tion facilities, and enterprises which changed Oregon from an impassable wilderness to a charming route for tourists. Tho United States military officer who was conducting an Indian campaign; the miner who was exploring for, or had found the precious metal; the stock-raiser who fattened his cattle on the bunch-grass plains, and brought them back to market them at home; the farmer who learned rather late the productive quality of the soil east of the mountains, as well as the immigrant and the traveller, all had reason to thank the Oregon Steam Navigation Company for the means which made it possible for them to carry on their undertakings with ease and safety,—made it possible not from motives of gain exclusively, but with intelligent foresight for the country, as well as the company.
No corporation that ever was in Oregon has done for it and for the country north of the Columbia what this Navigation Company did. Its career as a civilizer has been only equalled in Washington by the Northern Pacific Railroad, which succeeded to the ownership of the O. S. N. Company's property by purchase, a short time before Jay Cooke's failure, which came near losing the railroad company its lands on the Portland branch. Ainsworth had been made a director in the Northern Pacific, and was general manager of its affairs out here. When Cooke failed the branch from the Columbia to the Sound was not completed, and the men employed were deserting, when the old Navigation Company came to the rescue with its own funds, paid off the men, and completed the road to Tacoma. They were able afterwards to buy back again a majority of the O. S. N. stock, and made improvements in its property before selling out to Villard, and assisting him to organize the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company, the control of which was relinquished to the Union Pacific. I hope I have shown why the name of Ainsworth should be preserved in the nomenclature of Oregon and Washington. While legislatures are naming new counties, why not remember this and others of the founders?
At Pasco the Walla Walla passengers are detached from the through train, and proceed to Wallula Junction, crossing the Snake River, which is very wide here, by a handsome bridge. A few miles more brings us to Hunt's Junction, which is just above Wallula Junction, and the new town of Wallula, which
