of Oregon, or of the Northwest, will be determined in the next ten years. Already it has dangerously active rivals on the north, which will struggle for the supremacy; but even if that were lost, this city must be to the Wallamet Valley what St. Louis is to the Mississippi or Cincinnati to the Ohio valleys.
The future magnitude of Portland depends upon its transportation facilities, which at present are good, and seemingly destined to he greatly increased. But within the memory of this generation it depended entirely upon boats of all sizes, from the canoe to the sailing ship and ocean steamer.
The history of transportation in Oregon is interesting. The Wallamet Valley being the first and for many years the only part settled, and being, as previously described, surrounded by mountains except at its north end, where it opened on the Columbia, and not accessible there except by boats, travel to the settlements was attended with much toil and difficulty. Neither the Columbia nor the Wallamet was open to continuous navigation, the latter being obstructed by falls twenty feet in height. At the falls, it is true, there grew up a little town ; but as all the open or agricultural land was some distance above this place, a portage had to be made here of a mile or two, and always at a risk of accident. As early as 1846-47 there were two or three freight-boats rigged with oars and sails on the Wallamet above the falls. In 1850 the first steamboat was launched and run below the falls, which was very soon followed by others, making trips to Astoria and Vancouver, and during the autumn immigration to the Cascades to assist the newcomers in reaching the valle}\ Then the Indian troubles made necessary transportation above the Cascades, and above The Dalles, inducing first the building of sail and next of small steamboats on those sections of the river. Finally a number of the individual owners combined, and an organization resulted in the incorporation in 1862 of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, Captain J. C. Ainsworth, president. To this company belonged in its early years most of the now solid men of Portland. It was well officered, conservative, but not unenterprising, and for many years held Oregon in the palm of its hand. It had a monopoly of the Columbia, having yielded the Wallamet to the People’s Transportation Company, and, in order to
