Category Archives: General Pacific Northwest History

WELL SPRINGS – “MUD HOL” MIRACLE IN THE DUST OF THE COLUMBIA PLATEAU

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Emigrant Lane heading west with the Bombing Range on the right and Well Spring just ahead.
Emigrant Lane heading west with the Bombing Range on the right and Well Springs just ahead.

Travelling along at 70 mph along Interstate 84 along the Columbia River, it is easy to think Oregon’s mid-19th century pioneers just shuttled along rambling into Portland on Sandy Boulevard in no time at all.  Drive out to Well Springs and that idea disappears very quickly.  The long drive out here on the south side of the US Navy’s Boardman Bombing Range gives one the best example of what it must have been like to drive a wagon along the Oregon Trail with the end coming finally into view.

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WAGON RUTS ON THE OLD OREGON TRAIL – ECHO MEADOWS-CORRAL SPRINGS

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Wagon ruts across the sands and sage of the Columbia Plateau at Echo Meadows.
Wagon ruts across the sands and sage of the Columbia Plateau at Echo Meadows.

Following the deaths at the Whitman Mission in December 1847, emigrants travelling the Oregon Trail elected to bypass the jaunt of the trail to the north following the descent out of the Blue Mountains.  Instead, the new path led down the Umatilla River before heading out across the dry Columbia Plateau roughly parallel to the river about 6-8 miles to the south.

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DEADMAN PASS – OREGON TRAIL OUT OF THE BLUES

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Descent of western flank of the Blue Mountains, Oregon Trail, 1849 (Cross 1850) (OrHi 35, 575).
Descent of western flank of the Blue Mountains, Oregon Trail, 1849 (Cross 1850) (OrHi 35, 575).

Pioneers on the Oregon Trail found the crossing of the Blues to be a taxing affair, especially so late in their journey.  Some writers have declared the passage over the Blue Mountains as the last big challenge faced by the Overlanders. 

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TERRITORIAL OREGON – IN THE THRALL OF THE SALEM CLIQUE

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Shirt commemorates one of the election slogans of James K. Polk in 1844.

With the Cayuse War, the federal government finally acted in Washington, D.C., 18 August 1848, to develop an official form of government over the region of the Oregon Country transferred to American control by the Oregon Treaty of 1846 officially ending the awkward condominium shared with Great Britain since 1818.  The new territorial government ushered in new power brokers – aka the Salem Clique – to administer the political machine during the next decade. This setting the stage for a Statehood granted 14 February 1859 with war clouds gathering furiously back in the East.

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OREGON TRAIL TAKES THE HIGH ROAD ON THE COLUMBIA PLATEAU

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Looking out across what was the Well Spring - Tub Spring complex dry today. The Trail came south up the little valley to the right center skyline to the spring before veering hard left, resuming the trek to the west.
Looking out across what was the Well Spring – Tub Spring complex, dry today. The Trail came south up the little valley to the right center skyline to the spring before veering hard left, resuming the trek to the west.

Driving down Interstate 84 today, you might be forgiven for thinking your route follows that taken by the pioneers of the middle 19th century coming to the new lands of Oregon. The hardest part of the Oregon Trail came at the end, from The Dalles through the Cascades. Before the Barlow Trail became a viable alternative in 1847, pioneer families put their wagons onto handmade rafts floating them through Columbia Gorge, whitewater of the Cascades Rapids and all. The river served as a highway for Lewis and Clark in their journey to the Pacific Ocean. It did not serve as such a fine route for the settlers who came later. But today, we focus on the Trail crossing the arid Columbia Plateau.

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MCLOUGHLIN PROMENADE REVEALING MAGIC OF A NEW DAY

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The McLoughlin Promenade rambling atop the cliff rising above the old city-paper mill complex-Willamette Falls Legacy project.
The McLoughlin Promenade rambling atop the cliff rising above the old city-paper mill complex-Willamette Falls Legacy project.

Oregon City is packed full of history.  The first city of Oregon features two fine museums – Oregon Trail Museum and the Museum of the Oregon Territory – besides being home to the houses of two pioneers of the Hudson’s Bay Company, John McLoughlin and Forbes Barclay.  Beyond that, the dramatic power of the Willamette is on display from roadside vista points off Oregon Highway 99E and Interstate 205.  While the views are dramatic enough, that will change in the near future as the plans of the Grand Ronde Tribe come to fruition as the former industrial area reinvents itself to take advantage of the sheer magnificence of Willamette Falls.  Two other nearby sights are not as well known to those outside of Oregon City – Singer Falls and the McLoughlin Promenade.

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YELLOW STACK LINE – STEAMY HURRAH ON THE WILLAMETTE

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Yellow Stack Line's Grahamona loading at Salem.
Yellow Stack Line’s Grahamona loading at Salem.

Steamboats provided the basis of transportation for the Northwest for much of the latter part of the 19th century.  Railroads and, later, truck traffic ended the golden age of river transport.  In Oregon, the Willamette Valley was welded together for much of fifty plus years by little steamboats making their way up and down the river.  They braved high waters and with designs allowing for small drafts, they puffed along their way in periods of low water, as well.  One of the steamboat lines coming late to the game was one of the more dramatic, made so by the yellow smoke stacks sprouting off all of their boats.  This was the Yellow Stack Line.

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WILLAMETTE FALLS LOCKS – OPENING THE DOOR TO THE VALLEY

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Governor Grover transiting through Lock 3 in 1873. OHS

Willamette Landings was a book I originally read in the sixth or seventh grade a long time ago.  The book details the little settlements growing along the Willamette River in the mid to late 19th century when the river served to connect the Valley to each other and the outside world.  The book impressed me so much I was able to convince my parents to take a trip visiting some of the old sites, including rides on the three ferries remaining – still, today, as well – in operation crossing the river.  The key to being able to use the river as a transportation artery was the development of the Willamette Falls Locks in 1873.

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TURNING ON THE LIGHTS AT WILLAMETTE FALLS

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Willamette Falls
Willamette Falls from atop the former Hawley Mills power station foundation – site of observation point for the proposed Riverwalk.

Waterpower attracted the attention of the earliest Europeans to the site of Willamette Falls. John McLoughlin laid a claim to land at base of the Falls as early as 1829.  Listed as the second largest waterfall in North America based on water volume, in the Northwest, the falls only outdone by those at Celilo and Kettle on the Columbia.  Both of those waterfalls now drowned by reservoirs backed up behind dams – The Dalles Dam and Grand Coulee Dam.  Willamette Falls is also the site of the first hydroelectric plant built in the Northwest – 1888.  From here, transmission lines stretched north to Portland fourteen miles to the north.  These lines represented the first transmission of electricity in the United States.  At the time, about the only thing using the generated power consisted of streetlights in the city, but trolley systems quickly came into use.

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MCLOUGHLIN AND OGDEN – HBC REMINDERS LYING IN OREGON CITY

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John Mix Stanley's painting of Oregon City 1850.
John Mix Stanley’s painting of Oregon City 1850.

The Hudson’s Bay Company provided the main source of European influence in the Oregon Country throughout the period of condominium rule shared by the United Kingdom and the United States – 1818-1846.  The Treaty of Ghent noted sovereignty sharing over the vast northwestern regions, but failed to say anything about how to conduct internal affairs.  Into the void, the HBC.

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