million eight hundred thousand acres of land. Suppose that five acres of land were sufficient to support one person, the Willa- mette Valley, at that rate alone, would support a population of one million of people. But, to a cor- rect understanding of the valley, especially to those who have never been delighted with surveying its
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unrivaled scenery, it will be necessary to give it a more particular description .. The Willamette River, by which, with its numerous tributaries, the valley is watered, takes its rise in two ranges of mountains, the Coast Range on the west, and Cascade Range on the east side of the valley, and after meandering the distance of two hundred miles or more from its source, its main course being nearly due north, and reaching to within three miles of the Columbia River, it then divides into two branches, the upper branch entering the Columbia six miles below the city of Vancouver, and ninety miles from the mouth of that river, and the lower branch, which is the Multnomah of Lewis and Clark, eighteen miles fur- ther down. As the lower branch takes quite a swing inland, there is quite an island between the branches, formerly called Wapatoo, from an edible root found growing in abundance upon it. This island is about five miles broad and twenty long, and of great fer- tility. It is now called "Sauvies' Island." And now, commencing at the northern extremity on the Columbia River, we will take a more particular sur- vey of the Willamette Valley, and as we advance up the river we will note everything of interest in rela- tion to the stream itself, and the country through which it flows, so that the reader shall be able to forni a correct idea of this most desirable portion of the countries washed by the Pacific Ocean.
The waters of the Willamette flow in about equal proportions into the Columbia River through the two channels already mentioned, and both channels will
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admit of the passage of steamboats of a large size. At the confluence of the lower channel with the Co- lumbia, on the left hand shore, and commanding a fine view of both rivers, stands the town of Saint Helens. This town occupies a beautiful locality, on an elevated plain above all danger from inundation, and in the future developments of the country is destined to take a leading position among the rival towns of the state. The plains, at the lower end of which stands St. Helens, extends some ten miles up the Multnomah branch of the Willamette, and vary in width from one to four miles. They are called the Scappoose Plains, and they are separated from the Tuality Plains by an elevated spur of the Coast Range called the Scappoose Mountains, which are twelve miles across, and over which there is now a good mountain road.
On the opposite side of this branch lies Wap- ato Island, already mentioned, most of which is low land, and subject to overflows by the Columbia River. It is quite densely populated, as there are many points of land so high that it is thought safe to erect dwellings upon them.
Having ascended the Multnomah branch twenty miles, we are now at the point where the river di- vides, and within three miles of the mouth of the upper branch. Here, on the eastern side of the Wil- lamette, and extending to the Columbia, the land is low, and subject to annual overflows. From the amazing fertility of this land, and the abundance of grass which grows after the overflow passes away,
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and continues fresh during the rest of the year, even after many other portions of the country are literally dried up, it is considered as possessing equal value with many other kinds which are sought after with much more avidity. On leaving the bottom lands in our progress up the river on the eastern side we come to a more elevated tract of a very different quality. It rises to some hundred feet, more or less, above the waters of the river, and then extends off in a some- what level plain, the distance of twelve or fifteen miles, to another river known as Quicksand, or Sandy, which empties also into the Columbia. This tract, which lies on the opposite side of the river from the city of Portland, and extends southward ten miles to the Clackamas, and eastward to the Cascade Mountains, comprehends an excellent variety of soil, but it is mainly covered with a heavy fir and cedar forest. Powell's Valley, which is a very fertile de- pression, is situated in this tract. It is variegated with elevations, some of which pious people have honored with distinguished names. Here is Mount Zion, and here also is Mount Pisgah.
On the west bank of the Willamette River, and thirty miles from the lower mouth, and twelve from the upper mouth of the river, is the city of Portland, the present commercial emporium of the state of Oregon. This city will be described particularly in connection with the counties. The bottom upon which the city is located is narrow, it being but one mile from the water's edge to the foot of the range of hills lying back of the city. These hills continue
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for a few miles to the west of the city, and then set- tling away in gentle undulations, finally lower down into what are called the Tuality Plains. This region between Portland and the plains, though covered with heavy timber, is found by cultivation to be rich and productive.
Eight miles above the city of Portland, on the same side of the river, is the little town called Oswego, which has been struggling for notoriety in varions ways, and which seems likely now to realize its wishes, in the fact that it has, on account of the dis- covery of rich iron ore in the vicinity, become the locality of the " Oregon Iron Works." These works, which are owned by some of the wealthiest men in the state, have recently been put in operation, and are capable of turning out twelve tons of iron per day. The ore used is taken from the hills from one quarter of a mile to two miles distant from the works, and yields from fifty-five to ninety per cent. of iron. The company has in its employment from eighty to one hundred men as miners, coal-burners, heav- ers, teamsters, and artisans at the works. The iron produced is said by competent judges to be equal in quality to any made in any part of the United States. It is very soft and fine in grain, and, it is said, might be worked off into castings for machinery as run from the furnace. This establishment is very prop- erly regarded as an important adjunct to the wealth of the country, and especially to this par. ticular locality.
Passing up the river from Oswego four miles, we
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reach a point opposite Oregon City, where once stood a rival city by the name of Linn. The rocks, however, upon which Linn was built were too low for the safety of the city, and consequently have been swept clean by the swelling floods of the Willamette River.
Two miles above this we reach the Tuality River, which flows into the Willamette from the west. This river rises in the Coast Range of mountains in nu- merous streamlets which water the fertile and ex- tended plains which, after the name of the river, are ealled the Tuality Plains. These streamlets, flowing into each other twenty miles from the Willamette, constitute a fine little river of great importance to this portion of the country, as it can easily be made navigable for boats far into the plains, while the branches above the junction thirty and forty miles from the Willamette River may be advantageously used for the purpose of driving different kinds of machinery. The Tuality Plains, from their impor- tance, demand a more particular notice. They exist in a circular form, somewhat irregular on the rim of the circle; the diameter of the circle, embracing the flat timbered lands around the borders, being about
twenty-five miles. 6 From the top of one of the elevations commanding a view of these plains they present the appearance of a vast natural amphitheater, whose walls are mountains, and whose dome is the azure blue. These plains are beautiful and fertile ; in some places undulating, in others level. This area embraces one of the most thickly settled portions of
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the Willamette Valley. It comprises in beautiful proportions both prairie and wood land, and from its advantageous position, extending as it does to within a few miles of the Willamette River, and con- nected with Portland by good roads, constitutes one of the most valuable portions of the country.
We will now return to the eastern side of the Wil- lamette, and take some observations there. Twenty- four miles above the upper mouth of the Willamette, and twelve above Portland, comes dancing down the rocks from the eastward the Clackamas River. This river rises in the Cascade Mountains, its principal waters being supplied by the reservoirs of Mount Hood. It passes through a country variegated by hills and valleys, plains and rising grounds. Portions of the country watered by this stream are superior as to richness of soil, and other portions not so good. The river runs the distance of some seventy-five miles from its source to where it mingles its waters with those of the Willamette. Two miles above this river, near the falls of the Willamette, we reach a very pleasantly located town known as Oregon City. At this place the Willamette River rushes over a precipice of rocks thirty feet perpendicular. This is a most beautiful cataract, and the hydraulic privileges which it affords are almost boundless. A woolen factory built of brick, presenting a noble and most substan- tial appearance, running six sets of machinery, and employing one hundred and fifty hands; a paper mill, a foundery, and extensive flouring mills, together with other manufacturing establishments, have al-
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ready given to this city the soubriquet of the " Lowell of Oregon."
Continuing up the river on the eastern bank the distance of ten miles above Oregon City, we come to the Molalla and Pudding rivers, which unite their waters just before flowing into the Willamette. These rivers also rise in the Cascade Mountains. They both water beautiful and extensive plains in their serpentine course to the Willamette. Fifteen miles above the Pudding River, on the western shore of the Willamette, we come to Yamhill River, which rises in the Coast Range of mountains, and after meandering for more than fifty miles in a northeast- wardly direction, through one of the most beautiful and fertile portions of the valley, collecting together the numerous tributaries which water the extended plains through which they flow, it rushes down a ledge of rocks a few feet, forming a beautiful cascade, and then hastens to mingle its waters with the main river of the valley.
Again moving camp, and continuing up the valley, and passing a number of small branches on each side, we at length reach a point twenty-two miles above the Yamliill, and seventy miles by water from the Columbia River, where the city of Salem, the capital of the state of Oregon, is located. Here a small stream, which is called Mill Creek, flows into the Willamette in two channels, one mile apart. Be- tween and extending beyond these two branches of Mill Creek, is the site of the city of Salem, a de- scription of which will be found in connection with
3
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Marion County. The valley at this point embracing the foot hills, is about sixty miles wide, and the river is in the center. Westward from Salem, on the opposite side of the river, is a very beautiful and fertile range of prairie hills, rendered more attractive by the groves of oak and fir with which their brows are adorned. These, commencing near the river, ex- tend for several miles, and then lower away into a beautiful valley beyond; passing over which we find ourselves in a hilly, undulating country, which extends several miles further before we reach the un- settled slopes of the Coast Range, which tower up in the background of the picture, and cast their shadows against the western sky. Southward of Salem, and on the same side of the river, is another range of hills called the Salem Hills. These com- mence directly on the south borders of the city, and rise gradually and gracefully until they attain to a height of several hundred feet above the level of the surrounding country, and then roll away in irregular rounded swells for twelve miles, and finally sink and lose themselves in the plains which border the Santiam River.
Southeastward from Salem is the Mill Creek bot- tom, extending nearly forty miles in that direction, and varying from one to five miles in width. Some portions of this bottom are gravelly and unproduc- tive, the soil having been washed away by successive floods. The greater part of it, however, is very beau- tiful and fertile.
East and northeastwardly from Salem for a few miles
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the country is level; and beyond this we reach another range of hills, which, after the name of the gentleman who, attracted by their unrivaled beauty and fertility, first located himself among them are called the "Wal- do Hills." These are separated from the Salem Hills by the Mill Creek bottom, their nearest approach to Salem being about five miles from that place. From this point they gradually rise to the height of two or three hundred feet, and then roll off in regular rounded swells for some twenty-five or thirty miles to the east and north, each successive swell rising a little higher than the former, until they tower into the majesty and grandeur of the Cascade Range, whose dark ridges and snowy pinnacles mark the line of the eastern horizon. Standing upon the top of one of the elevations near the city of Salem, and casting one glance around the horizon encircling that inter- esting locality, we will, before proceeding on our tour of observation up the valley, feast our eyes upon the beauty and grandeur of the scenery around us.
It is the first of June, and Flora has robed the hills and valleys around with a dress reflecting all the colors of the rainbow. The trees and shrubbery are clothed with verdure, and innumerable birds of beautiful plumage are chirping and singing in the branches. The ground is reddened with the luscious strawberry, springing spontaneously and abundantly from the soil. There is not a cloud to darken the heavens, and the air is as clear as an Italian sky. Now, lifting our eyes above and beyond the front ground of the picture, and looking directly nortlı-
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ward, an object of great beauty meets our gaze, and we can distinctly trace its outlines against the azure sky. What is it ? I exclaimed, when first its mellow brightness formed its image on my eye. It is Mount St. Helen's, the most regular in its form, and the most beautiful in appearance, of all the snow-capped mountains of the western slope. Being smooth and conical in its form, and lifting its hoary head fifteen thousand feet above the level of the sea, the eye can gaze upon it without weariness from innu- merable points more than one hundred and fifty miles from its base. A little to the right of this stands Mount Ranier, another of nature's grand sentinels, whose snows have never been marked by human feet. Still further to the right is Mount Baker, standing at a greater distance, yet equally visible. These, and Mount Elias, which we cannot quite dis- cern from where we stand, are all on the north side of the Columbia River. Now, turning a little fur- ther, and facing to the northeast, the grand and majestic form of Old Hood rises up before us, clad in the terrible beauty which covers him as with a garment of light. This celebrated mountain stands in the midst of the Cascade Range, some fifty miles south of the Columbia River, and in the state of Oregon. It is necessary to a proper appreciation of . the country on both sides of the Columbia River, that this stupendous range, of which Mount Hood is the most prominent point, should be properly under- stood. To give a correct idea of this astonishing pile of basalt and snow, and the range with which it
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stands connected, I here append what has excited an interest even in the literary circles of Great Britain :
AN ASCENT OF MOUNT HOOD. BY REV. H. K. HINES.
" The Cascade Range of mountains is a northward continuation of the Sierra Nevada of California, and cuts the State of Oregon and Territory of Washing- ton from south to north, at a distance of one hundred miles from the Pacific Ocean. The range springs up to an average altitude of eight or ten thousand feet, while at intervals of many miles more aspiring summits, from five to ten thousand feet higher, luminous with the sheen of everlasting snow, dome the ever-green roofing of the mountains. The highest of these is Mount Hood. It stands about fifty miles south of where the Columbia has plowed its way through the Cascade, and nearly in the center of the range from east to west.
"Here is a range of mountains eighty miles in width, and all that distance so broken, rugged, and wild as to be entirely irrecoverable to the uses of civilized man. But few of these wild gorges have ever been marked by the heel of the explorer. An occasional hunter has sometimes strayed into these fastnesses in pursuit of the elk or bear; or a miner, with pick, shovel, and pan, has followed some stream near to its icy fountain ; but nearly all these mount- ains have over them the mystery of an unpathed sol- itude. For thirteen years I had looked with wonder
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and desire toward the summit of Mount Hood. The desire to visit it, to stand upon it, to commune with nature and witlı God amid the wild sublimities of its gorges and glaciers, grew upon me till my spirit seemed ever asking for the intense delight.
" In September, 1864, in company with three gen- tlemen of Vancouver, Washington Territory, I first attempted to scale that hoary pinnacle. On reaching an altitude about eight hundred feet below the sum- mit, as we stood gazing on the magnificent panorama spread around and below us, a dense cloud came sweeping against the north side of the mountain, and drifting rapidly over it, instantly enveloped us in its folds. The air changed suddenly to a fierce cold ; the winds howled around the side of the mountain and shrieked away in doleful cadences below ; the driving snow filled the air so entirely that a cliff of rocks three hundred feet high, standing not more than fifty feet from us, was entirely invisible. To go up, or to go down, was for the time, alike impossible. We could only stand on that chill altitude stoutly braving the beating of the blast. Frost and ice gathered on our hair and beards and clothes, till we looked like four ice kings shaking winter from our grizzly locks. The snow was swept by the fierce winds in waves and drifts in every direction. One of my companions was chilled nearly to insensibility ; but we yet struggled against the tempest for hours, unwilling to be defeated in our purpose to reach the summit of the mountain. We stood seventeen thou- sand feet above the ebb and flow of the sea, before
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