USA > Washington > Spokane County > Spokane > History of the city of Spokane and Spokane County, Washington : from its earliest settlement to the present time, Volume I > Part 28
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Finding no support for his treacherous plot, old Looking Glass eraftily turned front and made a virtue of necessity. "I told the governor," he said in eouneil, "that the Walla Walla country was bloeked up by bad Indians, and that I would go ahead and he behind. and that's my heart now. Now that he says he will go, I will get up and go with him. Now let none of you turn your face from what has been said. Your old men have spoken. and where is the man who will turn his baek on it."
As the eouneil ended an Indian runner came in from the Walla Walla valley with the startling and cheering news that a regiment of 500 Oregon volunteers com- manded by Colonel Kelly, who later served as United States senator, had come up from the Willamette valley into the Walla Walla country, and after four days hard fighting had routed the hostiles and driven them out of the valley. The way thus cleared. Governor Stevens could have dispensed with the tendered eseort of the Nez Perces, but to confirm their fidelity and eement the bond of friendship, he invited a hundred warriors to go with him as far as the Walla Walla valley.
"It was a clear. bright, frosty December morning that the mingled eavaleade of white and Indian left behind the hospital lodges of the Nez Perees, and filed along the banks of the Lapwai and Kooskooskia." says Hazard Stevens. "Rarely has the Clearwater reflected a more picturesque or jovial crew. Here were the gentlemen of the party, with their blaek felt hats and heavy eloth overcoats ; rough- elad miners and packers; the mountain-men, with buekskin shirts and leggings and fur caps : the long-eared paek-mules, with their bulky loads; and the blanketed young braves, with painted visage, and hair adorned with eagle feathers, mounted on sleek and spirited mustangs, and dashing hither and thither in the greatest exeite- ment and glee. Each of the warriors had three fine, spirited horses, which he rode in turn as the faney moved him. They used buckskin pads or wooden saddles eov- Vol. I-14
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ered with buffalo, bear or mountain goat skin. The bridle was a simple line of buffalo hair tied around the lower jaw of the steed, which yielded implicit obedience to this seanty headgear. At a halt the long end of the line is flung loosely on the ground, and the horse is trained to stand without other fastening.
"The demeanor of the young braves on this march was in marked contrast to -the traditional gravity and stoicism of their race. They shouted, laughed, told stories, cracked jokes, and gave free vent to their native gaiety and high spirits. Craig, who accompanied the party. translated these good things as they occurred. to the great amusement of the whites. Crossing a wide. that plain covered with tall rye grass. he related an anecdote of Lawyer, with the reminiscence of which the young braves seemed particularly tickled. While yet an obscure young warrior. Lawyer was traveling over this ground with a party of the tribe, including several of the principal chiefs. It was a cold winter day. and a biting gale swept up the river, penetrating their clothing and chilling them to the bone. The chiefs sat down in the shelter of the tall rye grass, and were indulging in a cosy smoke. when Lawyer fired the prairie far to windward, and in an instant the fiery element in a long, erackling. blazing line, came sweeping down on the wings of the wind upon the comfort-taking chiefs, and drove them to rush helter skelter into the river for safety, dropping robes, pipes and everything that might impede their flight. For this audacious prank Lawyer barely escaped a public whipping.
"It was a gala day for the Nez Perces when the party reached the valley, and were received by the Oregon volunteers with a military parade and a salute of mms- ketry; and when Governor Stevens dismissed them with presents and thanks and words of encouragement. they returned home the most devoted and enthusiastic auxi- liaries that ever marched in behalf of the whites.
. "The valley was reached on the 20th. Major Chin commanding the volun- teers, and other officers rode out to meet the governor, and, on reaching the vol- unteer camp, the troops, four hundred in number, paraded and fired a volley in salute as the picturesque column marched past, the fifty sturdy, travel-stained whites in advance, followed by the hundred proud and flaunting braves, curveting their horses and uttering their warwhoops. The volunteers then formed in hollow square, and the governor addressed them in a brief speech, complimenting them on their energy in pushing forward at that inclement season, and gallantry in engag- ing and routing a superior force of the enemy. and tendering the thanks of his party for opening the road."
Governor Stevens and party eagerly listened to the news of the winter cam- paign of the volunteers. The engagement had been a severe one, the confederated hostiles resisting firmly for four days, and then falling back in confusion on mis- taking a distant pack-train, descending the slopes of the Blue mountains, for a reinforcing column of armed white soldiers. In the combat Pu-pu-mox-mox had been taken prisoner, and attempting to escape from his guard, was killed by a rifle volley. By a singular tragie coincidence. Owhi, another leading chief in this uprising, was to suffer a like fate two years later. while attempting to escape from Colonel Wright's command.
General Wool, commanding the department of the Columbia, had arrived at Van- couver from San Francisco, but had either failed or refused to support the volun- tears or send relief to Governor Stevens. He took the view that the Indians were
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not to blame, and that the war had been instigated by white speculators. "He had even disbanded two companies of Washington volunteers at Vancouver, after they had been aetnally mustered into the United States service," deelares Hazard Stevens, in a spirited defense of his father; "and a company that had been raised under the direction of Colonel Frank Shaw, for the express purpose of going to the defense of the governor, was dismissed by Wool in spite of the remonstranees of its officers and of Major Rains."
In a sueeeeding chapter we shall relate the stirring events which followed as a sequel to the Yakima-Walla Walla outbreak. and deal somewhat with Governor Stevens' severe arraignment of General Wool before the war department.
CHAPTER XXIII
GOVERNOR STEVENS AN ARDENT INLAND EMPIRE BOOSTER
SENDS OPTIMISTIC REPORTS TO WASHINGTON-FORESEES GREAT FUTURE FOR WALLA WALLA, PALOUSE, YAKIMA, SPOKANE AND OTHER REGIONS-REMARKABLE FORECAST OF COUNTRY'S RESOURCES-POINTS OUT VALUE OF LOGGED OFF LANDS-REMARKABLE RIDE BY HIS 13 YEAR OLD SON-CHARMED BY WESTERN MONTANA AND IDAHO PAN- HANDLE-PREDICTS DEVELOPMENT OF MANY RICH MINES-M'CLELLAN BERATES THE COUNTRY-IS PRAISED BY JEFFERSON DAVIS, WHO WANTS TO DISCOURAGE NORTHERN DEVELOPMENT.
Thy voice sounds like a prophet's word ; And in its hollow tones are heard The thanks of millions yet to be. Fits Greene Halleck.
W HIEN in the field Governor Stevens took note of climatic conditions, the soil, timber, water, building materials and other elements bearing on future settlement of this region. Ilis reports to Washington are clear, informative, optimistic. He comprehended, as none before him, the country's poten- tial resources, its mild and invigorating elimate, and great possibilities for settle- ment and conversion, through the enterprise, courage and industry of our pioneers, into an empire abounding in pleasant homes and productive industries.
After passing through the Walla Walla country in June, 1855, on his way east- ward to the Blackfoot council, he wrote in his journal: "We left our camp in the Walla Walla valley at noon, moving over a delightful rolling country, well grassed and arable; and on June 17 we moved twenty miles over a remarkably fine grazing and wheat country, and camped on the Pa-at-ta-ha creek, a branch of the Tonchet river. The following points of today's journey are worthy of attention," adds the governor. "in order to show that this region is not the barren desert it has been rep- resented to be. In six and a half miles we crossed the Smahine creek of the Touchet, where there was good running water. In three miles and three quarters further on we crossed the Kapyah creek of the Touchet, near its junetion with the latter stream. There was pine in view in the valley of the Touchet, and the country was very beau- tiful and inviting. One mile further, on a small fork of the Touchet, several persons have taken claims in the vicinity. . The whole country in view was well . adapted to purposes of agriculture and stock-raising."
Continuing his description of the country, Governor Stevens said: "Leaving
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the Tukanon, we aseended the bluffs and passed over table-land of the same charac- ter as that of the first portion of our journey, and reached the Pa-at-ta-ha tributary of the Tukanon. This tributary furnishes a large amount of excellent land ; its val- ley, as well as the table-land between it and the adjacent streams, is uniformly fer- tile, and at the present time covered with the most luxuriant grass. I will here remark, to guard against misconception, that it must not be inferred, when I speak of a country as being covered with excellent grass, that it is not an arable country, for I suppose it will be admitted that all arable countries ought to furnish grass of some kind. After traveling up this stream three miles, we came to a rather broad trail, which, turning off from the stream, erosses Snake river, eighteen miles below the Red Wolf's ground, and leads to the Coeur d'Alene mission and the Spokane country. The day's journey has been delightful to all the members of my party, for it passed over a most beautiful prairie country, the whole of it adapted to agriculture. In the valley of the Tukanon we found a very experienced and kind- hearted mountaineer, Lonis Moragne, who, with his Flathead wife and six children, had gathered about him all the comforts of a home. His eldest daughter was mar- ried to a very intelligent American, Henry Chase, a native of my own county, in the good old state of Massachusetts, and they now propose to locate on the Touchet.
Moragne is the owner of some fifty horses and many cattle. His potatoes were in blossom and his wheat excellent. Hle had four acres under cultivation. He succeeded well in raising poultry, of which he had three or four dozen."
Moving northward the governor and his party came to the junction of Alpowah ercek and the Snake, where Red Wolf had "a fine field of corn which promises a most luxuriant crop." Stevens estimated the amount under cultivation there at twenty acres, irrigated by the waters of the creek, "and tolerably well set out with fruit trees. I observed," adds the governor, "with great pleasure, that men as well as women and children, were at work in this field, ploughing and taking care of their crops. The corn, planted only six weeks since, was about ready to silk out. From the appearance of the valley of the Alpahwah. I am satisfied that grapes would be a very profitable erop." Snake river valley vineyards are noted for the excellence of their products.
"The Nez Perces country," the official report continues, "is exceedingly well adapted to grazing. and is, for the most part, a fine, arable country. There are very extensive fields of the camas, and the Indians lay up large stores of that nutritious and delightful root."
Moving northward into the Palouse country, the party "reached the table-land. And here I was astonished, not simply at the luxuriance of the grass, but the richness of the soil; and I will again remind the reader that it does not follow breause the grass is luxuriant that the country is not arable." The governor closed his journal that day by another expression of astonishment at the luxuriance of the grass and the richness of the soil. "The whole view presents to the eye a vast bed of flowers in all their varied beauty. The country is a rolling table-land, and the soil like that of the prairies of Illinois."
Their next night encampment was on the right bank of the main Palouse river. "The whole country to the westward, as far as the eye could reach, was an open plain, the skies clear, and the atmosphere transparent : I say again, the whole eoun- try was, apparently, exceedingly rich and luxuriant." The governor interrogated
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very closely his packmaster, Higgins, in reference to the character of the country westward, "for he had erossed it on two different lines between our present trail and that from the mouth of the Palonse; and he assured me that the country which my own eye saw today, and had scen yesterday, was precisely the same country as that found on the westward lines."
"The narrative of these last four days travel," adds Stevens, "shows how extraor- dinarily well watered the country is west of the spur of the Bitter Root mountains. I will state again, having crossed the great plain of the Columbia from the Chema- kane mission north of the Spokane to the month of the Palouse, that the difference in the character of the country on these two lines is most extraordinary. A large portion of the country from the Chemakane mission to the mouth of the Palouse is arable, and generally well grassed. There is no deficiency of wood for camps, yet occasionally the basaltic formations erop out of the ground, at which points the country is sterile and uncultivable. But under the spurs of the Bitter Root moun- tains (the Coeur d'Alenes) the whole country is arable, the soil as riel as the best prairies of Minnesota, and every convenience for the house and farm at hand-wa- ter, wood for fires. and timber for building."
Governor Stevens foresaw, nearly sixty years ago, the agricultural future of the timber lands of the Inland Empire, after they should be logged off. "I paid partieu- lar attention to the forest growth," he remarks, "and I bore in mind our Puget Sound experience, which had established the fact that the timber lands, as a general thing, were mueh superior to the prairie lands. When I first went to the Puget Sound country in 1853, that fact was not acknowledged ; but the popular impression was that the timber lands were worthless except for the timber. In 1855 there had been experience of crops on timber lands, which established eonelusively the fact that they were our most valuable lands for agricultural purposes."
Commenting on the ease of travel in the interior, the governor wrote: "My son Hazard. 18 years of age, had accompanied me from Olympia to the waters of the Missouri. Like all youths of that age. he was always ready for the saddle and delighted in the hunt, and had spent some days with one of my hunting parties on the Judith, where he had beeome well acquainted with the Gros Ventres. When we determined to change the council from Fort Benton to the mouth of the Judith, I undertook, in the name of the commission, the duty of seeing the necessary messages sent to the various bands and tribes, and to bring them all to the mouth of the Judith at the proper moment. These Indians were seattered from Milk river, near Hammell's Houses, along the Marais, along the Teton, to a considerable distance south of the Missouri, the Flatheads being on the Judith, and the Upper Pend d'Oreilles on Smith's fork of the Missouri, with two bands of the Blackfeet lying somewhat intermediate, but in the vicinity of the Girdle mountains. I succeeded in securing the services of a fit and reliable man for each one of these bands and tribes, except the Gros Ventres, eamped on Milk river. There were several men who had had considerable experience among Indians and in voyaging who desired to go, but I had not confidence in them, and accordingly, at 10 o'clock on Sunday morn- ing. I started my little son as a messenger to the Gros Ventres. Accompanied by the interpreter Legare, he made that Gros Ventres camp before dark, a distance of seventy-five miles, and gave his message the same evening to the chiefs, and without
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changing horses they were in the saddle carly in the morning, and reached my camp at half past three o'clock.
"Thus a youth of thirteen traveled 150 measured miles from 10 o'clock one day to half past three o'clock in the afternoon of the next ; and he came in so fresh that he could have traveled, without fatigue, at least thirty miles further that evening. The Gros Ventres made their marches exactly as I had desired, and reached the new couneil ground at the month of the Judith on the very morning which had been appointed, being the first of all the bands and tribes."
Of western Montana, the country lying between the Rocky mountains and the Bitter Roots, Governor Stevens wrote with a far-sceing and prophetic eye. Of the whole area of this beautiful region, some 30,000 square miles, he estimated that 12,000 square miles would be brought under cultivation. "The country in the forks of the Flathead and the Bitter Root, stretching away east above the Blackfoot can- yon, is mostly a table-land, well watered and arable ; and on all these tributaries- the Bitter Root, the Hellgate, the Big Blackfoot, the Jocko, the Maple river, the Hot Spring river, and the Lou-Lou fork itself-the timber land will be found nn- questionably better than the prairie land. It will not be in the immediate bottom or valley of the river where farmers will find their best locations, but on the smaller tributaries some few miles above their junction with the main streams. The traveler passing up these rivers, and seeing a little tributary breaking out in the valley, will, in going up it, invariably come into an open and beautiful country. The observer who has passed through this country often; who has had intelligent men who have lived in it long: who understands intercourse with the Indians, and knows how to verify information which they give him, will be astonished at the conclusions which he will reach in regard to the agricultural advantages of this country : and it will not be many years before the progress of settlements will establish its superiority as an agricultural region."
Although his seat of government was at Olympia, Stevens seemed never to weary in his enthusiastic proclaiming of the beauties, the resources and the favorable eli- mate of the interior of his vast territory. Its verdant and flower-pied prairies charmed his senses, and its more open and park-like forests, as contrasted with the tangled and somber depths of the Puget Sound region, enlivened his fancy and kindled his prophetic fires. He was the first influential "booster" of the Spokane country. We owe to his memory an enduring monument, but it should not be erected until a fund is gathered sufficient to insure artistic genius of the highest order. Young cities that purchase statues prematurely are in danger of amassing a collection of monuments better suited to the cemetery than to public parks and open places.
In his voluminous report to the national government, Stevens described, in great minuteness, the country traversed by his expedition. With quick eye he noted its potential resources, and with facile pen portrayed them with a fidelity to fact that seems remarkably prophetic in the light of subsequent settlement and development. "That portion of the great plain lying cast of the main Columbia, and which may be regarded as bounded on the north by the Spokane, and on the east by the foothills of the Bitter Root mountains," says his report of 1855, "is, for the most part. well watered and well grassed. The eastern half of this portion is exceedingly well adapted to agricultural purposes. The various streams - the Palouse, the Camas Prairie ercek of the Coeur d'Alene ( Hangman), the Spokane and Coeur d'Alene
CONFLUENCE OF SPOKANE AND COLUMBIA RIVERS
COLUMBIA RIVER BELOW HUNTERS, WASHINGTON
THE NEM MARK PUBLIC LIBRARY
TILBE FOUNDATIONS
1
ARY
ASTUAL AUX TILLLA UNDATIONS
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rivers-are well timbered with pinc, and numerous rivulets and springs are found through that portion of the country, facilitating the progress of settlements, and rendering the whole at onee available to the agrieulturist. Indeed, the whole of the western slopes of the Bitter Root mountains arc densely timbered with pine, sprnee, lareh, eedar and other trees. These spurs have, in most cases, a gradual slope to the west, and the valleys of the several streams above referred to, as well as the Clearwater and Clark's fork, are wide and open, ineluding in the lower valley the immediate, gentle and numerous lateral spurs branching off from the main spurs."
Passing to a deseription of the Palouse and Big Bend regions, Stevens wrote: "This country is better supplied with wood than has been generally imagined. If the voyageur traveling over this country, whatever route he takes, be asked what sort of country it is, he will tell you an excellent country for traveling-wood, water and grass everywhere. But the pine of the Spokane extends nearly to its mouth, and for some miles south of the river. The Spokane is the name of the main stream to its junetion with the Coeur d'Alene river, when its name is given to a smaller tributary coming from the north (the Little Spokane). the Cocur d'Alene being the main stream.
"One of the most beautiful features of the Coeur d'Alene river and country is the Coeur d'Alene lake, which is embosomed in the midst of gently sloping hills, eov- ered with a dense forest growth; the irregularity of its form, and the changing aspeet of the seenery about it, makes it one of the most picturesque objeets in the interior.
"The whole valley of the Coeur d'Alene and Spokane is well adapted to settle- ment, abounding in timber for buildings and for fires, exceedingly well watered, and the greater portion of the land arable. Even on the main route from Colville to the mouth of the Palouse, there is much arable land for thirty miles south of the Spo- kane. East of this line the whole country may be denominated as cultivable country.
"North of the Great Plain, that is, from the Spokane to the forty-ninth parallel cast of the main Columbia, the country for the most part is densely wooded, although many valleys and open places occur, some of them now occupied by settlers. and all presenting advantages for settlement. Down Clark's fork itself (the l'end d'Oreille) there are open patches of land of considerable size, and so on the Kootenay river. North of the Spokane is a large prairie, known as the Coeur d'Alene prairie (the Spokane valley) through which the trail passes from Walla Walla to Lake Pend
d'Oreille. . From Fort Colville to where the Columbia bends suddenly to the west there is a good deal of excellent land. It will be safe to pronounce the whole country north of the Spokane, and lying between the main Columbia and the Koote- nay and the Coeur d'Alene mountains as a, cultivable country, although the dense forests will be an obstacle in the way of rapid occupation of the country.
"But here comes in another element of wealth: The country about Colville and on Clark's fork has been pretty thoroughly prospeeted for gold, and it exists in paying quantities throughout that region. On the Kootenay river are found mines of lead, copper, quieksilver, sulphur and platinum ; and there can be no question, from information derived from practical miners, from geological explorers, and especially from the testimony of the Jesuit fathers, DeSmet, Hoecken and Ravalli, that this is a country very rich in minerals."
Of the country lying between the Columbia and the Cascade mountains, including the valleys of the Yakima, the Wenatchee or Pisquouse. the Entiat, Chelan, Methow
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and Okanogan, Governor Stevens contended that a great injustice had been done it "by a want of patience and consideration on the part of gentlemen who have gone over it rapidly in the summer, and who have been over it but once. Now the most intelligent voyageurs and best practical farmers in that country agree in opinion that there is a large quantity of arable land throughout this country, and very superior grazing. This is the opinion of intelligent Indian chiefs who have them- selves made some progress in raising crops, and who are already great stock- raisers."
"On the several tributaries of the Yakima, particularly towards their upper waters, the land is rich and adapted to most of the crops, and so in the valley of the main Yakima itself. This valley has been denominated by some a desert and sage plain : sage does not occur in spots and small quantities, but much of the country is cultivable and productive. It may be observed that in regard to the whole of this central portion of the Territory, it will be necessary to exercise care as to sced- time, and farmers will have a disadvantage over those west of the Cascades in their seedtime being very much shorter; but with ordinary care as to the time of putting in seed no danger need be apprehended from droughts.
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