An illustrated history of Skagit and Snohomish Counties; their people, their commerce and their resources, with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 5

Author: Inter-state Publishing Company (Chicago, Ill.)
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: [Chicago] Interstate Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1172

USA > Washington > Skagit County > An illustrated history of Skagit and Snohomish Counties; their people, their commerce and their resources, with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington > Part 5
USA > Washington > Snohomish County > An illustrated history of Skagit and Snohomish Counties; their people, their commerce and their resources, with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington > Part 5

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A few days before the initial steps were taken in discharge of the instruction of President Jefferson, news reached the seat of government of a trans- action which added materially to the significance of the enterprise. Negotiations had been successfully consummated for the purchase of Louisiana on April 30, 1803, but the authorities at Washington did not hear of the important transfer until the first of July. Of such transcendent import to the future of our country was this transaction and of such vital moment to the section with which our volume is primarily concerned, that we must here interrupt the trend of our narrative to give the reader an idea of the extent of territory involved, and, if possible. to enable him to appreciate the influence of the purchase. France, by her land explorations and the establishment of trading posts and forts, first acquired title to the territory west of the Missis- sippi and east of the Rocky mountains, though Great Britain claimed the territory in accordance with her doctrine of continuity and contiguity, most of her colonial grants extending in express terms to the Pacific ocean. Spain also claimed the country by grant of Pope Alexander VI. \ constant war- fare had been waged between France and Great Britain for supremacy in America. The latter was the winner in the contest, and, in 1:62, France, apparently discouraged, ceded to Spain the province of Louisiana. By the treaty of February 10, 1:63, which gave Great Britain the Canadas, it was agreed that the western boundary between English and Spanish possessions in America should be the Mississippi river, Great Britain renouncing all

claims to the territory west of that boundary. In 1800 Spain retroceded Louisiana to France "with the same extent it has now in the hands of Spain and which it had when France possessed it, and such as it should be according to the treaties subse- quently made between Spain and other states."

The order for the formal delivery of the prov- ince to France was issued by the Spanish king on October 15, 1802, and, as above stated, the United States succeeded to the title by treaty of April 30, 1803.

Exact boundaries had not been established at the time of the Louisiana purchase, but some idea of the vastness of the territory thereby acquired by the United States may be had when we consider that it extended from the present British line to the Gulf of Mexico and included what are now the states of Minnesota, North Dakota, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana, the territory of Oklahoma, Indian territory, more than three-fourths of Montana and Wyoming, and parts of Colorado and New Mexico.

And so the Lewis and Clark expedition, which had in its inception for its chief object to promote the commercial interests of the United States, acquired a new purpose, namely, the extending of geographical and scientific knowledge of our own domain. Upon its members a further duty devolved, that of informing the natives that obedience was now due to a new great father.

The expedition of Lewis and Clark excited a peculiar interest at the time of its occurrence, and has since occupied a unique place in our history. The description of this expedition which follows is condensed from the writings upon the subject of Professor W. D. Lyman, of Whitman College, Walla Walla.

To our colonial ancestors, caged between the sea and the domains of hostile natives and rival colonies, afterward absorbed in a death struggle with the mother country, all the vast interior was a sealed book. And when the successful issue of the Revolutionary war permitted them to turn around and see where they were, still more when the great purchase of Louisiana from France enabled them to look toward the tops of the "Shin- ing mountains" with a sense of proprietorship, all the romance and enthusiasm and excitement of ex- ploration, hitherto sternly denied them by their narrow lot, seized and fascinated all classes.

On the 14th day of May, 1804, the Lewis and Clark party left St. Louis by boat upon the muddy current of the Missouri, to search for the unknown mountains and rivers between that point and the Pacific. Their plan was to ascend the Missouri to its source, cross the divide, strike the headwaters of the Columbia, and, descending it, reach the sea.

And what manner of men were undertaking this voyage, fraught with both interest and peril? Meri- wether Lewis, the leader of the party, was a captain

EXPLORATIONS BY LAND

in the United States army, and in Jefferson's judg- pressure in two of these cases with the high sound- ing appellations of Big Hole and Stinking Water. ment was, by reason of endurance, boldness and energy, the fittest man within his knowledge for On the 12th day of August the explorers crossed the great divide, the birthplace of mighty rivers, and descending the sunset slope, found themselves in the land of the Shoshones. They had brought with them a Shoshone woman, rejoicing in the pleasant name of Sacajawea, for the express purpose of becoming acquainted with this tribe, through whom they hoped to get horses and val- uable information as to their proper route to the ocean. But four days were consumed in enticing the suspicious savages near enough to hear the words of their own tongue proceeding from the camp of the strangers. When, however, the fair interpreter had been granted a hearing, she speedily won for the party the faithful allegiance of her kins- men. They innocently accepted the rather general intimation of the explorers that this journey had for its primary object the happiness and prosperity of the Shoshone nation, and to these evidences of benevolence on the part of their newly adopted great father at Washington, they quickly responded by bringing plenty of horses and all the information in their poor power. the responsible duties of commander. His whole life had been one of reckless adventure. It appears that at the tender age of eight he was already illustrious for successful midnight forays upon the festive coon and the meditative possum. He was lacking in scientific knowledge, but when appointed captain of the expedition had, with characteristic phick, spent a few spare weeks in study of some of the branches most essential to his new work. William Clark, second in command, was also a United States officer, and seems to have been equally fitted with Lewis for his work. The party consisted of fourteen United States regulars, nine Kentucky volunteers, two French voyageurs, a hunter, an in- terpreter and a negro. To each of the common soldiers the government offered the munificent reward of retirement upon full pay with a recom- mendation for a soldier's grant of land. Special pains were taken to encourage the party to keep complete records of all they saw and heard and did. This was done with a vengeance, insomuch that seven journals besides those of the leaders were carefully kept, and in them was recorded nearly every event from the most important discoveries . on the headwaters of the Salmon river near where down to the ingredients of their meals and doses of medicine. They were abundantly provided with beads, mirrors, knives, etc., wherewith to woo the savage hearts of the natives.

After an interesting and easy journey of five months, they reached the country of the Mandans. and here they determined to winter. The winter having been profitably spent in making the acquaint- ance of the Indians and in collecting specimens of the natural history of the plains-which they now sent back to the president with great care-they again embarked in a squad of six canoes and two pirogues. June 13th they reached the great falls of the Missouri.

A month was spent within sound of the thunder and in sight of the perpetual mist cloud rising from the abyss, before they could accomplish the difficult portage of eighteen miles, make new canoes, mend their clothes and lay in a new stock of provisions.

The long bright days, the tingling air of the mountains, the pleasant swish of the water as their canoes breasted the swift current, the vast campfires and the nightly buffalo roasts-all these must have made this the pleasantest section of their long journey.

The party seems to have pretty nearly exhausted its supply of names, and after having made heavy drafts on their own with various permutatory com- binations, they were reduced to the extremity of loading innocent creeks with the ponderons names of Wisdom, Philosophy and Philanthropy. Suc- ceeding generations have relieved the unjust

It appears that the expedition was at that time Fort Lemhi afterward stood. With twenty-nine horses to carry their abundant burdens, they bade farewell to the friendly Shoshones on the last day of Angust, and committed themselves to the dreary and desolate solitudes to the westward. They soon became entangled in the ridges and defiles, already spotted with snow, of the Bitter Root mountains.

Having crossed several branches of the great river, named in honor of Captain Clark, and becom- ing distressed at the increasing dangers and delay, they turned to the left, and, having punished a brawling creek for its inhospitality by inflicting on it the name Colt Killed, commemorative of their extremity for food, they came upon a wild and beautiful stream. Inquiring the name of this from the Indians, they received the answer "Kooskoos- kie." This in reality meant simply that this was not the stream for which they were searching, but not understanding, they named the river Kooskoos- kie. This was afterward called the Clearwater, and is the most beautiful tributary of the Snake.

The country still frowned on them with the same forbidding rocky heights and snow-storms as before. It began to seem as though famine woukd ere long stare them in the face, and the shaggy precipices were marked with almost daily accidents to men and beasts. Their only meat was the flesh of their precious horses.

U'nder these circumstances Clark decided to take six of the most active men and push ahead in search of game and a more hospitable country. A hard march of twenty miles rewarded him with a view of a vast open plain in front of the broken mountain

INTRODUCTORY

chain across which they had been struggling. It was three days, however, before they fairly cleared the edge of the mountain and emerged on the great prairie north and east of where Lewiston now is. They found no game except a stray horse, which they speedily despatched. Here the advance guard waited for the main body to come up, and then altogether they went down to the Clearwater, where a large number of the Nez Perce Indians gathered to see and trade with them. Receiving from these Indians, who, like all that they had met, seemed very amicably disposed, the cheering news that the great river was not very distant, and seeing the Clearwater to be a fine, navigable stream, they determined to abandon the weary land march and

make canoes. Five of these having been con- structed, they laid in a stock of dog meat and then committed themselves to the sweeping current with which all the tributaries of the Columbia hastened to their destined place. They left their horses with the Nez Perces, and it is worthy of special notice that these were remarkably faithful to their trust. Indeed, it may be safely asserted that the first explorers of this country almost uniformly met with the kindest reception.

On the 10th of October, having traveled sixty miles on the Clearwater, its pellucid current de- livered them to the turbid, angry, sullen, lava- banked Snake. This great stream they called Kimooenim, its Indian name. It was in its low season, and it seems from their account that it. as well as all the other streams, must have been uncommonly low that year.

Thus they say that on October 13th they descended a very bad rapid four miles in length, at the lower part of which the whole river was com- pressed into a channel only twenty-five yards wide. Immediately below they passed a large stream on the right, which they called Drewyer's river, from one of their men. This must have been the Palouse river, and certainly it is very rare that the mighty Snake becomes attenuated at that point to a width of twenty-five yards. Next day as they were de- seending the worst rapid they had yet seen ( probably the Monumental rapid). it repelled their effrontery by upsetting one of the boats. No lives were lost, but the cargo of the boat was badly water-soaked. For the purpose of drying it, they stopped a day, and finding no other timber, they were compelled to use a very appropriate pile which some Indians had stored away and covered with stones. This trifling circumstance is noticed because of the ex- plorers' speaking in connection with it of their cus- tomary serupulousness in never taking any property of the Indians, and of their determination to repay the owner, if they could find him, on their return. If all explorers had been as particular, much is the distress and loss that would have been avoided.

They found almost continuous rapids from this point to the mouth of the Snake, which they reached

on October 16th. Here they were met by a regular procession of nearly two hundred Indians. They had a grand pow-wow, and both parties displayed great affection, the whites bestowing medals, shirts, trinkets, etc., in accordance with the rank of the recipient, and the Indians repaying the kindness with abundant and prolonged visits and accompany- ing gifts of wood and fish. On the next day they measured the rivers, finding the Columbia to be nine hundred and sixty yards wide and the Snake five hundred and seventy-five. They indulge in no poetic reveries as they stand by the river which has been one principal object of their search, but they seem to see pretty much everything of practical value. In the glimmering haze of the pleasant October morning they notice the vast bare prairie stretching southward until broken by the rounded summits of the Blue mountains. They find the Sohulks, who live at the junction of the rivers, a mild and happy people, the men being content with one wife cach, whom they actually assist in family work.

Captain Clark ascended the Columbia to the mouth of a large river coming from the west, which the Indians called the Tapteal. This was, of course, the Yakima. The people living at its mouth rejoiced in the liquid name of Chimnapum. Here Captain Clark shot what he called a prairie cock, the first he had seen. It was no doubt a sage hen.

After two days of rest, being well supplied with fish. dog, roots, etc., and at peace with their own consciences and all the world, with satisfaction at the prospect of soon completing their journey, they re-embarked. Sixteen miles below the mouth of the Kimooenim, which they now began to call the Lewis river, they descried, cut elear against the dim horizon line of the southwest, a pyramidal mountain, covered with snow-their first view of Mount Hood.

The next day, being in the vicinity of Umatilla. they saw another snowy peak at a conjectured distance of one hundred and fifty miles. Near here Captain Clark, having landed, shot a crane and a duck. Some Indians near were almost paralyzed with terror, but at last they recovered enough to make the best possible use of their legs. Following them, Captain Clark found a little cluster of huts. Pushing aside the mat door of one of them, he entered, and in the bright light of the un- roofed hut discovered thirty-two persons, all of whom were in the greatest terror, some wailing and wringing their hands.

Having by kind looks and gestures soothed their grief, he held up his burning-glass to catch a strav sunbeam with which to light his pipe. Thereat the consternation of the Indians revived, and they refused to be comforted. But when the rest of the party arrived with the two Indian guides who had come with them from the Clearwater. terror gave way to curiosity and pleasure. These Pishquitpaws -such was their name-explained to the guides

EXPLORATIONS BY LAND

their fear of Captain Clark by saying that he came from the sky accompanied by a terrible noise, and they knew there was a bad medicine in it.

Being convinced now that he was a mortal after all, they became very affectionate, and having heard · the music of two violins, they became so enamored of the strangers that they stayed up all night with them and collected to the number of two hundred to bid them good-bye in the morning. The principal business of these Indians seemed to be catching and curing salmon, which, in the clear water of the Columbia, the explorers could see swimming about in large numbers. Continuing with no extraor- dinary occurrence, they passed the river now called the John Day, to which they applied the name Lapage. Mount Hood was now almost constantly in view, and since the Indians told them it was near the great falls of the Columbia, they called it the Timm ( this seems to be the Indian word for falls) mountain.

On the next day they reached a large river on the left, which came thundering through a narrow channel into the equally turbulent Columbia. This river, which Captain Lewis judged to contain one- fourth as much water as the Columbia (an enormous over-estimate), answered to the Indian name of Towahnahiooks. It afterward received from the French the name now used. Des Chutes.

They now perceived that they were near the place hinted at by nearly every Indian that they had talked with since crossing the divide-the great falls. And a weird, savage place it proved to be. Here the clenched hands of trachyte and basalt, thrust through the soil from the buried realm of the volcanoes, almost clutch the rushing river. Only here and there between the parted fingers can he make his escape.

After making several portages they reached that extraordinary place (now called The Dalles) where all the waters gathered from half a million square miles of carth are squeezed into a crack forty-five yards wide. The desolation on either side of this frightful chasm is a fitting margin. As one crawls to the edge and peeps over, he sees the waters to be of inky blackness. Streaks of foam gridiron the blackness. There is little noise com- pared with that made by the shallow rapids above, but rather a dismal sough, as though the rocks below were rubbing their black sides together in a vain effort to close over the escaping river. The river here is "turned on edge." In fact, its klepth has not been found to this day. Some suppose that there was once a natural tunnel here through which the river flowed, and that in consequence of a vol- canic convulsion the top of the tunnel fell in. If there be any truth in this, the width of the channel is no doubt much greater at the bottom than at the top. Lewis and Clark, finding that the roughness of the shore made it almost impossible to carry their boats over, and seeing no evidence of rocks

in the channel, boldly steered through this "witches' cauldron." Though no doubt hurled along with frightful rapidity and flung like foam flakes on the erest of the boiling surges, they reached the end of the "chute" without accident, to the amazement of the Indians who had collected on the bluff to witness the daring experiment. After two more portages the party safely entered the broad, still flood be- ginning where the town of The Dalles now stands. Here they paused for two days to hunt and caulk their boats. They here began to see evidences of the white traders below, in blankets, axes. brass kettles, and other articles of civilized manufacture. The Indians, too, were more inclined to be saucy and suspicious.

The Dalles seemed to be a dividing line between the Indian tribes. Those living at the falls, where Celilo now is, called the Eneeshurs, understood and "fellowshipped" with the up-river tribes, but at the narrows and thence to The Dalles was a tribe called the Escheloots. These were alien to the Indians above, but on intimate terms with those below the Cascades. Among the Escheloots the explorers first noticed the peculiar "cluck" in speech common to all down-river tribes. The flattening of the head, which above belonged to females only, was now the common thing.

The place where Lewis and Clark camped while at The Dalles was just below Mill creek (called by the natives Quenett ), on a point of rock near the location of the present car shops.

The next Indian tribe, extending apparently from the vicinity of Crate's point to the Cascades. capped the climax of tongue-twisting names by calling themselves Chilluckittequaws.

Nothing of extraordinary character seems to have been encountered between The Dalles and the Cascades. But the explorers had their eyes wide open, and the calm majesty of the river and savage grandenr of its shores received due notice. They observed and named most of the streams on the route, the first of importance being the Cataract river (now the Klickitat), then Labieshe's river ( Hood river), Canoe creek ( White Salmon) and Crusatte's river. This last must have been Little White Salmon, though they were greatly deceived as to its size, stating it to be sixty yards wide. In this vicinity they were much struck with the sunken forest, which, at that low stage of the water. was very conspicuous. They correctly inferred that this indicated a damming up of the river at a very recent time. Indeed, they judged that it must have occurred within twenty years. It is well known, however, that submerged trees or piles, as indicated by remains of old Roman wharves in Britain, may remain intact for hundreds of years ; but it is never- theless evident that the closing of the river at the Cascades is a very recent event. It is also evident from the sliding, sinking and grinding constantly

INTRODUCTORY

seen there now that a similar event is liable to happen at any time.

The Cascades having been reached, more port- ages were required. Slow and tedious though they were, the explorers seem to have endured them with unfailing patience. They were cheered by the prospect of soon putting all the rapids behind and launching their canoes on the unobstructed vastness of the lower river. This was prosperously accom- plished on the 2d of November. They were greatly delighted with the verdure which now robed the gaunt nakedness of the rocks. The island formed at the lower cascade by Columbia slough also pleased them by its fertility and its dense growth of grass and strawberry vines. From this last cir- cumstance they named it Strawberry island. At the lower part of that cluster of islands, that spired and turreted rock of the old feudal age of the river, when the volcano kings stormed each other's castles with earthquakes and spouts of lava, riveted their attention. They named it Beacon rock, but it is now called Castle rock. They estimated its height at eight hundred feet and its circumference at four hundred yards, the latter being only a fourth of the reality.

The tides were now noticeable. This fact must have struck a new chord of reflection in the minds of these hardy adventurers, this first-felt pulse- beat of the dim vast of waters which grasps half the circumference of the earth. And so, as this mighty heart throb of the ocean, rising and falling in harmony with all nature, celestial and terrestrial, pulsated through a hundred and eighty miles of river, it might have seemed one of the ocean's multi- plied fingers outstretched to welcome them, the first organized expedition of the new republic to this "westmost west." It might have betokened to them the harmony and unity of future nations as exemplified in the vast extent, the liberty, the human sympathies, the diversified interests, industries, and purposes of that republic whose motto yet remains "One from many."

The rest of their journey was a calm floating between meadows and islands from whose shallow ponds they obtained ducks and geese in great numbers. They thought the "Quick Sand river"- Sandy-to be a large and important stream. They noticed the Washougal creek, which from the great number of seals around its mouth they called Seal river. But strange to say, they missed the Willa- mette entirely on their down trip. The Indians in this part of the river called themselves Skilloots. Dropping rapidly down the calm but misty stream. past a large river called by the Indians the Cow- aliske-Cowlitz-to the country of the Wahkiacums, at last, on the 4th of November, the dense fog with which morning had enshrouded all objects suddenly broke away and they saw the bold, mountainous shores on either side vanish away in front, and

through the parted headlands they looked into the infinite expanse of the ocean.

Overjoyed at the successful termination of their journey, they sought the first pleasant camping ground and made haste to land. The rain, which is sometimes even now observed to fall copiously in that part of Oregon, greatly marred the joy of their first night's rest within sound of the Pacific's billows.

Six days passed in moldy and dripping inactivity at a point a little above the present Chinook. They then spent nine much pleasanter days at Chinook point. This, however, not proving what they wanted for a permanent camp, they devoted them- selves to explorations with a view to discovering a more suitable location.

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An illustrated history of Skagit and Snohomish Counties; their people, their commerce and their resources, with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 5

Author: Inter-state Publishing Company (Chicago, Ill.) Publication date: 1906 Publisher: [Chicago] Interstate Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1172

Author: Inter-state Publishing Company (Chicago, Ill.)
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: [Chicago] Interstate Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1172