wheeled cars with which the Railroad was provided. There was one passenger car, covered in to protect the passengers in the event of rain or cold weather, and the mules were driven tandem fashion, three or four being, if the occasion warranted it, attached to the train.[1]
The Railroad itself was constructed entirely of wood, which it may be assumed was supplied by the Eagle Creek sawmill; the rails were of fir, in sections six inches square and laid at a gauge close to, if not actually five feet, as indicated by the photographs of the line which have been preserved. The space between the rails was covered with planking and the bridges on the line were solidly constructed for the loads they were expected to carry, that at Eagle Creek being a framed cantilever and the others framed trestles. There was a large amount of bridging, because it was a great deal less expensive to draw upon the adjacent forests for timber than with the methods then available to build up earth embankments. The Oregon Portage Railroad was built over the small rocky elevation which marks the eastern end of the present Bonneville station grounds, through which barrier the Union Pacific trains now dash. Between this point and the western bank of Eagle Creek the traveler passes the Tooth rock, whose base was then washed by the Columbia at least during flood stages, and this depression was crossed by a heavily built trestle where today is a solid embankment.
On October 31, 1858, General Harney issued an order[2] which practically opened the upper country to settlement, assuring would-be settlers that "every encouragement" would be given them to locate near the military posts, provided that no infringements were made upon military or Indian reservations. The Portland Weekly Oregonian of November 20, 1858, commenting on this, prophesied a large migration to the "Walla Walla country" in the
