USA > Washington > Walla Walla County > An illustrated history of Walla Walla County, state of Washington > Part 3
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A few days before the initial steps were taken in discharge of the instructions of Presi- dent Jefferson, news reached the seat of gov- ernment of a transaction which added materi- ally to the significance of the enterprise. Nego-
tiations 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 Ist 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 terri- tory involved and if possible, to enable him to appreciate the influence of the purchase. France, by her land explorations and the estab- lishment of trading posts and forts, first ac- quired title to the territory west of the Miss- issippi and east of the Rocky mountains, though Great Britain claimed the territory in accord- ance with her doctrine of continuity and con- tiguity, most of her colonial grants extending i:1 express terms to the Pacific ocean. Spain also claimed the country by grant of Pope Alexander VI. A constant warfare had been waged between France and Great Britain for supremacy in America. The latter was the winner in the contest. and, in 1762, France, apparently discouraged, ceded to Spain the province of Louisiana. By the treaty of Feb- ruary 10. 1763, which gave Great Britain the Canadas, it was agreed that the western boun- dary between English and Spanish possessions in America should be the Mississippi river, Great Britain renouncing all claim to the terri- tory 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 stich as it should be according to the treaties subsequently made between Spain and other states."
The order for the formal delivery of the province to France was issued by the Spanish
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HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY.
had not been established at that time, but some king on October 15. 1802. and, as above stated, the United States succeeded to the title by treaty of April 30. 1803. Exact boundaries idea of the extent of this purchase may be had when we remember that it extended from the present British line to the Gulf of Mexico and included what are now the states of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana, the territory of Oklahoma, Indian Territory, more than three-fourths of Montana and Wyoming, also parts of Colorado and New Mexico.
Thus an enterprise which had its inception for its chief object to advance the commerical interests of the United States acquired a new purpose, namely, the extending of the geo- graphical and scientific knowledge concerning our own domain. Upon Lewis and Clark a further duty devolved, that of informing the natives that obedience was now due to a new great father.
The world-old wizard of "Out West" stretched his wand over them, and under its magic sway they began, by mountain trail and river and open highway of the prairie, to follow it into the wilderness. That same impulse led them which drew the camel-drivers of Syria to the shores of the Mediterranean, which filled the sails of Roman galleys, which beckoned the Norse Viking to the desolate grandeur of Greenland, and which lit a signal fire in the tropic verdure of the Bahamas for the far- reaching vision of Columbus. So our great- grandfathers were chasing toward the sunset the shadow of their own coming greatness, a shadow gigantic but always growing, crossing the great plains with seven-league boots and stepping across the ridge-pole of the continent like a Colossus.
It is not surprising that to minds just ad-
mitted to this atmosphere of boundless expecta- tion, even this plain and common-place narra- tive of Lewis and Clark should have had the fascination of a novel.
This historic expedition had been pro- jected and even partially fitted out by Jefferson before the purchase of Louisiana. But imme- diately upon the completion of that most saga- cious investment, the lingering preparations were hastened, and on the 14th of May, 1804, the party left St. Louis by boat. upon the muddy current of the Missouri, to search for the un- known mountains and rivers between there and the Pacific. Their plan was to ascend the Mis- souri to its source, cross the divide, strike the headwaters of the Columbia, and, descending it, reach the sea.
And what manner of men were undertak- ing this voyage, fraught with both interest and peril? 6 Meriwether Lewis, the leader of the party, was a captain in the United States army, and in Jefferson's judgment was, by reason of endurance, boldness, and energy, the fittest man within his knowledge for 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 mid- night forays upon the festive coon an 1 the meditative possum. He was lacking in scienti- fic knowledge, but, when appointed captain of the expedition, had. with characteristic pluck, spent a few spare weeks in study of some of the branches most essential to his new work. Will- iam 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 regu- lars, nine Kentucky volunteers, two French voyageurs, a hunter, an interpreter, and a ne- gro. To cach of the common soldiers the gov-
HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY.
ernment offered the munificent reward of retire- ment upon full pay with a recommendation 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 discov- eries down to the ingredients of their meals and doses of medicine. They were abundantly provided with beads, mirrors, knives, etc., 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 acquaintance 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 squadron of six canoes and two pirogues. On 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. Of material for this last there was no end. The air was filled with migratory birds, and the party was almost in danger of being overrun by the enor- mous herds of buffalo.
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 camp fires 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 ex- hausted its supply of names, and after having made heavy draughts on their own with various permutatory combinations, they were reduced to the extremity of loading innocent creeks with the ponderous names of Wisdom, Philosophy, and Philanthropy. Succeeding generations- have relieved the unjust pressure in two of these cases with the sounding appellations of Big Hole and Stinking Water.
On the 12th of August the explorers crossed the great divide, the birthplace of mighty rivers, and descending the sunset slope found them- selves 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 valuable 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 strang- ers. When, however, the fair interpretress had been granted a hearing, she speedily won for the party the faithful allegiance of her kinsmen. They innocently accepted the rather general in- timation of the explorers that this journey had for its primary object the happiness and pros- perity 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.
It appears that the expedition was at that time on the headwaters of the Salmon river, near where Fort Lemhi afterward stood. With twenty-nine horses to carry their abundant bur- dens they bade farewell to the friendly Sho- shones on the last day of August, and com-
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HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY.
mitted themselves to the dreary and desolate solitudes to the westward. They soon became entangled in the savage ridges and defiles, al- ready spotted with snow, of the Bitter Root mountains.
Having crossed several branches of the great river named in honor of Captain Clark. and becoming distressed at the increasing dangers and delays, they turned to the left, and, having punished a brawling creek for its in- hospitality by inflicting on it the name of Colt- killed, commemorative of their extremity for food. they came upon a wild and beautiful stream, inquiring the name of which from the Indians they received the answer. "Kooskoos- kie." This in reality meant simply that this was not the stream for which they were search- ing. But not understanding, they named the river Kooskooskie. This was afterwards called the Clearwater, and is the most beautiful tribu- tary of the Snake.
The country still frowned on them with the same forbidding rocky heights and blinding snow storms as before. It began to seem as though famine would 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.
Under these circumstances Clark decided to take six of the most active men and push ahead in search of game and a more hospit- able country. \ hard march of twenty miles rewarded him with a view of a vast open plain in front of the broken mountain chain across which they had been struggling. It was three days, however, before they fairly cleared the edge of the mountains and emerged on the great prairie north and east of where Lewis- ton now is. They found no game except a stray horse, which they speedily dispatched.
Here the advance guard waited for the main body to come up, and then all together they went down to the Clearwater where a large number of 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 constructed, they laid in a stock of dog meat, and then committed themselves to the sweeping current with which all the tributaries of the Columbia hasten 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. In- deed. it may be safely asserted that the first explorers of this country almost uniformly met with the kindest reception. The cruelty and cleceit afterward characteristic of the Indians were learned partly of the whites.
On the 10th of October, having traveled sixty miles on the Clearwater, its pellucid waters delivered them to the turbid, angry. sullen, and lava-banked Snake. This great stream they called the Kimovenim. 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 compressed into a channel only twen- 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 rapid. and certainly it is very rare that the
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HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY.
mighty Snake becomes attenuated at that point to a width of twenty-five yards. The next day, descending the worst rapids they had yet seen (probably the Monumental rapid) it re- pelled their affrontery by upsetting one of the boats. No lives were lost, but the cargo of the boat was badly wetted. 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 very carefully stored away and cov- ered with stone. This trifling circumstance is noticed because of the explorers speaking in connection with it of their customary scrupu- lousness in never taking any property of the Indians, and of their determination to repay the owner if they could find him, on their re- turn. 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 affec- tion for each other, the whites bestowing medals, shirts, trinkets, etc., in accordance with the rank of the recipient, and the Indians re- paying the kindness with abundant and pro- longed visits and accompanying gifts of wood and fish. On the next day they measured the rivers, finding the Columbia to be 960 yards wide, and the Snake 575. They indulge in no poetic reveries as they stand by the river whichi had been one principal object of their search, but they seem to have seen pretty much every- thing of practical value. In the glimmering haze of the pleasant October morning they no- tice the vast bare prairie stretching southward
until broken by the rounded summits of the Blue mountains. They find the Sohulks, who lived at the junction of the rivers, a mild and happy people, the men being content with one wife, whom they actually assist in the 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. 1. was the sage hen, no doubt, a handsome bird nearly as large as a turkey and very common along the river at the present time.
After two days' rest, being well supplied with fish, dog, roots, etc., and at peace withi 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 described, cut clear against the dim hor- izon line of the southwest, a pyramidal moun- tain, covered with snow-their first view of Mount Hood.
The next day, being in the vicinity of U'matilla, they saw another snowy peak at a conjectured distance of one hundred and fifty miles. This they supposed to be Mount St. Helens, but it was, in reality, Mount Adams. Near here Captain Clark, having landed, shot a crane and a duck. Some Indians near were almost paralyzed with terror. . At last they re- covered 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 unroofed hut discoy-
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HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY.
ered 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 stray sunbeam with which to light his pipe. Thereat the consternation of the In- dians revived, and they refused to be com- forted. 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 their fear of Captain Clark by saying that he came from the sky accompanied by a terrible noise, and they knew that 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 be- came so enamoured 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 busi- ness 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 incredible numbers. Continuing with 1) extraordinary occurrence. they passed the river now called the John Day. to which they applied the name Lapage. Mt. Hood was now almost constantly in view, and since the In- dians 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 ) moun- tain.
On the next day they reached a large river on the left, which came thundering through a narrow channel into the equally turbulent Co- lumbia. 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 Towahna- hiooks. It afterwards 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 earth are squeezed into a crack forty-five yards wide. The desola- tion on either side of this frightful chasm is a fitting margin. As one crawls to the edge and peeps over he sees the water to be of inky blackness. Streaks of foam gridiron the blackness. There is little noise compared with the shallow rapids above. but rather a dismal sough, as though the rocks below were rub- bing their black sides together in the vain effort to close over the escaping river. The river is here "turned on edge." In fact, its depth 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 volcanic 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 right through this Witches' Cauldron. Though no
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HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY.
doubt whirled along with frightful rapidity and flung like foam flakes on the crests 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 beginning 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 be- tween the Indian tribes. Those living at the falls, where Celilo now is, called the Enee- shurs, understood and "fellowshipped" with all the up-river tribes. But at the narrows and thence to the dalles was a tribe called the Es- cheloots. These were entirely alien to the Indians above, but on intimate terms with those below to the cascades. Among the Esche- loots the explorers first noticed the peculiar "cluck" in speech common to all down-river. tribes. The flattening of the head, which above belonged to the 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 rocks near the present location of the car shops.
The next Indian tribe, extending appar- ently from the vicinity of Crate's point to the cascades, capped the climax of tongue-twist- ing names by calling themselves Chilluckitte- quaws.
Nothing of an extraordinary character seems to have been encountered between the
dialles and the cascades. But the explorers had their eyes wide open, and the calm majesty of the river and the savage grandeur 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 the Little White Salmon, though they were greatly de- ceived as to its size, stating it to be sixty yard 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 dam- ming up of the river at a very recent time. In deed they judged that it must have occurred within twenty years. It is well known, how- ever, that submerged trees or piles, as indicated by remains of the old Roman wharfs in Britain. may remain intact for hundreds of years. It is. nevertheless, evident that the closing of the river at the cascades was a very recent event. It is also evident from the sliding, sinking, and grinding constantly seen there now that a sim- ilar event is liable to happen at any time.
The cascades having been reached more portages 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 ca- noes on the unobstructed vastness of the lower river.
This was successfully accomplished on the 2d of November. They were greatly delight- ed with the verdure which now robed the gaunt nakedness of the rocks. The island formed at the lower cascades by Columbia slough also pleased them greatly by its fertility and its dense growth of grass and strawberry vines.
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HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY.
From this last circumstance they named it Strawberry island. At the lower part of that cluster of islands, that spired and turreted relic of the oldl 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 esti- mated its height at eight hundred feet and its circumference at four hundred yards, the lat- ter 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 mul- tiplied fingers outstretched to welcome then. the first organized expedition of the new re- public to this westmost west. It might have betokened to them the harmony and unity of future nations. as exemplified in the vast ex- tent. the liberty. the human sympathies, the diversified interests. industries and purposes of that republic. whose motto yet remains. ne from many.
The rest of their journey was a calm float- ing between meadows and islands from whose shallow ponds they obtained ducks and geese in great number».
They thought the "quick-sand river"- Sandy-t, be a large and important stream. They notice 1 the Washougal creek. which from the great number of seals around its mouth they called Seal river. But strange to say they missed the Willamette entirely on their down trip. The Indians in this part of
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