growth of Oregon. The change that has been wrought by the acquisition of a European market for the products has not been one of those striking events that please the fancy, but it has been a gradual force working with ever increasing power to draw Oregon out of her isolation and into the stream of industrial life that insures prosperity and growth.
Equally important among the forces that destroyed the isolation of Oregon has been the construction of railroads. Among the early colonists of 1848 a transcontinental line was a hope which they even dared to express in their petitions to congress. It was many years, however, before such a proposal could even receive consideration, and when the time finally came the conditions were more favorable to California, where the Central Pacific found its terminus rather than in Oregon. Henceforth the ambitions of Oregon turned toward a connection with California, and by that channel with the East.
Long before the country was ready for such an enterprise, projects were entertained for railroads. Previous to 1853 four lines had been contemplated, and in one case the books had been opened for subscriptions of stock. The action that was destined to materialize earliest into tangible form was the survey that was made by Joseph Gaston of a line to continue that made by a Californian to the border of Oregon.[1] Gaston started the enterprise upon his own responsibility. Possessed of little capital, it was his purpose to enlist the support of farmers along the route, and circular letters were addressed to them. Trusting to their interest to furnish food and shelter for the surveying party, he was fully rewarded by a generous response, and seldom have similar parties fared better.
- ↑ Gaston's Railroad Development of Oregon, quoted by Bancroft in History of Oregon.
