CHAPTER XI.
A BRIEF SURVEY OF EASTERN OREGON.
Traveling in Eastern Oregon is altogether the same as we have described it in the Walla Walla Valley, except that here there is more of it, and the roads at once better and worse for the same reason: that is, better graded on the hills, and more smotheringly dusty on the levels. Leaving Umatilla, where we arrive by steamer, there is the same sand-waste to toil through, and the same rolling plain of light, ashen soil to overcome, before reaching the settled portion of the valley, that there is between Wallula and Walla Walla. Nor is there any material difference between the general features of the Walla Walla and Umatilla valleys—their respective streams rising in the Blue Mountains, flowing in the same general westerly direction, and falling into the Columbia about twenty-five miles apart. By natural boundary, the Walla Walla Valley belongs to Oregon, lying as it does wholly south of the Snake River, and partly south of the Oregon line. As mentioned elsewhere, it is the lowest point in the Columbia Basin—the Umatilla, the Grand Ronde, and Powder River valleys being each successively more elevated than the other.
The whole extent of country, lying east of the Cascades in Oregon, is 58,000 square miles, and consists of immense plateaux, crossed from the north-east to the south-west by the Blue Mountains, from which numerous spurs put out in various directions. The best land in Eastern Oregon lies along near the base of this transverse chain of mountains, and in the valleys of the streams flowing from it on either side; the upper portion of these valleys being invariably the best. All the timber of the country—fir, pine, cedar, spruce, and larch—grows on the high mountain ridges, except the mere fringes of cottonwood and willow which border the streams. The Blue Mountains constitute a wall between the Columbia River Basin, to the north, and the Klamath Basin, to the south; hence all the rivers of Eastern Oregon head in these mountains, and flow into the Columbia and Snake rivers, only excepting those in the Klamath Basin, which empty into marshy lakes or sinks. Along these rivers, and about the lakes, there are large tracts of excellent land, suitable for farming. Subtracting from the whole area of Eastern Oregon what may be called the valley lands, the remainder is high, rolling prairie, with a considerable portion of waste, volcanic country in the central and western divisions. The country may be considered well watered throughout, as the streams are numerous, and water is to be found by stock at all seasons of the year. Owing, however, to the elevation of the plains above the beds of the principal streams, irrigation can not be effected, over a large portion of it, unless by artesian wells or by conducting water from the mountains. Such are the general features of that portion of Oregon lying east of the Cascade Mountains.
Attention was first drawn to the fertility of Eastern Oregon, by the population that rushed to the mines in 1861, and the three years immediately following. It became necessary to provide for the consumption of a large class of persons who dealt only in gold. The high prices they paid, and were willing to pay, for the necessary articles of subsistence, stimulated others to attempt the raising of grain and vegetables. The success which attended their efforts soon led to the taking up and cultivating of all the valley lands in the neighborhood of mines, and finally to experiments with grain-crops on the uplands, where also the farmers met with unexpected success. The nature of the soils on the south side of the Columbia is nearly identical with those already spoken of as characteristic of the north side: light, ashen, and often strongly alkaline, on the plains; sandy and clay loam at the base of the mountains, and richly alluvial in the bottoms, where it is often, too, mixed with alkali. It is discovered that on the highest uplands, and tops of ridges, there is a mixture of clay loam, which accounts for the manner in which wheat crops endure the natural dryness of the climate in the growing season.
Eastern Oregon has a population of about 13,000, and is divided into five counties, which serve for judicial purposes; but is more often spoken of by valleys than by counties. In one case, as in that of Umatilla, they are identical, where the county embraces this one valley. The reservation of the Cayuse, Walla Walla, and Umatilla Indians occupies a considerable portion of this county, which altogether has an area of about six thousand square miles—probably one-third. Of the remaining two-thirds, about half is reckoned as agricultural land, and the balance as grazing land of the very best quality. Water is plenty and excellent; but timber, as already described, is found only on the mountains.
Pendleton, the county-seat, is situated centrally, on the Umatilla River, and is a thriving new town of two hundred and fifty inhabitants. There are two or three other small towns in the county, each the centre of an agricultural district. Two saw-mills manufacture all the lumber consumed in the county, which as yet has not more than 2,875 inhabitants, nor more than 8,000 acres of land under improvement.
Union County contains the valley of the Grand Ronde, a circular, grassy plain on the Grand Ronde River, long celebrated for its beauty and fertility. Here, in the early times of overland immigration by wagons, the weary immigrant found food for his cattle and rest for himself, after the long, exhausting march over the hot and sterile plains of Snake River. This valley is thirty miles in diameter, well watered, and very productive in cereals, fruits, and vegetables, of all kinds common to the temperate zone. About 15,000 acres are under cultivation in this valley. The yield of grain-crops is unusually large, wheat often yielding from forty to sixty bushels per acre, and barley and oats, from sixty to eighty. A considerable amount of land in this valley is subject to overflow, which makes it greatly esteemed as grass land, and for its annual product of hay. Timber is conveniently near on the encircling mountains, and water abundant.
The climate of Grand Ronde Valley is subject to greater extremes than that of Walla Walla, or Umatilla, being nearly 1,000 feet higher than the latter. Snow seldom remains on the ground more than three weeks, the winter being short, and spring plowing and gardening commencing in March. Although stock should be provided with shelter and food, yet cattle and sheep are often left to winter without either; and do very well without, in ordinary seasons.
Another fertile valley in Union County is the Wallowe, separated from Grand Ronde by a spur of the Blue Mountains. It contains about 6,000 acres of land similar to that in the larger valley. Eagle Creek Valley, of about the same extent as the Wallowe, contains also considerable good land; but is more celebrated for its mines than its agricultural advantages. The mineral resources of Union County are, in fact, important. Besides the gold mines, which have been profitably worked, there are indications of iron, copper, lead, and coal. Very few locations combine a greater number of advantages than this portion of Union County. Its mountains afford the precious and base metals, besides timber; its plains inexhaustible pasture; and its bottom-lands the most fertile farms. There are several hundred miners at work on Eagle Creek; and thirty or forty families settled in the valley.
La Grande is the county-seat of Union County, and contains 640 inhabitants. There are several smaller settlements, and altogether a population of 2,555. The grain product for 1870 was: Wheat, 250,000 bushels; oats, 200,000 bushels; barley, 150,000 bushels. It is estimated that its taxable property for 1871 is about $1,000,000. Four saw-mills supply the demand for lumber; as also do the flouring-mills the demand for flour. The stage-road from Umatilla to Boise City and the Central Pacific Railroad passes through La Grande, making communication easy with the Columbia River and the cast.
Baker County, named for Col. E. D. Baker, who fell in battle at Ball's Bluff, embraces the valleys of Powder, Burnt, Malheur, and Owyhee rivers. Settled, like Union County, on account of its mines, it soon became well known for the productive character of its soil. We remember to have hoard, while traveling on the stage from Umatilla, a miner from Powder River declaring, that "if a crow-bar should be left sticking in the ground overnight, it would be found in the morning to have sprouted tenpenny nails!"—after which assertion we never felt at liberty to question any statements which might be given us of the fertility of the Powder River Valley. With its several rivers, its bottom-lands, plains, and mountains, Baker County is one of the best in Eastern Oregon. Its elevation being four hundred feet greater than the Grand Ronde, gives it a climate both colder in winter and hotter in summer; the thermometer in winter sometimes falling to 15 degrees below zero, and in summer rising to 105 degrees. Yet the winters are short, and the spring early; while autumn is long and delightful, being a season of mildness and occasional refreshing showers.
Like Union County, Baker is celebrated for its mineral products. Placer gold has been found in considerable quantities in several districts, known as Rye Valley, Mormon Basin, Clark's Creek, Auburn, and Shasta. Later discoveries of rich gold and silver quartz-leads confirm its reputation as a mining region. Coal, and the base metals, are also known to exist here; the mining of which will be greatly facilitated by the presence of water and wood in abundance.
Baker City, with a population of 312, is the county-seat. The population of the whole county is roughly estimated at three thousand, but is probably less: as may be also that of other counties—since the estimate of the citizens seldom tallies with the general result of the census. It is very difficult to compute the shifting communities of mining counties accurately. Baker County has several lumber-mills, and one flouring-mill; besides machine-shops, and all the necessary trades' and smiths' shops. Both in Union and Baker counties, great attention has been given to the establishment of schools. In the former, a common-school system is already in operation, supported both by subscription and taxation. Religious services are generally held with regularity, in the towns and settlements. In all that goes to make up the character of good, moral, and respectable people, the settlers of both Eastern Oregon and Washington appear to be ahead of most newly settled communities. The overland stage route is through this county, giving daily mail communication with the east and west. The roads are kept in good repair for wagoning goods from the Columbia River to the different mining-camps and settlements.
Grant County, embracing that central portion of Eastern Oregon where the Blue Mountains are highest, and extending southward to the southern boundary of the State, comprises altogether some of the most remarkable features of the whole country, including a portion of the wonderful "lake region." It was first settled in 1862, by a mining population; since which time it has contributed ten millions to the wealth of the world. The mining-camps are all on the head-waters and forks of the John Day River; where the placer mines are being worked out, only to be replaced by the discovery of rich quartz-leads.
This county, like those already mentioned, has become self-supporting, so far as farm products are concerned. It has under cultivation about nine thousand acres of land, chiefly on the North, South, and Middle Forks of John Day River, and a population of between two and three thousand. A good wagon-road from Canyon City, the county-seat, to the Dalles, furnishes connection with the Columbia River; and excellent coaches, carrying a daily mail, travel over it. Freight-wagons and pack-trains also assist to keep the dry dust of summer stirring, tossing it to the boisterous winds that career at will over the boundless yellow plains of the Columbia.
In that portion of Grant County near the base of the Blue Mountains on the north side, it resembles in all respects those other mountain valleys already described, with its rich, level bottoms, grassy foot-hills, and timbered mountain ridges. But that portion of the county lying south of the Blue Mountains, is interesting not only as containing a large area of grazing and cultivable lands, but its physical conformation makes it a field of peculiar interest to the geologist. Harney Lake Valley, in this region, is remarkable for being a basin forty miles in diameter without an outlet. The lake from which it takes its name is a small, brackish body of water, near its south-eastern rim, receiving the drainage of the whole basin, and discharging it through some invisible outlet. Lying, as it does, in the most elevated portion of a broken and volcanic country, it affords speculation for the curious. The valley itself has a rocky surface, except in the northern part, where there is a tract of good arable land.
Besides Harney Lake, there is a chain of fresh-water lakes, commencing on the north-eastern, and extending to the south-western border of the county, in some cases connected by sluggish, but pure streams, and subject to high and low stages of water. They abound in fish and water-fowl, and are bordered generally by good grazing and agricultural lands; while those bodies of water out of which no streams flow are all more or less alkaline, from receiving the drainage of the alkaline soil about them, and not discharging any portion of it.
Wasco County, extending from the northern to the southern boundary of Oregon, along the base of the Cascade Range, and having a breadth of more than sixty miles, comprises almost every variety of surface and soil belonging to all the other counties. Its southern portion, like the southern portion of Grant County, is a lake country. A chain of volcanic high-lands, commencing at Diamond Peak of the Cascade Range, runs north-easterly, joining on to the Blue Mountains, and separating this lake-region from the valleys of the Des Chutes, Crooked, and John Day rivers, which flow toward the north; making of this south-western portion of Eastern Oregon an isolated, as it is a peculiar country.
Lying near the base of the Cascades, and south of the ridge just mentioned, is the Klamath Marsh, a wet, grassy basin, out of which flows Williamson's River, a stream of considerable size, into Great Klamath Lake, a few miles farther south. Near the head of this lake is situated Fort Klamath, a military post, located here during the disturbances with the Snake and Klamath Indians in 1863. On the eastern shore of this lake is located the reservation of the Klamath, Modoc, and Snake Indians. It occupies a tract about fifty miles square, including the marsh and the connecting river. The general appearance of the country which the reservation embraces is sterile and volcanic. In shape it is rolling, covered with a fine growth of yellow and sugar pine, with some cedars, firs, and on the streams, cottonwood, poplar, and willow. The best part of the reservation is that which lies on Sprague River—a stream rising about forty miles to the east, in the highlands about Goose Lake, and flowing westwardly into Klamath Lake. This valley, fifteen miles in breadth by forty in length, possesses a quick, fertile soil; although its elevation of four thousand feet above the sea, unfits it as a region for the farming of the tender fruits and vegetables. Wild flax grows abundantly in this region, as it does also in many parts of Eastern Oregon,
Springs of pure, clear, cold water are very numerous; some of them of immense size. There is one bursting out at the base of the mountains about two miles west of Williamson's River, which is a quarter of a mile across in one direction, and twenty-five rods in the other, and which discharges a stream of clear, cold water large enough to be navigable by the steamers that run on the Wallamet River. This water, flowing into Williamson's River, completely changes its character, from warm and turbid to clear and cold; in which trout from twelve to sixteen inches may be plainly seen disporting themselves at a distance of several yards. [A spring of a similar character and dimensions bursts out at the foot of the Cascades, a few miles north of the Three Sisters, discharging itself into the Des Chutes River.] The saw-mill at the Agency is run by the same spring which supplies an irrigating ditch; and has besides a large surplus, a portion of which will be used in running a grist-mill. The lands of the reservation, however, that have been put under cultivation, are too high and too cold ever to produce the farming results to make it self-supporting. Game, fish, and roots, such as the Indians use, are abundant; and on these the Indians can at least partially subsist themselves, while being taught to labor.
South-east of the reservation, and beyond the western ridge of the Goose Lake Mountains, is Goose Lake Valley, containing a considerable portion of good agricultural land, with a much larger amount of excellent grazing land. Surprise Valley, on the eastern side of Goose Lake, is similar to those previously mentioned; and all are surrounded by timbered ridges. Goose Lake and Surprise valleys are well settled up. There is, in fact, a succession of settlements lodged in the small valleys of this portion of Oregon, all along the California and Oregon line. It is estimated that ten thousand head of cattle are pastured on the meadows about Clear Lake—a country hardly known as yet.
The Oregon Central Military Road passes through all this region, starting from Eugene City in the Wallamet Valley, and crossing the Cascades at Diamond Peak Pass. From thence it crosses to Owyhee, in Idaho; passing through much valuable mineral country also. The road from Ohico, in California, to Boise City, in Idaho, traverses the south-eastern corner of Oregon; a great deal of freight going that way to the mines. It is hoped to bring a branch of the Central Pacific from the Humboldt Valley, through the Klamath Lake region, into the head of the Wallamet Valley. A scheme is on hand for turning the waters of Lost River, a stream which flows out of Wright Lake into Clear Lake, through a canal, which shall conduct them into the Lower Klamath Lake; thus draining thousands of acres of excellent land, well adapted to settlement.
The northern part of Wasco County contains the valleys of the Des Chutes, John Day, and Crooked rivers, and their tributaries; besides the valleys of numerous creeks falling into the Columbia, near the Dalles—all of which are pretty well settled up. Proceeding north from the Klamath Lakes, we first come into a country interesting chiefly to the geologist; being an immense plain covered with volcanic ashes and tufa, except a small valley of good land on the head-waters of the Des Chutes, in the vicinity of a cluster of beautiful lakes. North of these are the Three Sisters—a beautiful group of snow-peaks, standing out from the range, and covered with snow almost to their bases. For a long distance to the east of these, the country is a waste of volcanic ashes and cinders, into which the legs of a horse sink eighteen or twenty inches. In the midst of this waste is an old crater of a volcano, its walls still standing to a height of between two and three hundred feet; and in its neighborhood lava, scoria, and obsidian are scattered broadcast. About the sources of the Crooked River, an affluent of the Des Chutes, are also numerous boiling springs, indicating the volcanic nature of the country.
Passing the spring before mentioned as discharging into the Des Chutes, and crossing two or three small streams of clear water, cold from the snows of Mount Jefferson, we come to the Warm Springs Reservation, the home of the Des Chutes, Wascopams, and several other tribes of Indians, The reservation takes its name from the boiling springs in its neighborhood, which are curiously near to a stream of ice-cold water. The country here is high, and worthless, except for grazing; and can never be made to support the Indians gathered upon it. In the vicinity of this reservation a bed of moss-agates has lately been discovered which promises to be quite extensive.
Following down the Des Chutes, we cross several creeks coming into it. One of these, Tyghe Creek, falls into this river at a point where the canyon it flows through is more than a thousand feet in depth. From Tyghe Creek it is thirty-five miles to the Columbia. Not far below the entrance of the creek, the road from Dalles to Canyon City crosses the Des Chutes. While here we are almost abreast of Mount Hood, and spread out on every hand is a landscape of wonderful impressiveness and extent.
Dalles is the county-seat of Wasco County. Its population is between 700 and 800, while that of the county is 2,489. The proportion of its urban to its suburban population shows the greater number of people engaged in agriculture and stock-raising; for Wasco County has no towns except Dalles. There are four saw-mills in this county, and one large flouring-mill at Dalles; a woolen-mill—not in operation at present; and extensive machine-shops, as mentioned elsewhere.
A railroad is projected, to begin at a point on the Union Pacific, and following up Ham's Fork of Green River, and along Bear River to the nearest point on the Snake River; to follow the Snake Valley down to the Immigrant-crossing; through the mining counties of Eastern Oregon, and so on to Dalles City, on the Columbia. There are many arguments in favor of this route to the great river thoroughfare of Oregon. Such a road would inevitably be continued to the Wallamet Valley, and form connection with the Northern Pacific to Puget Sound. Cheap transportation is the great want of the whole upper country. High prices for labor and for all the commodities of life must prevail, when $30, coin, is the price of transporting one ton of freight, by measurement, from Portland to Umatilla. Add to this the freight from San Francisco, seven dollars, and the additional freight by wagon to places remote from the Columbia, and goods become worth "their weight in gold."
Even at these figures, there is landed at Umatilla, annually, fifteen to twenty thousand tons; and at Wallula, in Washington, five or six thousand more. As a consequence, wages range from six to eight dollars per day. It is proof positive of the worth of the country that it continues to grow and prosper under such disadvantages. The surplus of grain which is raised will not, in most cases, pay for shipping to foreign markets. One example to the contrary, however, came under our observation, where Mr. Wait, of Waitsburg, in the Walla Walla Valley, shipped several thousand barrels of flour to Europe and made a dollar a barrel on it; and this year, as much as 100,000 bushels of wheat were exported from the Walla Walla Valley, by way of the Columbia River. If, then, with so much against him, the business man can make money, how many times would his chances be doubled by quick and cheap transportation. Railroads are truly the one great need of all this country, and with them would come the population to make them paying.
Having seen enough of Eastern Oregon, on our return to Dalles we take steamer for the Lower Columbia, and Wallamet River. We rise early, as any one must who goes anywhere in Oregon, and get our last and loveliest view of Mount Hood from the east side of the Cascades. We have seen it in every possible conjuncture of circumstances, almost at its feet, and where distance made it seem like a faint white cloud. But behold his majesty this morning, draped from summit to base in a golden-tinted tissue of morning mist, of so delicate a texture that it has no trait of masculinity about it! In fact, we are reminded of a girl in the "trying on" process with a straw-colored silk grenadine. Her head has not yet emerged from the billows of gauze; nor is her robe quite shaken down on one side—the shining petticoat of snow showing daintily underneath. Many are the masquerading costumes and airs of the solid old mountain, who, despite the dignity of his thousands of years, affects at times the blushes of the rose.