Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 9.djvu/177

From Youth to Age as an American. 159 clear and the clouds were lifting from the ridge across it. J called to the men to come. Turning to the right from looking across the valley my eye was arrested by the rough counti^y out of which Cave Creek flows from the south, as yet little known ; turning to the left a large peak showed its base, then a sharp, rocky peak, and still turning eastward, as it soon proved, the ridge broke down and nothing could be seen through the gap ; but still more directly east my eyes rested on a body of grass-land— the apparently level top of what some one unknown to me named Minto Mountain. It is sick- ening yet for me to remember standing in the top of that tree and taking the statements of the cowardly hulk who refused to trust himself up the tree, but would name every point I would describe with names unrepeatable, and claim he had passed over the grass country I was defining in going to visit the chief of the Warm Springs Indians from the Quartzville mining camp, where I had seen him as care-taker — the Thers- ites of any camp he was in. We returned, and I reported on the strength of Colonel Cooper's statements, an apparently low^ and easy pass. Citizens next spring petitioned for a road- view and Porter Jack, George S. Downing and John Minto were appointed to view and T. W. Davenport to survey a lo- cation for a wagon road up the North Santiam River to the summit of the Cascades. The survey was made and measured and properly recorded, eight-seven and one-half miles from the court house at Salem to the summit of Minto Pass— found by accident. Our philosophical surveyor said, the night after the work was finished: Yes, in a small way such an accident as that by which Lewis and Clark found the Columbia River and the Davenports and many others found homes in the valley of the beautiful Willamette. ' ' There was little reason, locally, for the early Oregon home- builder to explore the mountains. The discovery of gold in California gave many of the Columbia River men early graves —some wealth they prudently used— more added only working capital to aid their labor and add to their enjoyment. It was not until 1854 that a small party of men, Preston