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 3
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the very throne of the storm king, and were witnesses of the sweep of his tempest, as few mortals had ever been before us. There was sublimity in the thought, and it inspired us to daring; but the tempest was too strong for us, and we at length reluctantly yielded to its imperious power. Subsequently I was glad of the disappointment, as it gave mne occasion again to visit the mountain ; and having seen it clad in gar- ments of cloud and storm, I could better appreciate it when robed in the gorgeous drapery of summer brightness. Of this second ascent I will now tell.
" On the morning of the twenty-fourth day of July, 1866, in company with three gentlemen of the city of Portland, Oregon, I set out with heart and hope, full of determination to stand upon that summit if mortal energy and determination could reach it. Our place of rendezvous was at the house of a Cana- dian by the name of Revnue, who, fourteen years before, had erected a cabin at the place where the emigrant road leaves the mountains and enters the valley of the Willamette. Our way here entered the mountains in the gorge, through which flows a dash- ing river three hundred feet wide, which rises from beneath the glaciers of Mount Hood. Up this stream we traveled for thirty miles, when, leaving the gorge, the way makes a detour to the right to gain the sum- mit ridge. Here is the celebrated 'Laurel Hill.' For three or four miles the ascent is continuous, and in many places very steep and difficult. The top of Laurel Hill is the general summit of the range, which is perhaps ten miles in width, and has the general
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character of a marsh or swamp. There is here a dense and grand growth of fir, cedar, sugar-pine, and kindred evergreens, with an almost impenetrable un- dergrowth of laurel. There is an inexpressible sense of loneliness in these deep solitudes. Struggling rays of sunlight only here and there find way through the dense foliage, and then fall cold and white upon the damp ground. Passing over this level we crossed several bold, clear streams, dashing across our way from the direction of Mount Hood over beds of scori- aceous sand, which had been borne down from that vast pile of volcanic material, now only five or six miles away. We now found an old Indian trail lead- ing in the direction of the mountain, and, after a ride of an hour and a half upon it, came out into an open- ing of scattered trees, which sweeps around the south side of the mountain. . It was five o'clock when we emerged from the forest, and stood for the time appalled, confronting the body of rocks and snow which springs up from the average altitude of the mountains and enters into wedlock with the bending ether. The bewildering greatness without inspired an unutterable awe within. Selecting a place for our camp on a beautiful grassy ridge between one of the main affluents of the Des Chutes and the Clackamas Rivers, and which really constitute the dividing ridge, we erected a booth of boughs, gathered fuel for a large fire during the night, and gave ourselves up to hours of contemplation of the strange scene around, above, and beneath us.
" The evening now came on, creeping noiselessly
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over the mountains, and shedding a strange, weird, and melancholy splendor over the scene. The moon was at its full, the sky clear as crystal, and the moon- beams seemed to troop in columns along the glitter- ing acclivities of the glaciers. Mount Hood seemed taller, grander, and more glorious than before. Often, during the march of that night over the hills, I arose from my blankets, walked to a point a few rods away, and contemplated with something of awe and much of reverence the divinely-illumined picture. Those who study Mount Hood only in the studio of the artist, before such paint and brush caricatures as Bierstadt's, know nothing of its real grandeur, its overwhelming greatness. Men praise the artist who, on canvas, can make some slight imitation of such a scene; why will they not adore the Maker whose power and skill builds and paints the grand orig- inals ?
" At seven o'clock of Thursday, having provided ourselves with staves seven feet in length, and taken such refreshments as we should need on the mount- ain, we were ready for the ascent. For the first mile and a half the way was easy, over a bed of vol- canic rock, decayed, and intermixed with ashes. Huge rocks stood here and there, and two or three stunted junipers and a few varieties of mosses were all the vegetation.
" We now reached the foot of a broad field of snow which sweeps around the south side of the mountain for several miles in length, and extending upward to the immediate summit of the mountain, perhaps four
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miles. Two miles of this snow field is smooth, and only in places so steep as to render the footsteps un- certain. Near its upper edge the deep gorges, from which flow affluents of the Des Chutes on the right, and Sandy on the left, approach each other, cutting down to the very foundations of the mountain. The waters are rushing from beneath the glaciers, which, at the upper extremity, were rent and broken into fissures and caverns of unknown depth.
" The present summit of the mountain is evidently what was long since the northern rim of an immense crater, which could not have been less than three miles in diameter. Its southern wall has fallen com- pletely away, and the crater itself is filled with rock and ashes, overlaid with the accumulated snows of ages, through the rents and chasms of which now escape smoke, steam, and gases from the pent-up fires below. The fires are yet so near that many of the rocks which project upward through these icy depths are so hot that the naked hand cannot be held upon them. Just at the southwest foot of the circu- lar wall now constituting the summit, and at a dis- tance of about two thousand feet from its extreme height, is now the main opening of the crater. From this a column of smoke and steam is continually issu- ing, at times rising and floating away on the wind, at other times rolling heavily down the mountain. Into this crater I descended as far as it was possible with- out ropes, or till the descent was prevented by a perpen- dicular wall of ice sixty or seventy feet high, which rested below on a bed of broken rock and ashes so
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hot as immediately to convert the water which drip- ped continually from the icy roof one hundred feet above into steam. The air was hot and stifling; but I did so desire to gather some ashes and rocks from the bottom of the crater that if ropes had been at hand I should certainly have ventured down.
"At this point the real peril of the ascent begins. It leads out and up the inner wall of what was once the crater, and near a thousand feet of it is at an angle of sixty degrees. This ascent is up an ice field, the upper limit of a great glacier, which is crashing and grinding its slow journey down the mountain far to the right. About seven hundred feet from the sum- mit a crevasse from five to fifty feet in width, and of unknown depth, cuts clear across the glacier from wall to wall. There is no evading it. The summit cannot be reached without crossing it. There is no other pathway. Steadily and deliberately poising myself on my staff, I sprang over the crevasse at the most favorable place I could select, landing safe on the declivity two or three feet above it, and then with my staff assisted the others to cross. The last move- ment of fifteen feet had considerably changed the prospect of the ascent. We were thrown by it di- rectly below a wall of rock and ice five hundred feet high, down which masses, detached by the sun, were plunging with fearful velocity. To avoid them it was necessary to skirt the crevasse on the upper side for a distance, and then turn diagonally up the re- maining steep. It was only seven hundred feet high, but it was two hours' sinewy tug to climb it.
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The hot sun blazed against the wall of ice within two feet of our faces, the perspiration streamed from our foreheads, our breath was labored and difficult, yet the weary steps of inches were multiplied till, on nearing the summit, the weariness seemed to vanish, an ecstatic excitement thrilled along every nerve, and with feelings and shouts of triumph we bounded upon the pinnacle of the highest mountain in North America.
" The summit was reached at about the center of the circular wall which constitutes the extreme altitude, and where it had so sharp an edge that it was im- possible to stand erect upon it. Its northern face is an escarpment several thousand feet high. Here we could only lie down on the southern slope, and hold- ing firmly to the rocks, look down the awful depth. A few rods to the west was a point forty or fifty feet higher, to the summit of which we crawled, and there discovered that forty rods castward was a point still higher, the highest of the mountains. We crawled back along the sharp escarpment, and in a few min- utes stood erect on the highest pinnacle. This was .found to be seventeen thousand six hundred and forty feet high ; the thermometer, by a very careful obser- vation, standing at one hundred and eighty degrees, where the water boiled about forty feet below the summit. This gives thirty-two degrees of depression, which, at the usual estimate of five hundred and fifty feet to the degree, gives the astonishing altitude in- dicated above.
"The scene around us was indescribable. We
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were favored with one of the clearest, brightest days of summer, and in this latitude and on this coast objects are plainly visible at an almost incredible dis- tance. It would be impossible to convey to the reader an adequate impression of the scene, yet a few gen- eral observations may be taken. The first is the Cas- cade Range itself. From south to north, from Dia- mond Peak to Rainier, a distance of not less than four hundred miles, the whole mountain line is under the eye. Within that distance are Mounts Saint Helens, Baker, Jefferson, the Three Sisters, making, with Mount Hood, nine snowy mountains. East- ward the Blue Mountains are in distinct view for at least four hundred miles in length, and lying between us and them are the broad plains of the Des Chutes, John Day's, and Umatilla Rivers, one hundred and fifty miles in width. On the west the piny crests of the Coast Range cut clear against the sky, with the Willamette Valley sleeping in quiet beauty at their feet. The broad silver belt of the Columbia winds gracefully through the evergreen valley toward the ocean, which we see blending with the horizon through the broad vista at the mouth of the river. Within these wide limits is every variety of mount- ain and valley, lake and prairie, bold, battling preci- pices, and gracefully rounded summits, blending and melting away into each other, forming a whole of unutterable magnificence. The descent to the great crevasse, though much more rapidly accomplished, was perhaps quite as perilous as the ascent. We were now approaching the gorge, and a single misstep
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might precipitate us into unfathomed depths. Less than half an hour was sufficient to retrace the weary climbing of three hours, and, standing for a moment on the upper edge of the chasm, we bounded over it where it was about eight feet in width. The im- petus of the leap sent us plunging down the icy steep below.
"In two hours from the summit we reached our camp. At dark we began to pay the price of our pleasure. The glare of the sun on the ice had burned our faces and dazzled our eyes till they were so pain- ful that not one of the party slept a moment during the night. I kept over my eyes and face a cloth wetted with ice-water all night, and in the morning was able to see; but two of the party were as blind as rocks for forty-eight hours. But we were well com- pensated for all our toil and pain. And now, as often as thought recurs to the moment when I stood upon that awful height, and the same awe of the infinite God who settest fast the mountains, being girded with power, comes over my soul, I praise him that he gave me strength to stand where his power speaks with words few mortals ever hear, and the reverent wor- shipings of mountains and solitudes seem flowing up to his throne."
From this magnificent picture, in which we have seen blended in beautiful harmony extended valleys and fertile plains, dotted here and there with numer- ous signs of civilization, lines of forest, rising grounds, lofty hills, towering mountains, majestic glaciers, me- andering streams, and flowing rivers, we will turn our
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faces southward, and there, as clearly as from the top of Mount Hood, the shimmering summit of Jefferson greets the eye, and, looking a little further still, the Three Sisters, clad in their robes of unsullied white- ness, stand out in bold relief, as if to add a finish to the glorious panorama which we have been contem- plating. We have as yet gone round but half the cir- cle, and we have time only to glance at the other half, where the Coast Range draws its lines against the western sky, and then leave this point of observa- tion, and proceed up the valley with our explorations. Six miles above the city of Salem comes flowing down into the Willamette from the west a stream called La Creole, which can also boast of its privileges for milling operations, and of watering a splendid por- tion of the country. Fifteen miles above this is the Luckimute, a fine stream, bordered on each side by fertile plains. Three miles further on is Soap Creek, which can also boast of its advantages. These all rise in the Coast Range, and, running eastward from thirty to fifty miles crosswise of the valley, hasten to mingle their waters with those of the Willamette. Fifteen miles above Salem, on the east side of the Willa- mette, the Santiam comes dancing down its channel as clear as the crystal drop that oozes from the pines, whose forms are reflected from its limped waters. This is a very considerable stream, and flows through an excellent portion of the country. The springs of the Cascade Mountains supply its several branches, and from the extent of the country watered, and the driving power which it affords, it is not second to
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any of the tributaries of the Willamette. Eight miles above the Santiam we come to the point where the flourishing city of Albany is located, at the mouth of the Callapooia River. This stream, rising far up in the Cascades, and flowing across the eastern half of the valley diagonally, fertilizes and beautifies a large portion of the county of Linn. Above this a few miles is another stream, appropriately named Muddy, from the appearance of its dark, turbid waters. Its principal value consists in its affording an abundance of stock water in the dry season. Above this some twenty miles the M'Kenzie fork of the Willamette comes booming out of a gorge in the Cascade Mountains, and from this we will pass over to the westward side, and cross Grand Prairie, beau- tiful in the extreme, and at its further border we find a very interesting stream bearing the enphonious name of "Long Tom."
This stream rises in numerous rivulets which issue from the Coast Range, and, watering a large extent of country, unite, and, running northward at the base of the foot hills of the Coast Range, discharge their waters into the Willamette twelve miles above the city of Corvallis. We have now reached the upper or south end of the valley proper, and a collection of prairie and timbered hills, which are generally set- tled up, extend southward for twenty-five miles or more before they swell into the bolder and loftier outlines of the Callapooia Mountains, which form the southern boundary of the great Willamette Valley.
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The Siuselaw is a small though independent valley, lying between the waters which flow into the Willa- mette River and those of the Umpqua. The upper part of this valley, some fifty miles from the ocean, though small, is rich and fertile, and capable of sus- taining a much heavier population than have yet settled upon its limpid and health-giving waters. The river pierces the entire Coast Range, forming a valley of varied extent, and empties itself into the Pacific Ocean. Salmon enter this river, as also nearly all the streams that run into the ocean, in great abundance in their season, so that at times they literally fill the channel from bank to bank. 4
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CHAPTER IV.
THE VALLEY OF THE GREAT COLUMBIA.
THE Columbia is the father of rivers on the great Pacific Slope, and into its capacious channel nearly all the waters of Oregon and Washington Territory discharge themselves. The river forms the dividing line between the state and territory, and in the ad- vantages which it confers it equally belongs to both. With the exception of a few short portages by rail- road, one at the Cascades of four miles, and one above Dalles City of ten miles in length, it is navi- gable for more than five hundred miles from its mouth. Draining more extent of country than any rivers upon the continent save the Mississippi and the Amazon, this majestic stream is supplied from the inexhaustible reservoirs of the Rocky Mountains, and, increasing in magnitude and power by an accumulation of unnumbered tributaries, it sweeps along in its resistless course, tearing away every obstacle, sapping the foundation of mountains, and hurling them down from their rocky heights, piercing the adamantine barriers that would impede its prog- ress, or leaping down the fearful precipice into the deep chasm made by its own resistless power; now gliding smoothly and beautifully along near the sur- face, and now almost hiding itself thousands of feet
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below. Approaching the basaltic walls reared by the Cascade Range across its pathway, it gathers up its omnipotence, and lifting those mighty abutments from their foundations, bears them away upon its bosom and casts them into the depths below. Thus making itself a channel through every impediment, it comes gliding out from the gorges of the Cascades into the lower country a smooth, deep, broad, beautiful river, and enlarging as it goes until it widens to six miles across, it pours its immense volume of water into the bosom of the great Pacific between Cape Adams and Cape Hancock near the forty-sixth degree of north latitude.
To give a full description of the great valley of the Columbia with regard to its topography, climate, mining and agricultural resources, etc., would swell this work beyond our original design. Attention is invited, therefore, to only a few points. As to the surface of this portion of the country, it is as varie- gated and interesting as that already described. The same objects of beauty, sublimity, and grandeur, varying a little in their appearance in consequence of a change of the post of observation, are seen on every hand. Much of the land in the valleys, and on the hills and mountain sides, is similar to that already considered, if we except the bottom lands along the river. These, extending from Astoria to the Cascades, the distance of one hundred and thirty miles, are subject to an annual inundation in the month of June. Naturally rich and productive beyond de- scription, when they overflow they seem to lose
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much of their value. There is, however, a redeeming consideration in reference to these bottom lands. They enjoy two spring seasons. Early in April the grass, which grows most luxuriantly upon them, shoots forth from the rich soil, and from that time until the period of the inundation affords an abund- ance of feed for the immense number of cattle that seek their living here. While the flood is on, these herds retreat to the highlands, and the water remains so long upon the grass that it dies, and is good for nothing. In July the water all recedes, the grass comes up afresh, and grows with great vigor and rapidity ; the ground is soon covered with a heavy coating of nutritious herbage, the cattle and horses again rush to their favorite range, where during the rest of the year they revel with delight in the most luxuriant meadows. Back from the river, almost its entire length, the land rises rapidly, and gen- erally abruptly, to the height of mountains, which leaves the impression that the Columbia Valley is very narrow; but it must be remembered that the valley proper comprehends all that vast extent of country drained by the numerous tributaries of the great river. Not only the largest portions of Wash- ington Territory and the State of Oregon, but also of Idaho, Nevada, Montana, and British Columbia, are embraced within the circle of this magnificent A comparison will enable us to form some just conception of the magnitude of its vast area. Massachusetts is considered a large state; but if you divide the country drained by the Columbia River
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into states of the size of Massachusetts, you will have at least two dozen such states, and land to spare. And what may be regarded as still more important, they would all be equal, if not superior, to the old state in climate, fertility of soil, and general resources and capabilities.
Through the Cascade Mountains, the distance of eighty miles, the valley of the Columbia is indeed narrow, consisting mainly of a tremendous gorge, which its own power has excavated through the entire range. In the midst of these mountains, how- ever, in places, the valley widens out into bottoms which admit of settlement, and are all occupied by permanent and prosperous residents. It is at the center of this gorge through the mountains, where the Columbia pours her exhaustless flood down a ledge of rocks of some fifty feet fall in the distance of one half mile, that the beautiful cascades which give their name to the whole mountain range are formed. These cascades, in connection with the overhanging cliffs, and beetling summits towering high in the heavens on both sides, present an appear- ance of grandeur and sublimity not inferior to that of the famed Niagara above the great cataract. It is an astonishing fact that here, where the whole inighty torrent of the Columbia rushes down this ledge of rocks, the entire channel is not more than thirty rods wide. The Indians here have a tradition that less than a century ago the mountain was joined together over the river, which performed a subter- raneous passage for some distance, with a slow cur-
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rent, and that their people used to pass up and down in their canoes without difficulty ; but all at once the foundations of this mighty arch crumbled beneath its ponderous weight, and the whole mass came tumbling into the river, filling up the channel, and damming up the stream, and thus were formed the great cas- cades. There are evidences that this tradition has some foundation in truth. The river is wide and deep above the cascades, with little current, and from all appearances forests which were situated on its former banks have been overflown, as a vast number of stumps and trees, which have not yet wasted away, stand in the present bed of the stream. The cascades are fifty miles above the city of Vancouver, and one hundred and forty-five from the mouth of the Colum- bia. Forty miles above the cascades we reach what are called the Dalles of the Columbia, or Narrows, as the word signifies, where the river suddenly contracts and rushes through a mighty chasm in the rocks with fearful violence, tumbling, and boiling, and roaring in its passage, and ever and anon forming the most tremendous whirlpools. Here the country assumes altogether a different aspect. The hills are comparatively low, and, instead of being covered with timber, are verdant with grass from their base to their summit. The tributary valleys are small, but they are rich, and adapted to farming purposes. On the south side of the Columbia, in the state of Oregon, starting at Dalles City and proceeding upward, we may num- ber the Three-Mile, the Nine-Mile, the Fifteen Mile, the Tigh Valley, the Des Chutes, the John Day, the
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Umatilla, the Walla Walla; and beyond the Blue Mountains the Grand Round, the Burnt River, the Powder River, and the Malheur, with many others of greater or less extent, some of which will rank with the most beautiful and fertile por- tions of the Pacific slope, are all comprehended in the great valley of the Columbia, and though extend- ing over hundreds of miles in all directions, are more or less occupied by permanent settlers, and made to contribute to the sustenance of their occupants, and of the mining population operating in the gulches and among the ledges found in the mountains near the heads of the streams.
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