George Henry Williams. United States Senator from Oregon, and David Colbreth Broderick. United States Senator from California. From photographs in the collection of the author and in the Hall of California Pioneers, San Francisco. CHAPTER XX EXPANSION EASTWARD THE Pacific Northwest is the land of the Columbia River system. The geographical complexity of the region is a matter more apparent than real. For, aside from the small district about Puget Sound, the narrow belt between the Coast Mountains and the Pacific, and the territory drained by the southern Oregon rivers, all parts of this vast domain have a definite physical relation to the Columbia. This river, the greatest west of the Rocky Mountains and second only to the Mississippi among eastern streams, possesses in some respects a unique character. Taking their rise in widely separated springs of the Rockies, its branches flow together in the great interior plain whence, rolling westward with tremendous volume, the river forces its way through the Cascades and eventually pours its flood into the Pacific Ocean. Its total watershed is approximately two hundred and forty-five thousand square miles, about two hundred thousand of which lie between the Rockies and the Cascades within the parallels of forty-two and forty-nine degrees. This vast region, so nearly shut off from, yet so perfectly connected with western Oregon and Washington, has long been appropriately known as the Inland Empire. It is larger by nearly one-fourth than the New England States, New York and New Jersey combined. Two masses of mountains, the Bitterroot range in the north and the Blue. Mountains in the south, occupy a portion of the space between the Rockies and the Cascades. For the rest, it is a country of great plains and gentle hills. It differs much in climate from the territory to the west, being hotter in summer and colder in winter; it is similar in many ways to the great plains east of the Rockies. The soil and productions of the Inland Empire were for years the subject of controversy. Many early travellers, noting the lightness of the soil and the scarcity of rainfall, as well as the absence of timber on the prairies and the shortness of the grass, predicted that only a very few spots would prove to be adapted to agriculture. Such ideas were constantly reiterated in the Congressional discussions on the Oregon question in the period prior to 1843; and even in that year the debate on the Linn Bill called out from one senator a general condemnation of the interior country. Greeley declared about the same time in the New York Tribune that "all the land in Oregon susceptible of advantageous cultivation is not equal in fertility or extent to that of the State of New York alone." This was based upon the theory, supported by Farnham's book, that the whole interior was a desert, "with scarcely good soil enough to qualify that designation." This unfavorable impression disappeared very gradually. The Hudson's Bay Company cultivated garden spots at some of their trading posts, and kept a few cattle in the upper country, thus testing the quality of the grasses. Doctor Parker, the missionary pioneer, was convinced of the agricultural possibilities of the Walla Walla Valley, where he selected a mission site. When Whitman and Spalding settled at Waiilatpu and Lapwai they demonstrated that the most bounteous crops of grain and vegetables could be raised on this light soil by means of irrigation, and that excellent crops of wheat could be produced with no artificial watering. The explanation of this phenomenon lies in the fact that the soil is a deep, practically inexhaustible bed of volcanic ash, on which fifteen inches of rainfall produces effects quite as wonderful as would thirty inches on an ordinary clay soil. The upland grasses, although they grow during a short period, drying and curing early in the summer, were found to be marvellously nutritious, furnishing abundant feed throughout the year to grazing animals. "The interior of Oregon," wrote Dr. Whitman in the fall of 1847, just before his death, "is unrivalled by any country for the grazing of stock, of which sheep is the best. This interior will now be sought after." Whitman was right in assuming that emigrants would soon desire to take up lands in that country. Indeed, the fear that those stopping at the mission intended to do this, was one of the causes of the Cayuse outbreak that resulted in the massacre. This episode of course cleared the country of all white men except the traders, but it brought in companies of Oregon soldiers, many of whom desired to preempt the valuable lands which the natives were supposed to have forfeited. However, the California gold rush, and later the restlessness of the Indians all over the Northwest, kept the interior practically unoccupied except about the military post at the Dalles, where a few white settlers established themselves as early as 1850. Meantime, more accurate information was secured concerning the character of the Inland Empire through the railway exploration of General Stevens. That officer coveted the opportunity to traverse the country in order that he might examine its fitness for settlement and report to his constituents on Puget Sound, very few of whom knew anything about the great region which was included within their Territorial limits. On his arrival at Olympia he delivered an address to the inhabitants, in the course of which he announced that several immense stretches of the eastern country promised to be exceptionally fruitful. "I can speak advisedly," he says, "of the beautiful St. Mary's Valley just west of the Rocky Mountains and stretching across the whole breadth of the Territory; of the plain fifty miles wide bordering the south bank of Spokane River; of the valley |