# The Columbia River: Its History, Its Myths, Its Scenery, Its Commerce

As described by his contemporary Susan Whitcomb Hassell, "Fully descriptive and reciting personal adventures. Professor Lyman, long-time teacher of history in Whitman College, has lived his whole life in the country he describes. The book contains many Indian legends. Eighty illustrations." (1916)
The
Columbia River
Its History, Its Myths, Its Scenery
Its Commerce
By
William Denison Lyman
Professor of History in Whitman College, Walla Walla, Washington
With 80 Illustrations and a Map
G. P. Putnam's Sons
New York and London The Knickerbocker Press 1909
Copyright, 1909
BY
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
The Knickerbocker Press, New York
TO MY PARENTS
Horace Lyman and Mary Denison Lyman
PIONEERS OF 1849, WHO BORE THEIR PART IN LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS OF CIVILIZATION UPON THE BANKS OF THE COLUMBIA, THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR
I see the living tide roll on,
It crowns with rosy towers
The icy capes of Labrador,
The Spaniard's land of flowers;
It streams beyond the splintered ridge
That parts the northern showers.
From eastern rock to sunset wave,
The Continent is ours.
Holmes.
PREFACE
As one of the American Waterways series, this volume is designed to be a history and description of the Columbia River. The author has sought to convey to his reader a lively sense of the romance, the heroism, and the adventure which belong to this great stream and the parts of the North-west about it, and he has aimed to breathe into his narrative something of the spirit and sentiment—a spirit and sentiment more easily recognised than analysed—which we call "Western." With this end in view, his treatment of the subject has been general rather than detailed, and popular rather than recondite. While he has spared no pains to secure historical accuracy, he has not made it a leading aim to settle controverted points, or to present the minutiæ of historical research and criticism. In short, the book is rather for the general reader than for the specialist. The author hopes so to impress his readers with the majesty of the Columbia as to fill their minds with a longing to see it face to face.
Frequent reference in the body of the book to authorities renders it unnecessary to name them here. Suffice it to say that the author has consulted the standard works of history and description dealing with Oregon—the old Oregon—and its River, and from the voluminous matter there gathered has selected the facts that best combine to make a connected and picturesque ​narrative. He has treated the subject topically, but there is a general progression throughout, and the endeavour has been to find a natural jointure of chapter to chapter and era to era.
While the book has necessarily been based largely on other books, it may be said that the author has derived his chief inspiration from his own observations along the shores of the River and amid the mountains of Oregon and Washington, where his life has mainly been spent, and from familiar conversations in the cabins of pioneers, or at camp-fires of hunters, or around Indian tepees, or in the pilot-houses of steamboats. In such ways and places one can best catch the spirit of the River and its history.
The author gladly takes this opportunity of making his grateful acknowledgments to Prof. F. G. Young, of Oregon University, for his kindness in reading the manuscript and in making suggestions which his full knowledge and ripe judgment render especially valuable. He wishes also to express his warmest thanks to Mr. Harvey W. Scott, editor of the Oregonian, for invaluable counsel. Similar gratitude is due to Prof. Henry Landes of Washington University for important assistance in regard to some of the scientific features of the first chapter.
W. D. L.
Whitman College, Walla Walla, Wash., 1909.
CONTENTS
| | PAGE |
| PART I.—THE HISTORY ||
| CHAPTER I ||
| The Land where the River Flows | 3 |
| CHAPTER II ||
| Tales of the First White Men along the Coast | 33 |
| CHAPTER III ||
| How All Nations Sought the River from the Sea and how they Found it | 43 |
| CHAPTER IV ||
| First Steps across the Wilderness in Search of the River | 69 |
| CHAPTER V ||
| The Fur-Traders, their Bateaux, and their Stations | 98 |
| CHAPTER VI ||
| The Coming of the Missionaries to the Tribes of the River | 136 ​ |
| CHAPTER VII ||
| The Era of the Pioneers, their Ox-Teams, and their Flatboats | 159 |
| CHAPTER VIII ||
| Conflict of Nations for Possession of the River | 179 |
| CHAPTER IX ||
| The Times of Tomahawk and Firebrand | 202 |
| CHAPTER X ||
| When the "Fire-Canoes" Took the Place of the Log-Canoes | 234 |
| CHAPTER XI ||
| Era of the Miner, the Cowboy, the Farmer, the Boomer, and the Railroad-Builder | 249 |
| CHAPTER XII ||
| The Present Age of Expansion and World Commerce | 265 |
| PART II.—A JOURNEY DOWN THE RIVER ||
| CHAPTER I ||
| In the Heart of the Canadian Rockies | 273 |
| CHAPTER II ||
| The Lakes from the Arrow Lakes to Chelan | 290 ​ |
| CHAPTER III ||
| In the Land of Wheat-Field, Orchard, and Garden | 313 |
| CHAPTER IV ||
| Where River and Mountain Meet, and the Traces of the Bridge of the Gods | 332 |
| CHAPTER V ||
| A Side Trip to some of the Great Snow-Peaks | 352 |
| CHAPTER VI ||
| The Lower River and the Ocean Tides | 374 |
| Index | 399 |
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Copyright, Kiser Photograph Co., 1902.
Photo. by W. D. Lyman.
Photo. by E. H. Moorehouse.
Photo. by E. H. Moorehouse.
From an old print.
Photo. by Woodfield.
Photo. by C. F. Yates, Golden.
Photo. by Woodfield.
From an old print.
Photo. by W. D. Chapman.
Copyright by Lee Moorehouse, 1898.
Copyright by Lee Moorehouse, 1898.
By courtesy of Lee Moorehouse.
By courtesy of Lee Moorehouse.
By courtesy of Lee Moorehouse.
By T. W. Tolman.
Photo. by T. W. Tolman, Spokane.
Photo. by Lee Moorehouse, Pendleton.
Photo. by E. H. Moorehouse.
Photo. by Woodfield.
Photo. by C. F. Yates.
Photo. by Trueman.
Photo. by Woodfield.
Photo. by C. F. Yates.
Copyright, Kiser Photograph Co., 1902.
Photo. by W. D. Lyman.
Photo. by C. F. Yates.
Photo. by Allan Lean.
Photo. by F. N. Kneeland, Northampton, Mass.
Photo. by Allan Lean, Nelson.
Photo. by Allan Lean, Nelson.
Photo. by E. H. Moorehouse.
Photo. by W. D. Lyman.
Photo. by T. W. Tolman.
Photo. by T. W. Tolman.
Photo. by T. W. Tolman.
Photo. by T. W. Tolman.
Photo. by T. W. Tolman, Spokane.
Photo. by W. D. Lyman.
Photo. by T. W. Tolman, Spokane.
Photo. by T. W. Tolman, Spokane, Wash.
Photo. by T. W. Tolman.
Photo. by W. D. Lyman.
Sunset Magazine.
Photo. by W. D. Chapman.
Photo. by T. W. Tolman.
Photo. by T. W. Tolman.
Photo. by T. W. Tolman.
Photo. by W. D. Chapman.
Photo. by W. D. Chapman, Walla Walla.
Photo. by W. D. Chapman.
Photo. by W. D. Chapman.
By courtesy of Lee Moorehouse.
Photo. by Lee Moorehouse, Pendleton.
Photo. by W. D. Lyman.
Photo. by W. D. Lyman.
Photo. by E. H. Moorehouse.
Photo. by T. W. Tolman, Spokane.
Copyright, Kiser Photograph Co., 1902.
Photo. by W. D. Lyman.
Photo. by W. D. Lyman.
Sunset Magazine.
Photo. by E. H. Moorehouse.
Photo. by E. H. Moorehouse, Portland.
Copyright, 1902, by Kiser Photograph Co.
Photo. by T. W. Tolman, Spokane.
Photo. by T. W. Tolman.
Photo. by T. W. Tolman, Spokane.
Photo by C. F. Yates, Golden.
Photo. by T. W. Tolman.
Photo. by W. D. Chapman, Walla Walla.
Photo. by F. N. Kneeland.
Photo. by E. H. Moorehouse.
Photo. by E. H. Moorehouse, Portland.
Photo. by W. D. Chapman.
From an old print.
Photo. by E. H. Moorehouse, Portland.
Photo. by E. H. Moorehouse.
Photo. by Woodfield, Astoria.
Photo. by E. H. Moorehouse, Portland.
Photo. by Trueman, Victoria.
Photo. by E. H. Moorehouse.
Photo. by Woodfield, Astoria.
Photo. by C. F. Yates.
Photo. by E. H. Moorehouse, Portland.
Photo. by Allan Lean, Nelson.
St. Peter's Dome, Columbia River
2,300 feet high
Copyright, Kiser Photography Co., 1902
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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