Title: The Waterways of the Pacific Northwest
Author: Bagley, Clarence
Language: English
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  THE WATERWAYS OF THE
  PACIFIC NORTHWEST

  BY
  CLARENCE B. BAGLEY
  SEATTLE, WASHINGTON

  REPRINTED FROM "THE PACIFIC OCEAN IN HISTORY"
  BY H. MORSE STEPHENS AND HERBERT E. BOLTON.
  THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK

  Copyright, 1917, By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.



THE WATERWAYS OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST

CLARENCE B. BAGLEY


Recently, as I have studied this subject its magnitude has grown
more apparent. The space allotted my paper will permit little
more than a historical sketch. It has been my life work to gather
together the written and printed history of the Pacific Northwest,
but I am not a professional writer of it.

For my purpose this caption refers to the Columbia River and its
tributaries, and Puget Sound and the rivers emptying into it,
including the Fraser, and their watersheds. The Columbia and Fraser
are the only rivers that break through the great mountain ranges
which parallel the shore of Washington and Oregon. With the Pacific
Ocean only a few miles away, with its intricate network of great and
lesser rivers, and its inland tidal waters whose aggregate littoral
exceeds the distance between Cape Cod and Cape Flattery, it is
remarkable how much of the exploration and industrial and commercial
development of the Pacific Northwest has come from the East towards
the West.

Alexander Mackenzie in 1793, when he discovered the upper reaches
of the Great River; Lewis and Clark in 1805; Simon Fraser and John
Stuart in 1805-6; Daniel W. Harmon in 1810; David Thompson in
1811, and a little later Wilson Price Hunt, and thereafter nearly
all the leading men of the Northwest Company and the Hudson's Bay
Company, braved the hardships and dangers of the trip over the Rocky
Mountains and down the turbulent waters of the Columbia or the
Fraser.

John McLoughlin, James Douglas and Peter Skene Ogden, Nathaniel
J. Wyeth and the first missionaries, John C. Frémont, B. L. E.
Bonneville, all led expeditions westward. Astoria was founded
from the sea, and the expeditions of Astor's party to establish
inland posts went up the river from the west, but they were all
failures. For nearly seventy years the canoe and the bateau, the
ox team or the horse team attached to the prairie schooner, were
the instruments whereby the pioneers searched out the country and
peopled its valleys and plains.

During the period between 1842 and 1855, old Oregon was mostly
peopled by immigrants from the Mississippi valley, who came
overland. After the completion of the railroad across the Isthmus in
1855, immigrants from near the Atlantic seaboard took steamer at New
York City for Aspinwall, crossed the Isthmus by rail, thence to San
Francisco by steamer and to Oregon and Washington by sailing craft
or steamer. Troubles with Indians between the Missouri and Columbia,
of frequence in the later 'fifties, followed closely by the great
Civil War period, materially checked the influx of population
overland. In fact, not until the completion of the Northern Pacific
in 1883, and soon afterward of the Oregon Shortline, did the real
development of Oregon and Washington begin.

In 1850 there were in old Oregon only 13,000 white settlers, 1049
of whom lived north of the Columbia River; in 1860 Oregon had
52,000, Washington, 11,500; in 1870, Oregon 91,000, Washington
24,000; in 1880, Oregon 175,000, Washington 75,000; in 1890, Oregon
314,000, Washington 349,000. The Northern Pacific Railroad had been
completed in 1883, quickly followed by the Oregon Shortline, and
Washington had gained nearly fivefold in a decade and had passed her
older sister in population. In 1900 Oregon had 414,000, Washington
518,000; in 1910 Oregon had 673,000, with Washington 1,142,000, or
a gain by the latter of more than 100 per cent in ten years. Oregon
had an assessed valuation of 905 millions and Washington, 1025
millions. Neither had a bonded debt.

The Canadian Pacific, Great Northern, Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul,
Northern Pacific, Oregon Shortline and Southern Pacific railroads
had all reached Pacific coast terminals, and in consequence the
great Northwest had gained remarkably in population, wealth and
volume of trade and commerce.

In the Willamette valley the water power afforded by the streams
of the Cascades and Coast ranges served to operate the early
wood working and flouring mills, the woolen mills and small
manufacturing plants, but on Puget Sound it was more economical to
operate the saw-mills by steam where the ships could reach the docks
easily and quickly.

Almost immediately after their arrival at Tumwater, the first
American settlers began building a saw-mill and a grist-mill on
the bank of the Des Chutes River. The irons were bought from the
Hudson's Bay Company and the millstones were made from a large
granite boulder near by. Both mills were run by water power. A few
other small mills were constructed elsewhere on the Sound, but all
were financial failures.

No large city has grown up in the Northwest on the site of the
great water powers of the Columbia, Fraser, Willamette or smaller
streams. Also, excepting Victoria and New Westminster, no large city
has grown up on the site of the trading posts of the Hudson's Bay
Company or the villages first started by the American settlers in
the Willamette valley or on Puget Sound. Seattle, Portland, Spokane,
Tacoma, and Vancouver in British Columbia, appeared on the map years
after a dozen of their early rivals had been thriving little towns,
and the most successful were founded by farmers from the Mississippi
valley who, perhaps, had never seen a large city.

A regular transportation line was established on the Lower Columbia
in 1843; and in 1845, deep sea vessels began to frequent the harbor
of Victoria and the Columbia River. These included many war vessels
of the United States and Great Britain. Steamship communication,
more or less irregular, began between San Francisco and the Columbia
River in 1850, and between the former city and Puget Sound about
1857, though the _Otter_ and other steamers had made occasional
trips on the latter route long before that time. Also, about 1850,
steamers began to operate on the Lower Willamette and on the
Columbia below the Cascades.

After Vancouver's day little is reported of the Puget Sound region
for about thirty years. As early as 1827 the schooners _Vancouver_
and _Cadboro_, owned and operated by the Hudson's Bay Company, are
known to have sailed from the Columbia River to Puget Sound and
engaged in traffic with the natives as far north as Sitka. In 1836
the Steamer _Beaver_ arrived in the Columbia River from England, but
in a short time she left the Columbia and began running up and down
the coast in and out of the rivers, bays, and inlets between Puget
Sound and Alaska, carrying grain and other food stuffs northward and
bringing back furs and skins and at times towing sailing vessels to
and fro.

During all the early years, down the waters of the Willamette and
Columbia came considerable wheat and other grains, but freight rates
were so high that little profit was realized by the grower and the
acreage in consequence increased but slowly. The lumber exports of
the Columbia River region also were large. On Puget Sound, until
metal supplanted wood in shipbuilding, numerous cargoes of ships'
spars went to the Atlantic seaboard and to Europe, but sawed lumber
and piles, with shingles and lath to complete the stowage, were
the chief articles of export. Good coal was mined on Vancouver
Island earlier than on the American side of Puget Sound, but no
considerable shipments abroad began until after 1870. For more than
thirty years thereafter the coal mining industry of the Puget Sound
country ranked closely after the lumber business and a large fleet
of seagoing vessels was constantly employed in the trade. During
recent years the use of oil in competition with coal for fuel has
curtailed greatly the output of the northern coal mines.

It is more than 1650 miles from the mouth of the Columbia to the
uppermost point of navigation, but rapids and falls occur at
frequent intervals. Until quite recently no continuous navigation
of more than three hundred and fifty miles was practicable. Traffic
between Portland and Lewiston, Idaho, required the operation of
three separate steamers on as many stretches of the stream and still
another on the upper Willamette. This made necessary artificial
methods of getting freight and passengers around the breaks in the
river, and it was not long before an absolute monopoly was held by
one company on the Columbia and by another on the upper Willamette,
though attempts at independent operation of boats on the latter were
frequent. To-day, a steamer can run from Lewiston to Astoria, or, if
of light enough draught, to Eugene on the Willamette.

In 1850 a wooden tramroad was built on the north side and later
another on the south side around the cascades of the Columbia. Late
in the 50's the Oregon Steam Navigation Company gained control of
them and installed a steam railroad on the north side.

About 1860 that company began the construction of a railroad from
The Dalles to Celilo, which commenced operations in 1862, during
a period of intense mining activity in Idaho, Eastern Oregon and
Northern Washington. Thereafter it practically owned the Columbia
above the Cascades. The history of its operations and exactions and
of the colossal fortunes it piled up for its stockholders reads like
fiction.

The first actual improvement of a waterway that I remember was at
Oregon City. In 1860, at the west side of the Willamette River, the
local transportation company constructed basins above and below
the falls, so that a long warehouse covered both landing places,
making it a comparatively easy matter to transfer freight up and
down, while passengers walked. About 1870, the company replaced this
system by a short canal with locks.

For a great many years the United States has made liberal
appropriations to be used in overcoming the difficulties of
navigation of the Columbia River and its main tributaries. Under
date of August 6, 1915, Major Arthur Williams, United States
Engineer of the First Oregon district, furnished the following list
of original expenditures:

Snake River, in Oregon, Washington and Idaho, including $85,000
appropriated by the state of Washington, $338,786.43; Columbia
River and tributaries above Celilo Falls to the mouth of Snake
River, Oregon and Washington, including $25,000 from the state
of Washington, $494,600.84; Columbia River at The Dalles, Oregon
and Washington (Dalles-Celilo Canal), $4,685,855.79; canal at
the Cascades of the Columbia River, Oregon and Washington,
$3,912,473.33; Columbia River between Vancouver, Washington, and
the mouth of the Willamette River, $97,532.16; Oregon Slough (North
Portland Harbor), Oregon, $34,437.60. In addition to the foregoing
$390,921.58 have been expended in operation and maintenance.

In a letter of recent date from Chas. L. Potter, Lieutenant Colonel,
Corps of United States Engineers, are tabulated the amounts
heretofore expended in the second district on all river and harbor
improvements to June 30, 1915, as follows:

Willamette River above Portland, and Yamhill River, Oregon,
$857,671.92; operating and care of lock and dam in Yamhill River,
Oregon, $43,426.95; Willamette River at Willamette Falls, Oregon,
$83,441.71; operating and care of canal and locks in Willamette
River, near Oregon City, Oregon, $344.22; Columbia and Lower
Willamette rivers below Portland, Oregon, $3,577,958.35; mouth of
Columbia River, Oregon and Washington, $13,156,162.52; Clatskanie
River, Oregon, $18,867.34; Cowlitz River, Washington, $102,208.63;
Lewis River, Washington, $39,587.19; Cowlitz and Lewis rivers,
Washington, and Clatskanie River, Oregon, dredge and snagboat,
$36,138.04; Grays River, Washington, $3,857.23.

Had this opening up to navigation been completed prior to the
building of the railroads along the banks of the rivers and across
the mountains, it would have been of inestimable benefit to the
tributary country, but until its present population shall have
increased ten fold, perhaps twenty fold, and the railroads shall
be unable to handle the traffic; when the waterway craft shall be
aids to the railroads, not competitors, I believe transportation of
freight by steamboats or by barges with tugs will be impracticable.
Steamboat service up the swift current with little cargo will fully
offset any cheapening that may be possible down stream, so that most
of the business will continue to be done by the railroads. However,
the open river will undoubtedly be a check upon the railroads.

A few weeks ago, at Lewiston, during the rejoicings over the opening
of the upper Columbia to free navigation, one of the leading
speakers remarked that the party in steaming up the river had seen
but one other boat and she was tied to the dock.

The state of Washington was in some measure benefited jointly with
Oregon by the work in the Columbia basin noted above. The actual
expenditures by the United States in Washington have been small in
comparison. On Willapa Harbor they have been $241,878.39; at Gray's
Harbor, $3,231,906.78; on Puget Sound they have been, at Olympia,
$197,701.35; at Tacoma, $324,784.10; at Everett and Snohomish,
$664,752.59; at Bellingham, $149,834.69; Skagit River, $101,455.54;
Swinomish, $217,652.29. In addition to the work done at Tacoma by
the United States, the railroads and the municipality have spent
large sums in providing docks and other shipping facilities, and
it is equipped to handle its full share of the Sound and seagoing
traffic. The foregoing figures were furnished me from the office of
the resident United States Engineer, Major J. B. Cavanaugh.

Portland is the overshadowing city of the Columbia basin, and
has always handled most of its business, while on Puget Sound
trade and commerce have been divided. It is all a vast harbor and
its cities have had access almost equally to the sea. Seattle,
Tacoma, Vancouver, Victoria, New Westminster, Everett, Bellingham,
Anacortes, Olympia, and Port Townsend are credited with an aggregate
of nearly three-quarters of a million of inhabitants.

During the last ten years there has been expended in Seattle more
than fifteen millions of dollars in harbor improvements. By the
operations of the Seattle & Lake Washington Waterway Co. there
have been 1400 acres of land filled, much of it now covered with
buildings of a most substantial character. When this company began
operations these lands were covered twice a day from six to sixteen
feet with tidal water. Through them it dug waterways forty and fifty
feet deep at low tide two and one half miles long, 1000 feet wide,
and two miles additional five hundred feet wide. This has required
the construction of seven miles of bulkheads, all at a cost of a
little more than five millions of dollars, all paid by the owners of
the filled-in lands. Some four hundred additional acres of land, at
times covered by the tides or by high waters of the Duwamish River,
have been reclaimed.

A ship canal between the waters of Puget Sound and Lake Union and
Washington is now nearing completion and is expected to be in use
during the current year. It will admit the passage of ships drawing
thirty feet of water, directly into the lakes.

The locks at the outer entrance have been constructed by the United
States government. The larger is 850 feet long and is the second
in size on the American continent, being exceeded in size by one
of the locks of the Panama Canal. They cost $2,275,000. The state
of Washington, county of King and city of Seattle contributed
$1,250,000 to pay for condemnation of the necessary land and
dredging and digging of the canals. Add to this $6,000,000, raised
by the sale of longtime bonds voted by the people and expended
by the Port Commission of Seattle for docks and warehouses,
refrigerator plants and other facilities for speedy and economical
handling of cargoes of grain, fruit, fish, lumber, coal, etc., and
the above aggregate of $15,000,000 has been passed.

John W. B. Blackman, Esq., City Engineer of New Westminster, B.C.,
has supplied information regarding Victoria, Vancouver, and New
Westminster, British Columbia, as follows: Expenditures in Fraser
River in opening, deepening, straightening, etc., $1,399,645.05;
in Vancouver, mostly in widening the Narrows, $2,174,148.45; at
Victoria in recent years, $750,000 in round numbers, has been
spent in blasting and removing rock from the inner harbor, and a
new break-water is now being constructed at an estimated cost of
$3,000,000.

The canoe and bateau gave place to the steamboat, the steam cars
took away from the steamboat much of its business, and in the
last quarter century the city and interurban electric cars have
taken over much of the short haul traffic, while to-day the motor
car is dividing the passenger service and almost monopolizing
the transportation of garden and dairy products into and about
the cities. Who shall predict how soon some other method of
transportation shall make the land and water traffic of to-day seem
as archaic as the ox team compared with a high power racing car?

The streams of Oregon and Washington afford one-third of the
available water power of the United States. A small part of this
is now being used to develop electric energy, transmitted at long
distances at high voltage, though not comparable with one line in
California that is transmitting electricity at a voltage of 150,000
a distance of about 250 miles. The potential possibilities are
so vast they can scarcely be estimated. In the North one of the
transcontinental railroad lines is formulating plans to operate its
trains electrically between the Rocky Mountains and Puget Sound.
The first cost will be great, but when the new service begins its
greater economy and comfort will undoubtedly compel all competing
lines to follow the lead of their rival.

The Panama Canal has been in operation only a year and it is too
soon even to predict its influence upon the ocean commerce of the
North Pacific, but so far little of the lumber, fish, or other
commodities from the Northwest have gone through it eastward. Its
influence has been almost negligible, and while considerable freight
has gone from the Middle States eastward fifteen hundred miles to
Atlantic ports and thence around by water, the railroads of the
Pacific Northwest have not as yet seen cause to alter their tariffs
because of it. Doubtless, when the great war in Europe is ended, and
normal conditions are regained, the Pacific Northwest will enjoy in
full measure the benefit of this great ocean waterway.

To-day passenger ships leave Puget Sound for Alaska ports on an
average of every eighteen hours, and nearly as many freighters ply
on the same route.

The ocean commerce of the North Pacific with eastern Siberia, Japan,
China, the Indies, and the Philippines across the Pacific, and with
San Francisco, Hawaiian Islands and through the Panama Canal has,
in the last few years, reached enormous proportions. Already the
resources of six great transcontinental railroad systems are taxed
to the uttermost to handle their part of it.

On the floor of the United States Senate, January 24, 1843, in the
course of debate upon "The Oregon Bill," participated in by Senators
Archer, Benton, Calhoun, Choate, Linn, Morehead, McRoberts and
Woodbury, Calhoun gave utterance to the following:

     "But it may be asked, 'what then? Shall we abandon our claim to
     the territory?' I answer, no. I am utterly opposed to that; but,
     as bad as that would be, it would not be as much so as to adopt
     a rash and precipitate measure, which, after great sacrifices,
     would finally end in its loss. But I am opposed to both. My
     object is to preserve and not to lose the territory. I do not
     agree with my eloquent and able colleague that it is worthless.
     He has under-rated it, both as to soil and climate. It contains
     a vast deal of land, it is true, that is barren and worthless;
     but not a little that is highly productive. To that may be
     added its commercial advantages, which will, in time, prove to
     be great. We must not overlook the important events to which I
     have alluded as having recently occurred in the eastern portion
     of Asia. As great as they are, they are but the beginning of a
     series of a similar character, which must follow at no distant
     day. What has taken place in China, will, in a few years,
     be followed in Japan, and all the eastern portions of that
     continent. Their ports, like the Chinese, will be opened; and
     the whole of that portion of Asia, containing nearly half of the
     population and wealth of the globe, will be thrown open to the
     commerce of the world and be placed within the pales of European
     and American intercourse and civilization. A vast market will
     be created, and a mighty impulse will be given to commerce.
     No small portion of the share that would fall to us with this
     populous and industrious portion of the globe is destined to
     pass through the ports of the Oregon Territory to the valley
     of the Mississippi, instead of taking the circuitous and long
     voyage around Cape Horn; or the still longer, around the Cape of
     Good Hope. It is mainly because I place this high estimate on
     its prospective value that I am so solicitous to preserve it,
     and so adverse to this bill, or any other precipitate measure
     which might terminate in its loss. If I thought less of its
     value, or if I regarded our title less clear, my opposition
     would be less decided."

The present witnesses the culmination of this remarkable prophecy
made by one of America's ablest statesmen more than seventy years
ago.

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Transcriber's note:

Minor typographical and punctuation errors have been corrected
without note. Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have
been retained as printed.

The cover for the eBook version of this book was created by the
transcriber and is placed in the public domain.





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