Ruckel and Olmstead's railroad at the Cascades is completed and in a condition to carry freight from the upper to the lower landing. Four cars are now in operation upon the track. A wharf boat has been placed at the upper landing for the reception of freight. This road is a valuable improvement, and if the travel and shipping to the upper country should prove as extensive as present indications seem to foreshadow, it will prove a mine of wealth to its proprietors.
The last day of operation of the Bradford portage was May 17, and the Oregon Portage Railroad was given all the business beginning May 20. The Portland Daily Oregonian of May 28, 1861, told the news that "The railroad on the Oregon side was finished last week and cars passed over it. All the transportation will now be done over this road." On the following day the same newspaper printed a report of the editor's travels written from The Dalles on May 25 which included this:
The transit of freight and passengers over the Cascade portage is now on the Oregon side of the Columbia. The new rail-road of Col. Ruckel's is near completion and freight has to be hauled only a few hundred yards from the lower terminus. The length of the road will be four miles and it is well constructed, with every desirable facility for transferring freight to The Dalles steamers.
John Chipman deeded his donation land claim at the upper landing to Harrison Olmstead on August 31, 1861, and John C. Tanner deeded his land at the lower landing to Olmstead on November 15, 1861; these conveyances put the entire portage property in the name of Harrison Olmstead.
The Dalles Mountaineer was quoted in September, 1861,[1] as stating that "Colonel Ruckel's rail road at the Cascades is in complete order and * * * one hundred tons can be sent over it daily."
A correspondent at The Dalles, writing to the Portland
- ↑ Portland Weekly Oregonian, September 28, 1861.
