spent three days in it with his vessel, trading with the natives, who probably came out to him in canoes, as he makes no mention of any rivers or the appearance of the shores. Gray pronounced the entrance a good one. Vancouver’s lieutenant, Whidby, was ordered to survey it, but, after doing so,—very imperfectly, it seems,—pronounced it “ a port of little importance,” which afforded “ but two or three situations where boats could approach sufficiently near to effect a landing.” He also declared the water on the bar to be so shallow that it was impracticable for vessels even of a very moderate size to pass it except near high water, and then “with the utmost caution,” because he believed it a shifting bar. Whether in compliment or not, he renamed it Gray’s Harbor.
So doctors disagree. But it happened, as it so often has, that the professional was wrong and the non-professional right. The bar is quite straight and well defined by breakers on each side, with a channel through it a third of a mile in width, and a depth of water at low tide of twenty-two feet, and at high tide of from eight to fourteen more. Vessels go in and out all the time with perfect safety; but a new survey is in progress, which will have the result—no doubt desired—of calling attention to the actual merits of the harbor.
Whether it was the doubtful reputation of this port or other inscrutable cause which prevented it, no commerce sought its waters. It is true that in 1850-51 a town-site was laid out by John B. Chapman, and named Chehalis City; but nothing ever came of it, and Chapman went to the Sound. In 1852 J. L. Scammon and four others took claims where Montesano now stands, on the Chehalis; but the only man who resided at the mouth of the river was James A. Karr, who settled on the east side of the Hoquiam River in 1858, and who still resides there.
But one settler does not make a commercial port any more than one swallow makes a summer, and Karr remained solitary with all Asia in front of him until some lumber-dealers bethought themselves of the fine timber in the Chehalis Valley and determined to get it to market. In 1882 the Hoquiam Mill Company was organized, with Mr. George H. Emerson, manager, and a new era was inaugurated.
The saw-mill of to-day is very unlike the saw-mill of the past.
