# Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 25/Oregon's First Railway

THE QUARTERLY
of the
Oregon Historical Society
Copyright, 1923, by the Oregon Historical Society
The Quarterly disavows responsibility for the positions taken by contributors to its pages.
OREGON'S FIRST RAILWAY
The Oregon Portage Railroad at the Cascades of the Columbia River
By Frank B. Gill
Copyright, 1924 , by Frank B. Gill
A FOREWORD
In gathering the material for this article the author has confined himself almost wholly to two sources, the local newspapers of the period which, happily, have in large part been preserved, and the records of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company. Together with these I have had the benefit of the personal recollections of John W. Stevenson and his sister, Mrs. Barbara A. Bailey, who have lived in western Oregon since 1853 and were both identified with the Oregon Portage Railroad and the sawmill operated in connection with it, for a period of six or seven years.
John Stevenson was born in 1835 and his sister in 1836, in Illinois, of English and Scotch parentage. The family crossed the plains by ox team between April and October, 1853, and settled on the Clackamas river in Oregon. In 1857 John, then twenty-two years of age, took up a homestead at Cape Horn, Washington, where he now lives, and in the summer of 1863 he went to work in the Eagle Creek sawmill under Joseph Bailey, who had shortly before been appointed to the charge of the Oregon Portage.
Seeking a housekeeper who was capable of boarding his twelve or fourteen employees, including loggers, Bailey found in John Stevenson's sister, after four ​months' trial as housekeeper, one so much to his liking, that he asked her to become his wife; they were married on January 24, 1864.
John Stevenson became head sawyer at Eagle Creek and his sister says should have been put in charge of the Oregon Portage when Joseph Bailey died, but was not, a man named King, who brought his wife along to run the boarding house, being sent up from Portland as Bailey's successor. In the year following Bailey's death, 1870, Stevenson quit the company and went to the Yakima country where he engaged in stock raising. Mrs. Bailey removed to Portland after her husband's death and had the residence at No. 112 East Tenth street built in the summer of 1870 which she has ever since occupied. She has a remarkable collection of photographs taken along the Columbia and Willamette rivers in 1867 which has been drawn upon for illustrations accompanying this article. Her brother, John W. Stevenson, was delegated to accompany the photographer, C. E. Watkins of San Francisco, when the pictures were being made, and he has at his ranch at Cape Horn two or three of the wheels of the cars used on the original Oregon Portage Railroad.
Grateful acknowledgments are made of the cordially given access to the invaluable records of the Portland Public Library, the Oregon Historical Society and the Portland Oregonian, and of the unstinted cooperative efforts of many persons, among whom I mention, George H. Himes, curator of the Oregon Historical Society; L. C. Willems, Director of the Information Bureau of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce; the California State Librarian, Mr. Milton J. Ferguson; Charles L. Hewes of Oakland, Calif.; Geo. H. Barron, Curator of the Memorial Museum of Golden Gate Park, San Francisco; W. E. Crews, State Corporation Commissioner of Oregon; H. B. Ainsworth of San Francisco; William McMurray, General Passenger Agent, A. C. Jackson, Advertising Agent, and L. C. Kelker, Acting Superintendent of Shops of the Union Pacific System, at Portland; Mrs. Lulu D. Crandall and Judge Fred W. Wilson of The Dalles.
There seem to be no records extant, of those kept by Joseph S. Ruckel and Harrison Olmstead, the builders of Oregon's first railroad, or of their early contemporaries in the field of transportation.
I have not hesitated to call the Oregon Portage line ​the first railroad in Oregon, because the only prior construction to which the designation of "railroad" has been applied, as far as known, was two inconsequential roadways or bridges, extending, the one from Coffin's store to his wharf at Portland, and the other from the mainland to the Island Mills at Oregon City. There were railways projected in Oregon, years before the Oregon Portage Railroad was built, but these lines never passed the promotion stage.
When the Bradford railroad on the north or right bank of the Columbia river was built, in 1851, this was in Oregon Territory, but as so very shortly afterward, the national government set up Washington Territory out of what had been North Oregon, the writer has considered it only consistent with the facts to speak of that means of transportation as the first railroad in Washington, and the first on the Pacific slope.
THE BEGINNING OF THE OREGON PORTAGE.
It was in the very nature of things that the first, and for some years the only, regularly operated method of public transportation locally in the youthful Territory of Oregon and the southern border of Washington Territory was found in vessels plying on the Columbia and Willamette rivers, along which streams the earliest settlements were made. Portland by 1851 had begun to be recognized, though but a clearing in the forest primeval, as the coming metropolis, and from it a small but growing fleet of primitive and low-powered steamboats and other water craft took their leave at fairly constant intervals for the Willamette Falls at Oregon City on the south, the port of Astoria on the west and the Cascades of the Columbia river on the east. At Oregon City was a portage around the falls, beyond which light draft steamboats and other vessels operated to the limits of navigation on the Willamette. At the Cascades was another portage, much longer than that at Oregon City, above which the Columbia was navigable to The Dalles, and beyond the portage there for a hundred miles and more to and beyond the confluence of the Snake, which river also was navigable for half the year.
It is proposed here to discuss only the Cascades portage and particularly that section of it which was on the left or Oregon bank of the Columbia river, though it will be necessary to refer from time to time to the portage on the opposite or Washington side of the great river of the West. Upon the latter side, the "north bank" in common parlance, the first railroad, of most modest character it is true, yet the first railroad upon the Pacific Coast of North America, was built in 1851 to facilitate the passage of freight over the portage. It was the annual autumn arrival of overland immigration, coupled with the frequent transportation of army supplies and soldiers that gave the steamboats operating between Portland and the upper Columbia, and, therefore, the ​Cascades portage, most of their business during the first decade of steam navigation (1851-1860), but the discovery of gold in the Colville region in 1855 and later in other sections, gradually brought about an enormous increase in traffic.
It seems not unreasonable to charge the owners of this first railroad, Bradford & Company, a partnership which included in addition to the Bradford brothers, Daniel and Putnam, J. P. Flint of San Francisco, the financier of their enterprises, with the "first cause" of the portage subsequently establshed on the opposite or Oregon side of the Columbia. In the later months of 1854 Bradford & Co. had a steamboat, which they named the Mary, built to ply on the Columbia between their portage and The Dalles, thus obtaining control of the traffic on that section of the river, and at the same time they entered into an agreement with the owners of the steamboat Belle operating between Portland and the Cascades for an exclusive through service which shut out all prospective competition. Before the building of the Belle, the steamboat Fashion had been operated between Portland and the Cascades, but she was at this time laid up, and the Belle, which had appeared as a competitor, was now at the opening of 1855 alone on the route.
It was apparently at this stage that Col. Joseph S. Ruckel came to Oregon and joined with Captain J. O. Van Bergen, the original commander of the Fashion, in purchasing her from J. and C. E. Williams, who had become the owners of the boat. As Colonel Ruckel is chiefly known to history as the genius of the Oregon Portage Railroad it is perhaps not inappropriate here to introduce a biographical sketch of him found in the Portland ​Oregonian of August 30, 1865, at the time he retired from the Oregon Steam Navigation Company:
Col. J. S. Ruckel on Monday resigned the Presidency of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company preparatory to taking his departure for the East where it is his intention to assume charge of his own individual interests in quartz milling, etc. He has very valuable interests to attend to, which will require his undivided attention, which led to his resignation. In Col. Ruckel the people of Oregon have always found an example of persevering industry, which has assumed to open up the country and tend to the development of its resources. The first heard of Col. Ruckel in Oregon, although he had visited California the year previous to the discovery of gold there, was during the time when the steamer Fashion was under his control, some ten years ago. Next, in his enterprise in the construction of the Mountain Buck, and proprietor of the railroad on the Oregon side of the Columbia at the Cascades, all of which were enterprises then with little hope of prosperity. At the time of the organization of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, Col Ruckel became one of the members of the incorporation, taking the Mountain Buck in with him. Subsequently the Oregon side of the Cascades was added to the capital stock of the company. For some years he acted as traveling agent for the company, and last year was chosen its president, to succeed Capt. J. C. Ainsworth, whose term expired. We might take the reader along the route from the coast at the mouth of the Columbia, and to the source of that stream, and even beyond it, to show the results of the enterprise, and the investments made by Col. Ruckel and his associates, but their liberal policy is too well known to the most of our citizens to require full details. It is sufficient to say of Col. Ruckel, that he has a spirit and determination to surmount any obstacle, and if felt disposed to put a railroad across the Rocky Mountains, to connect the Columbia with the Mississippi, he would as surely accomplish the purpose as he has the new stage road, in connection with Mr. Geo. Thomas and others, across the Blue Mountains to La Grande, in the Grand Ronde valley, from Wallula, lately completed, and which is said to be unsurpassed by any road in the country. On the discovery of the ledge known as the Rockfellow ​lead, between Powder and Burnt rivers, on the immigrant road, Col. Ruckel invested largely in its development, expending a great amount of money, and the ledge has proved to be a most valuable investment. * * * *
Supplementing the above, the following is extracted from another newspaper writeup given the Colonel:
Prominent as Col. Ruckel has been in Oregon it is not generally known that he was among the earliest American settlers in California. Leaving home in the latter part of 1845 he made the Isthmus and is believed to have been the first civilian who crossed that neck of land and reached Panama. Here he was delayed several weeks and finally went down the coast to Callao where he succeeded in securing passage on the U. S. sloop Preble for San Francisco, then called Yerba Buena. He landed at San Francisco in 1846, a year before the discovery of gold and turned his attention to mercantile pursuits. There he continued with varied success down to 1855 when he removed to Oregon and became a pioneer in the navigation of the Columbia river. With inadequate means he commenced the building of a railway at the Cascades and in the face of difficulties that would have appalled a less determined man, he persevered until the work he had undertaken was completed. During the three years commencing with 1857 he ran a line of steamers from Portland to The Dalles, and through this line laid the basis of his subsequent fortune. In 1860 the various steamboat owners on the river consolidated their interests and formed the O. S. N . Company of which organization he has been a Director since the day of its formation. For the last year he has held the office of President and discharged its duties greatly to the satisfaction of the public. We have here briefly outlined the career of a man who has made his mark on the coast and who will bear with him in his retirement the best wishes of hosts of friends. A man of great energy, he is not less distinguished for his kindness of heart. The poor and distressed have never appealed to him in vain, and the hungry he has never turned away empty. A man of his character can illy be spared from any community. * * *
Captain McFarland of The Dalles, as it would appear in pursuance of an understanding with Ruckel and Van Bergen, began the building of a steamboat above the ​Cascades which he named after the Oregon county in which he lived, Wasco. A necessary step obviously to complete the alliance was the opening up of a portage on the Oregon side. The Fashion began again on a regular schedule shortly after the middle of July, 1855, at first twice a week, but later triweekly, between Portland and the Cascades; the Wasco commenced her trips between the Cascades and The Dalles about August 1 and the Portland paper which announced the beginning of the Wasco's service, gave the news that a portage on the Oregon side of the river at the Cascades would be completed two weeks later. No subsequent mention of the new Oregon portage is found in the newspapers of 1855, but it may be concluded that some sort of a road with teams and wagons and storage warehouses was very shortly put into use for the transfer of business between the Wasco and the Fashion, as these steamboats continued to operate a through service between Portland and The Dalles, and the Bradford portage was in hostile hands.
PORTLAND, CASCADES AND DALLES
   The undersigned having made arrangements for the transportation of Freight over the Portage at the Cascades, on the Oregon side, and having the necessary Teams, Boats, etc., will receive and transport with the utmost dispatch all
   FREIGHT, GOODS WARES AND MERCHANDISE by the steamers Fashion and Wasco and other conveyances.
   The Road is now in complete order. My teams will always be in readiness; good Warehouses have been erected, and my personal attention given to the business.
   W. R. KILBORN,
   Feb. 9, 1856. Lower Cascades, Oregon side.
This wagon road portage to be effective must have extended from the present station of Bonneville to the present town of Cascade Locks, but no details of its route or character seem to have been published. What became of Captain Kilborn, who had, we may surmise, built the road and its warehouses and provided its teams and boats, does not appear. The writer has not found his name mentioned in the available literature subsequent to the time of the Indian attack upon the small settlements on the Washington side of the Columbia at the Cascades, in March, 1856, upon which occasion the Captain loaded the residents of the Oregon side in a large batteau and navigated them in safety down the river to the vicinity of Portland. It is a fair presumption that he returned and continued operations on the Oregon portage wagon road, perhaps selling out later to Ruckel and his partners. The wagon road portage was evidently in use until near the close of 1858.
While the Indian attack temporarily affected the rival steamboat lines and their arrangements for the transfer ​of cargoes at the Cascades portage, a mandate issued by the United States Military Department of the Pacific later in the year must have been viewed with more lasting concern. This was General Wool's order to emigrants and other white persons (excepting the Hudson's Bay Company's employees and persons having ceded rights from the Indians) forbidding their settlement or even remaining in the Indian country, as the section east of the Cascade Mountains was then known. A modification of this order was issued by Brigadier General Newman S. Clarke, Wool's successor, on June 29, 1857, limiting settlement to the territory west of the White Salmon river in Washington, and west of the DesChutes river in Oregon. These regulations, designed to prevent friction with the Indians, could not be given full effect, for gold discoveries constantly increased the number of "white persons" in the forbidden territory and emigrants began to settle in the more promising fertile valleys.
In April, 1856, the owners of the steamboat Belle having bought and rebuilt the wrecked Gazelle at Canemah, renaming her Senorita had substituted this larger steamboat for the Belle on the run between Portland and the Cascades. Immediately afterward the United States government began, under the supervision of Lieutenant G. H. Derby of the Engineers' Department, the building of a military road around the Cascades on the Washington side, and in that fall a coach was placed on this road by private interests, for the conveyance of passengers across the portage. Further, Bradford & Co. were during the spring and summer of 1856 rebuilding and improving their portage railroad, and before winter set in they had contracted for the building of a steamboat which ​they named the Hassaloe, larger than the Mary, and to qperate in her stead between the Cascades and The Dalles. These improvements stirred the less prosperous owners of the "Oregon Transportation Line," as the Ruckel-Van Bergen-McFarland steamboat line came to be known, and Colonel Ruckel during the following season built the larger and more powerful steamboat Mountain Buck to replace the Fashion between Portland and the Cascades.
THE RAILROAD CONSTRUCTED
Ruckel and his partners in the Oregon Transportation Line now determined to build a portage railroad similar to the Bradford one. Accordingly negotiations were had with John Chipman, the owner of the claim at the upper landing, resulting in the agreement which follows:
This Indenture made the twenty ninth day of August in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven between John Chipman of the Cascades, Wasco County, Oregon Territory, of the first part and J. S . Ruckel and H. Olmstead of the same place of the second part. Witnesseth that the said party of the first part hath leased and by these presents doth grant, demise and doth lease unto the said party of the second part their heirs, executors and assigns the exclusive right of way for the term of fifty years to build or construct a Rail Road from the landing known as the Wasco steamboat landing at the upper Cascades, from thence along the most practicable route on or near the banks of the Columbia river to the most westerly line of the land claim belonging to the party of the first part. Also the said party of the first part doth grant and lease unto the said party of the second part their heirs, executors and assigns for the same period (fifty years) the further exclusive right of way to build or construct a rail road or wagon road or roads from the above described Wasco landing to any point on the Columbia River between the Wasco landing and the most westerly line of said claim.
And the party of the second part their heirs, executors or assigns doth covenant and agree to pay to the party of the first part the yearly rent of fifty dollars ($50)f the same to be paid yearly in advance on or before the first day of September. And the party of the second part their heirs, executors and assigns further agree to have the main line of the Rail Road, that is to say from the Wasco landing to the most westerly limits of the land claim on the Columbia, completed within a period not exceeding fifteen months from the first day of September next. And it is further agreed by the party of the first part that the party of the second part shall not be limited ​as to time in constructing other Rail Roads or Wagon Roads to the big Eddy or other points on the Columbia River.
Witness: William D. Hare Jas. W. Davis.
John Chipman (L. S.) J. S. Ruckel (L. S.) Harrison Olmstead (L. S.)
Territory of Oregon Multnomah County ss
On this first day of September A. D. 1857, before the undersigned Clerk of the District Court for the 2nd Ju- dicial District of Oregon personally appeared, John Chip- man, J. S. Ruckel and Harrison Olmstead each and all personally known to me to be the persons whose names are subscribed to the foregoing instrument of writing and who signed, sealed and delivered the same, and ack- nowledged that they signed, sealed, delivered and executed the same freely and voluntarily for the uses and purposes therein set forth.
Witness Jas. W. Davis, Clerk (Seal) and the seal of said Court affixed the day and year above written. Jas. W. Davis, Clerk. 2nd Judicial District.
I hereby certify that I have this 28th day of August A. D. 1858 recorded the within lease at length in Book A, page 150 and forward in the records of Wasco County, Oregon.
W. C. Moody, Auditor and Recorder...
That the prospect of a railroad on the Oregon side, which was going to extend, if constructed, along the full length of the four and one-half mile portage, gave deep concern to the Bradfords and their associates cannot be doubted. To this we may assume was largely due the- truce declared in November, 1857, between the two com- peting lines on the Portland-Dalles route, which by agree- ment closed the Oregon Portage and withdrew the Senorita below and the Wasco above the Cascades, leaving ​the Mountain Buck to run between Portland and the Bradford portage, connecting thereby with the Hassaloe for The Dalles. This arrangement lasted less than a year, for in the fall of 1858 the Oregon Portage resumed operation in connection with the Mountain Buck and Wasco, and the Señorita, restored to service, was again connecting through the Bradford portage with the Hassaloe.
No doubt in anticipation of the break with the Bradford combination, steps had already been taken to build the Oregon Portage Railroad, the Portland Weekly Oregonian reporting in its issue of August 28, 1858, that Captain J. O. Van Bergen had "purchased the right and contracted the clearing to be done within thirty days, preparatory to laying the track." This is the last reference the writer has found in the newspapers of the period that connects Captain Van Bergen, who was one of the earliest steamboat operators on the Columbia river and the first to navigate a steamboat between the Cascades and The Dalles, with the Oregon Portage. From this time onward, Joseph S. Ruckel, sometimes coupled with Harrison Olmstead, is by the newspapers credited with the ownership, construction and operation of the Oregon Portage Railroad property and the management of the steamboats Fashion, Mountain Buck and Wasco. Captain Van Bergen may have remained a partner with Ruckel and Olmstead; so also may have Captain McFarland, and the writer has been assured by Mrs. Bailey that her husband was a partner of Ruckel's in the ownership of the Oregon Portage. Captain T. W. Lyles of San Francisco had put money into the Ruckel enterprises, but whether as a partner or as a loan does not clearly appear. Captain Van Bergen was afterward associated with O. B. Gibson in the firm of Van Bergen and Gibson, "forwarding and commission merchants, dealers in choice wines, liquors, ​lime, plaster, cement, doors, window blinds, etc.," their establishment being on Front Street between Washington and Stark Streets in Portland. Still later (1862) he was in command of independent steamboats on the Willamette and Columbia rivers.
It is apparent that to Ruckel's personal enterprise the acquisition of the Oregon Portage in a single interest and the building of the railroad is chiefly due, though the Portland banking house of Ladd and Tilton must be credited with the largest financial share, as will appear later on in this narrative, and Harrison Olmstead's interest must have been not far from that of Ruckel. When he left the State, and presently dropped out of the transportation history of the Pacific northwest, Olmstead's share in the development of the country was the subject of a short sketch from which the following is taken:
His being identified with the best interests of the State in its rapid strides of progression, makes him one of our own with as strong ties of fellow kindred as could connect one to another in the bonds of consanguinity. He is one of those who in an early day were considered as "Californians" come to Oregon to eat up her wealth by pocketing the revenues of a lucrative trade in the steam navigation of the Columbia river. He was one of the pioneers of the Cascades, a prominent owner of the "Oregon side." But instead of taking away from the old State her wealth, has actually been the agency of building up and rendering valuable her wastes and wdlds. The old notions and prejudices of that day we are happy to say are fast playing out among our people and the men who have been bold and vigorous enough—like Mr. Olmstead and the majority of those now composing the corporation of which he is a member—to open up and develop its resources, are getting a share of the credit they deserve. Mr. Olmstead came to California at an early day, 1849, if we are not mistaken.
In 1870 Olmstead returned to Oregon, and the Portland ​Herald, of September 30, that year, in giving the news of his expected arrival referred to him as "Harry Olmstead, well known in this state as the Jack of Clubs." D. H. Olmstead, a brother of Harrison Olmstead, was connected with the Oregon Portage Railroad, but whether as partner in ownership or as an employee, does not appear. He was left.in charge of the portage when the property was sold to the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, and it may. be inferred that he was previously engaged in the same capacity. The* only account of D. H . Olmstead the writer has found follows. It was published at his death across the state line from Walla Walla:
(He) came to this coast at an early day and for a number of years was engaged with his brother in transporting freight over the portage at the Cascades. Subsequently he removed to Walla Walla, coming here in the spring of 1862 [1863?] and remaining down to the date of his death. A quiet, unobtrusive man, he had many excellent qualities, and was greatly esteemed by all who came within the circle of his acquaintance. * * * *
The Railroad itself was constructed entirely of wood, which it may be assumed was supplied by the Eagle Creek sawmill; the rails were of fir, in sections six inches square and laid at a gauge close to, if not actually five feet, as indicated by the photographs of the line which have been preserved. The space between the rails was covered with planking and the bridges on the line were solidly constructed for the loads they were expected to carry, that at Eagle Creek being a framed cantilever and the others framed trestles. There was a large amount of bridging, because it was a great deal less expensive to draw upon the adjacent forests for timber than with the methods then available to build up earth embankments. The Oregon Portage Railroad was built over the small rocky elevation which marks the eastern end of the present Bonneville station grounds, through which barrier the Union Pacific trains now dash. Between this point and the western bank of Eagle Creek the traveler passes the Tooth rock, whose base was then washed by the Columbia at least during flood stages, and this depression was crossed by a heavily built trestle where today is a solid embankment.
On October 31, 1858, General Harney issued an order which practically opened the upper country to settlement, assuring would-be settlers that "every encouragement" would be given them to locate near the military posts, provided that no infringements were made upon military or Indian reservations. The Portland Weekly Oregonian of November 20, 1858, commenting on this, prophesied a large migration to the "Walla Walla country" in the ​following spring. The Oregon and Washington solitudes were beginning to vanish, and the hearts of the transportation men were growing lighter, their pockets, we may assume, the meanwhile growing heavier with the reward for which they toiled.
It is not clear at what time the Oregon Portage Railroad was first operated, but it seems a fair conclusion that it was in use late in 1858 or early in 1859, the next reference to it which has been found being included in the Portland Advertiser of June 14, 1859. Speaking of unusual high water in the Columbia river this newspaper records that "at the Cascades the water has risen above the mark of 1853, and swept off about 300 feet of Ruckel and Olmstead's Rail Road near the upper warehouse and all of the bridge around the Big Tooth near the Lower Landing; damage estimated about $10,000." Clearly, therefore, by this time the Railroad had been built from the upper landing at the present town of Cascade Locks to the lower landing at or near the mouth of Tanner Creek, just west of the present Union Pacific station of Bonneville.
John Stevenson and his sister, Mrs. Bailey, say that it was common, sixty years ago, to speak of the Oregon Portage Railroad, the "Ruckel Railroad" as it was commonly known, as built without a dollar. By promises of payment, rather than with cash, Ruckel, they say, persuaded men to work for him in the building of the railroad. Some quit, the prospect of pay too uncertain, but others stayed on, and the presumption is than eventually all were paid, but Ruckel himself was perpetually short of funds. It would appear then that it was in meeting the needs of the Railroad construction that Ladd & Tilton, the Portland bankers, became the creditors of the partnership to the extent of the most of the cost of the property, a fact which was revealed in connection with the sale of the Portage in 1862. An indenture dated November 19, 1859, between Ruckel and Harrison Olm​stead provided for the transfer of the former's property to the latter, probably in trust, and when Ruckel obtained title to the land from the United States Government he immediately (January 5, 1861) deeded it to Olmstead in fulfillment of the earlier obligation. This transfer of the Portage property to the ostensible ownership of Olmstead, the writer has concluded to have been a requirement of the bankers in connection with their advances for the construction of the Railroad.
A COMBINATION IN RESTRAINT OF TRADE
The advantage gained by the owners of the Oregon Portage through their having a railroad from end to end of the Cascades rapids, drawing the steamboat cargoes over its full extent with but two transfers, one from boat to cars, and one from cars to boat, must have induced the owners of the Bradford portage to seek an alliance with Captain J. C. Ainsworth and associates who were building a larger and more powerful steamboat than had yet operated out of Portland. This boat, the Carrie Ladd, proved on her trial trip to be able to stem the current through the rapids up to the Middle Cascades on the Washington side, where was the lower end of the short Bradford railroad. No steamboat had previously done this. The Carrie Ladd was immediately put on the route between Portland and the middle landing, and the former transfer by flat boats propelled by man power or by the wind when it favored between the lower landing, where the Portland steamboats had transferred their cargoes, and the railroad terminus was abandoned.
Once more the Bradford interests were ahead, for they had a more powerful steamboat on the lower river which could and did carry a larger load, and reach the middle landing, effecting a quicker and more economical through ​transportation than the Oregon Transportation Line afforded with its weaker and smaller steamboats. Accordingly Ruckel and Olmstead proposed a combination of the various interests now represented on the route, and this was given effect under the title of Union Transportation Line, or Union Transportation Company, both names being used in advertising. This association of which Captain Ainsworth at Portland, and Colonel Ruckel at the Cascades, were made the Agents, began operations on or shortly before May 12, 1859, using the Carrie Ladd and Hassaloe. The Oregon Portage Railroad ceased operation, and the Hountain Buck and Wasco were laid up.
The "Union Transportation Company" of 1859 was strengthened by the inclusion of the steamboat interests above The Dalles under new articles of association signed May 12, 1860, and renamed with the more expansive title of "Oregon Steam Navigation Company." As yet there was no corporation, the name adopted covering only a loose partnership, but before the year was ended the partners obtained a special Act of the Washington Territory legislature creating a corporation under the latter name and organized it near the close of 1860. This perhaps oldest operating company of the many predecessors of the present Union Pacific System was composed of steamboat owners, and all its property at the beginning was a dozen steamboats employed, if at all—for not all were serviceable—on the Willamette, Columbia and Snake rivers between Portland and the upper country. Among the stockholders were the owners of the two portages at the Cascades, but they had become stockholders, as had the others, through the conversion of their steamboats to the ownership of the corporation. The corporation, however, had no share in the ownership and no voice in the management of the portage facilities.
From this time forward it is possible to refer to the ​OREGON'S FIRST RAILWAY 191 records of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, the more important of which have been preserved. From them it is found that of the $20 per ton (usually deter- mined by measurement rather than weight, forty cubic feet being reckoned as one ton) which was the freight rate in either direction between Portland and The Dalles at the beginning of the Navigation Company's history, the owners of the portage railroads received $5, or one- fourth, for transporting freight shipments between the middle and upper landings, about two and one-half miles. The Washington portage was carrying all the business at this time, and Bradford & Company were allowed the full sum of $5 per ton out of the through rate in May and June, 1860. Commencing with the month of July, how- ever, the portage share of the receipts was divided, under an agreement 27 between Bradford & Co., and Ruckel and Olmstead, five- twelfths to the latter and seven-twelfths to the interests represented by the former. This arrange- ment was probably a compromise, and its basis is a matter for conjecture. It does not appear how the cost of oper- ating and maintaining the portage was apportioned, but it may be supposed that this was also divided in the pro- portions of five-twelfths and seven-twelfths between the two interests. The tonnage moved over the portage during the first year of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company was re- ported by the Secretary of the Company to the portage owners as follows: May, 1860 843 tons Nov., 1860 361 tons June 480 July 467 August 462 Setpember 486 October 661 December 289 January, 1861....133 February 379 March 133 April 620 27 Letter Geo. W . Murray, secretary, O. S. N. Co., to Bradford &*Co., August 12, 1860 . mn ​How small these figures really are, compared with the tonnage of the present day may be realized when it is reflected that six ordinary freight trains would now accommodate the entire tonnage of the twelve months above.
A tripartite agreement of which a memorandum copy has been preserved, and is quoted below, expressed the mutual understanding at this time reached that the two portage interests should handle only the business of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company and that they were to receive a compensation of one-fourth the through rate between Portland and The Dalles. This agreement, it will be observed, ignored the lower portion of the Ruckel railroad, and it does not allude to the arbitrary division of earnings between the two portage interests.
This agreement made this second day of October, 1860, between Bradford & Co. and H. Olmstead of the first part, and the Oregon Steam Navigation Company by J. C. Ainsworth, its agent, of the second part, witnesseth:
That the said parties of the first part for and in consideration of the undertakings by said party of the second part as hereinafter set out do hereby undertake and agree as follows:
That they will and shall receive and transport with celerity and dispatch over their rail roads on the Washington and Oregon sides of the Columbia river at the Cascades for the term of five years from the first day of May, 1860, such freight as the said company shall deliver at either end of said roads to be so transported. The rail road on the Washington side of said river is to receive said freight at the Wharf Boat at the Middle Cascades and deliver the same from the warehouse at the end of slide at the Upper Cascades. The rail road on the Oregon side of said river is to receive said freight in a wharf boat at or near the house known as the Col. Ruckel house where the lower terminus of said road shall be, at the first creek about three hundred (300) feet below said house, and deliver the same from the end of the slide at the warehouse at the landing of the Upper Cascades, but it is understood that the improvements and road below said Ruckel's house and the lower terminus of said road, ​as above specified, shall not be embraced in or any way affected by this agreement, but the right to and the use of the same shall remain as though this agreement had not been made. And it is further agreed that said parties of the first part shall and will not transport freight during said term over said roads for any other person or persons and further that they will not charge said company for transporting over said roads the personal baggage of passengers by the boats of said company. And it is further agreed that said parties of the first part are to have and receive as a compensation for said transportation during said term one-fourth part of the current receipts for freight through from Portland or any place below the Cascades to The Dalles, also one-fourth part of the receipts for transporting specie over said route, also one-fourth of the receipts for carrying the United States mail over said route. And it is further agreed that said parties of the first part shall have all the business of transporting freight across the Cascades to and from the Boats of said Company so far as the said rail roads extend and the said company hereby stipulate not to give freight to any other person or persons for that purpose.
And it is further agreed that the proceeds of said business to be received by said parties of the first part as aforesaid shall be paid over to them in monthly payments, pro rata, each month on or before the sixth day of the ensuing month in such assets as shall have been received by the party of the second part. Witness our hands and seals the day and year above written.
During the winter of 1860-61, the owners of the Oregon Portage Railroad were repairing the line because of the damage occurring in the 1859 rise of the Columbia river, anticipating, as it appears, that their entire line would soon be needed to supplement if not entirely supplant the short Bradford railroad. As early as January 3, 1861, Colonel Ruckel, who had become a director of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, informed the board at a regular meeting that "the railroad on the Oregon side of the Columbia river at the Cascades would be ready to receive and transport freight on Monday the third day of February next"—so the minutes record. This, we may ​194 FRANK B. GILL lv m U assume referred to the upper section of the railroad which was all that was needed while the Carrie Ladd was able to reach the middle landings. On April 17, 1861, the company's secretary, Geo. W . Murray, in a letter to Captain T. W . Lyles at San Francisco said that "Col. Ruckel is very busy with his road and is confident he will have it completed by first May," and on April 19th the Colonel told his fellow directors that the railroad would be in readiness to transport freight from the lower to the upper Cascades at the beginning of May. The rush to the Clearwater gold fields had by this time begun, the eighth gold excitement in Oregon, as one of the Portland newspapers declared. 28 A few days later, vice-president D. F . Bradford (the senior partner of Bradford & Co., the owner of the Wash- ington portage), wrote the subjoined letter to the com- pany's agent at The Dalles. Portland, Oregon, April 23, 1861. Mr. L. W. Coe. Dear Sir: Captain John [Wolfe] informs me that yesterday with the advantages of sail he made the rapids with the water at least one foot higher than when the boats stopped running last season and that within the past twenty-four hours the river has raised at least one foot more and doubts whether with a small load he can make the middle landing. I have instructed him if he cannot do it and is satisfied it cannot be done with a small load even on the "Carrie" he is to forward this letter to you. The boat has now from 60 to 75 tons on board. How much may be sent next trip cannot say, but it will not answer to allow the freight to accumulate at Cascades and as Col. Ruckel stated he could not be ready to take freight before May 1 necessity compels us to obtain transporta- tion by wagons. I have therefore to request in the emer- gency you would make arrangements with parties at The Dalles to go to the Cascades and haul and as dispatch is 28 Portland Daily Oregonian, April 27, June 1, 1861. 1861; Weekly Oregonian,
Yours truly, Dan F. Bradford, Vice President,
O. S. N. Co.
Evidently Colonel Ruckel's railroad was not going to be repaired any too soon, and, however distasteful it must have been to Bradford personally to see his rival getting the entire transportation over the Cascades portage, he was soon compelled as the Oregon Steam Navigation Company's representative to order the steamboats to land their cargoes on the Oregon side, at the place now called Bonneville. "Captain John" seems to have been able for some time longer to reach the middle landing, though on one occasion at least he had to make two trips between the landings before he could get all of his freight delivered. On May 4 further directions were given him by vice president Bradford:
"You will run the rapids at Cascades with the Julia and Carrie Ladd as long as you can do it with safety to the boats. Whenever you cannot make the [middle] landing on the Washington Territory side you will drop down and land your freight at the wharf boat provided by the Oregon Transportation Line on the Oregon side of the river."
At last the repairs were completed, or nearly so, and the railroad was in condition to be operated, the Pacific Christian Advocate of May 11, 1861, stating that ​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, 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 ​Oregonian at the opening of winter regarding a journey just completed thus expressed himself: I arrived here Friday evening, having had a pleasant trip from Portland on the river steamers. It rained, and sometimes it poured down for a change, but a comfortable boat and pleasant company made the outside world cause little trouble. When we arrived at the Cascades the weather had improved and the mists hanging about the mountain tops added no little to the picturesque character of the scene. To more completely enjoy the wildness of the mountains and the turbulence of the river we took a free-gratis walk upon that ticklish specimen of art and monopoly, the wooden railway around the portage, and finally found ourselves safe upon the Idaho.
It does not appear in the narrative whether the correspondent was deposited on the Oregon or Washington side of the Columbia, so that his walk may have been taken on either the Ruckel or the Bradford railroad.
THE LOCOMOTIVE "OREGON PONY" BUILT
Some of the settlers on the Washington side of the Cascades portage secured from the Territorial legislature a special Act chartering the Cascades Railroad Company proposing to build a steam railroad with T rails over the whole length of the portage on the Washington side, and this scheme having passed into the control of Bradford & Co., they had surveyed the route in October, 1861. Impelled in part at least by this activity across the river, and with a realization too, that the increasing population served by the river steamboat lines was shortly going to demand better service on the portages, the owners of the Oregon Portage Railroad determined to substitute a locomotive for the mules used on their line.
An order was given to the Vulcan Iron Foundry of 137-139 First Street, San Francisco, an establishment ​employing from one hundred to one hundred and fifty hands, for this, the first locomotive built upon the Pacific Coast, first too, to be used north of the California-Oregon state line. The builders operated a brass and iron foundry, built steam engines and boilers and made and sold mill and mining machinery. The little locomotive which was shortly followed by two others of similar construction, but somewhat larger, turned out by the same manufacturer on an order from the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, was built upon unconventional lines. All three of the engines appear to have been designed by C. W . Stevens, of San Francisco, of whom the writer has not been able to learn much; it would be interesting to know what led him to depart from the lines generally followed by American locomotive builders for some fifteen or twenty years previously—the accepted model still in 1924. Charles W. Stevens designed a steam locomotive for use on street railways which was tried out in San Francisco in 1877,<ref>San Francisco Alta, September 20, 1877.</ref ut otherwise is perhaps unknown to fame.
and a supply of wood. In the writer's opinion, the "Oregon Pony" was the counterpart on a slightly smaller scale, of the pair of locomotives already mentioned as built a few months later.
    Diameter of cylinders—6"×l2" stroke.
    Diameter of drivers over tires—34"
    Driving wheel base—7'
    Total wheel base—7'
    Total length of engine and tender over couplers—14'–3½"
    Total weight of engine and tender—9700 pounds
    Tractor power at 10 miles per hour—810 pounds
    Boiler—36" in diameter
    Length of fire box—33"
    Width of fire box—18"
    Height of fire box—43¼"
    Length of boiler over all—67"
    67×114×25" flues
Turning for contrast with the present day to a recent Union Pacific locomotive, No. 5512, of 2-10-2 type the following is found:
    Diameter of cylinders 29%"x30" stroke
    Diameter of drivers over tires—63"
    Driving wheel base—22' 6"
    Total wheel base, engine and tender—79' 4¼"
    Total length of engine and tender—88' 4¾"
    Total weight of engine and tender in working order—592,500 pounds.
    Tractive force—70,450 pounds
    Boiler—88" in diameter
    Length of fire box—126"
    Width of fire box—96"
    305 2¼" and 5½"x22' 0" flues
It may be questioned if, should an engine of this size have been placed upon the Oregon Portage Railroad in 1862 the track would have borne the strain for a single revolution of the wheels yet such locomotives are becoming common on the leading railroads of America.
That the owners of the Oregon Portage Railroad were ​not well supplied with cash has already been indicated. When the steam locomotive was approaching completion J. C. Ainsworth, the president of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, wrote a letter to C. W. Stevens in which he said
"I have today succeeded in getting Col. Ruckel to arrange for the payment of the 'Pony.Ladd and Tilton agree to pay for it through J. W. Ladd of San Francisco. When he arranges for it give him a bill of sale of the Pony as he is to hold it till he is reimbursed. You will collect the full cost of $4,000 as I do not want the $1,000 paid by Captain Lyles to apply on the 'Pony'."
From this it appears that the builder's price of the little locomotive was $4,000, and that already it was designated as the "Pony" though not yet completed. It seems probable that the name "Pony" was adopted for one of two reasons—a flight of fancy that connected this first unit of a transcontinental railroad with the Pony Express which before the completion of the first overland telegraph line crossed the plains and mountains from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, or a touch of humor that suggested it for the engine as a junior edition of the "iron horse," a name then applied to locomotives much more commonly than in the present period.
On the last day of March, 1862, on board the steamer Pacific, Captain A. M . Burns, the little pioneer engine arrived in Portland. The Pacific under a schedule then in effect by agreement between the owners of the San Francisco-Portland-Puget Sound coastwise steamship Tines, had gone first to Victoria before coming to Portland, so that our pioneer locomotive had been on the water from March 24, when the ship left San Francisco. The Daily Oregonian's local news editor, browsing around for items of interest, discovered the little engine on the wharf, and mistaking it for the locomotive ordered but not yet built for the Oregon Steam Navigation Company's new Dalles ​portage railroad, the construction of which was just started, penned the following: 36
"The Iron Horse"—The steamer Pacific brought up from San Francisco a fine new steam engine for the rail- road in course of construction between the Dalles and Des Chutes. The Engine is called the "Pony" and will no doubt startle the Cayuses who roam in that neighbor- hood from their propriety * * * *. God speed the "Iron Horse."
The Oregon Statesman of April 7 followed with a sim- ilar notice. The railroad was not ready for the locomotive, as some changes were needed, among them the building of an incline track to the water's edge at the lower land- ing and very likely it was at this time that the wooden rails were overlaid with iron strips for the safer operation of the engine, from the lower to the middle landing. The middle landing was again the transfer point, though it was a difficult thing now to get through with the increased cargoes of 1862 and there was much anxiety to see the Oregon Portage Railroad finished to its lower terminus, as witness the following extracts from president Ains- worth's letters:
To Agent Gibson at The Dalles, March 30:
"The stores you ordered are now on the Julia and I fear [she] will not be able to get over the rapids tomorrow, in which event you will have to get what stores you can at Dalles. ***** I fear I will not be able to take any more freight till Ruckel's road is finished at the lower end, which will take some days. You had better have teams ready to take passengers' luggage over the portage Tuesday night. This expense, of course, will be paid by the passengers."
To Captain T. W. Lyles on April 1 at San Francisco, a stockholder in the Oregon Steam Navigation Company and a personal friend of Ainsworth's:
"I am now running two boats every day to Cascades,
8 Portland Daily Oregonian, April 2, 1862. ​one each day for stock alone. The water is so high on the rapids that it is with difficulty we can get over with thirty tons. Ruckel's road will not be finished for three weeks; snow at the Cascades two and a half and three feet deep with thick crust on top, making it impassable for teams at lower end. This is a great drawback to our business. * * * The grand rush is just beginning; I scarce- ly have time to eat and everybody connected with the company is hurried as much."
To O. B. Gibson, April 28:
"Captain John says if the river rises much more the Carrie will not be able to run the rapids, and if so the jig is up till the lower road is done."
The little engine was put on board a new wharfboat which Ruckel and Olmstead had built for use at the lower landing, and on April 25 safely made the trip to the Cascades at the end of a tow line from the Julia or the Carrie Ladd, the Mountain Buck, the Rival or the Inde- pendence, all five 37 of which steamboats were used in transporting the business that spring. Still the railroad was not ready and more time was lost. So great was the rush for the gold mines that the city drays taking ship- ments of supplies and materials to the Oregon Steam Nav- igation Company's wharf practically blockaded Front and Yamhill Streets in Portland from early dawn until late in the evening, and the hotels were crowded while many prospectors were camped in the suburbs of the town. 38 Presently the capacity of the rairoads was reached, and a large quantity of freight accumulated on the portage, so that the Oregon Steam Navigation Company was com- pelled for about a week to refuse shipments that were offered at Portland, pending the completion of the line to the lower landing. 39
37 Portland Daily Oregonian, February 18, April 3, June 4, 1862. 38 Portland Daily Oregonian, April 10, April 15, May 24, May 27, May 30, 1862 . 39
THE RAILROAD OPERATED BY STEAM
It is unfortunate that when the railroad was at last ready for use, no newspaper men were present to record the initiation of steam transportation by railroad north of the California state line. The writer has in fact found no account of this first beginning, as we may say of the Union Pacific System except an article published in the Sunday Oregonian of July 23, 1905, at the time of the Lewis and Clark fair. It contains minor inaccuracies, as will be noted, but is of great value as an account at first hand. With slight omissions not of interest in this narrative this contribution follows:
Out in the transportation department of the Machinery building at the Fair grounds stands a queer little locomotive of an ancient type, with these words painted on it in big letters: "Oregon Pony 1862-1905 ." * * * [It] was the first locomotive ever run over the first railroad ever built in the State of Oregon. It ran on a portage road between Brownsville [Bonneville] and the Cascades over wooden rails overlaid with strap iron. * * * Sometimes the Fair visitor who chances to pass the little engine will notice an old man with snowy white hair and beard, but with a springy step and the eyes of youth, who hovers around as though loath to depart from some dear treasure. And then if the visitor manifests any interest in the "Pony" * * * "This was the first locomotive ever run in Oregon," he says, "and I was the man who built and ran it," * * * The man is Mr. Theodore A. Goffe, and he has been a machinist and an engineer all his life. * * * *
The Oregon Pony was built in 1862 by the Vulcan Iron Works of San Francisco for Colonel Ruckle [Ruckel] of the old Oregon Steam Navigation Co., the predecessor of the present O. R. & N. Co., and the line which did so much to build up Oregon. Mr. Goffe was working in San Francisco at that time and had charge of its construction. Upon its completion it was shipped to Portland, still under his charge, on the steamer Pacific. After an exceedingly rough passage, in the course of which they were driven as far out of their course as Victoria [Victoria was a scheduled port of call], they finally made this port in the latter part of March, 1862. The Pony was landed at the old ​Couch wharf and Colonel Ruckle engaged Goffe as its first engineer. On about the 5th or 6th of May [April 25] it was placed on a barge built especially to serve as a wharfboat at Bonneville and towed up the river to that place and landed.
The track of the portage road was about six miles [four and a half] long, and on the morning of May 10 Mr. Goffe decided to try the locomotive and see how it ran. He was destined to have some queer experiences on that trial trip. "I was just firing up on that morning before making the trial spin," he says, "when who should come along but a lot of the prominent officers and stockholders of the company. There were Colonel, Ruckle, W. S. Ladd, R. R. Thompson, S. G. Reed, Captain Gilman, Put Bradford and old John Scranton, and they all began to clamor vigorously for a ride. 'You'll get dirty/I said, and promised to take them out next day, but O no, they wouldn't mind that; they wanted to ride on the first trip and nothing but the engine would suit them.
"Well, finally I had to consent, so I put the whole crowd in the tender and started out. For the first half mile all went well. But then we struck a little up grade and the Pony began to spit water and smoke out of her stack in a regular stream. There was no cover on the cab then, and all the dirty water and cinders went right back in the tender where they were sitting. I could hear them coughing and blowing their noses, and I knew perfectly well what was taking place but I didn't dare look back and kept her going until we reached the other end of the line. Then I got down and looked at them.
"They were absolutely the dirtiest looking crowd I ever saw in my life. They all wore plug hats and good clothes, and their faces and starched shirts were so black and streaked you could not have told that they ever had been white. They started down to the steamer [Idaho]] to make the most of it and have a spread in honor of the occasion, and Colonel Ruckle turned and asked me to come along. I was dressed in overalls and jumper and replied that I didn't look fit. 'Lord,' he said, 'I guess you look as fit as we do;' so I went along and we had a big blow out.
Photograph courtesy of Mrs. Barbara A. Bailey.
The "Pony"was kept on the Cascade portage for nearly two years [one year]. Every day it pulled on the average 200 tons of freight from Bonneville to the Cascades, but never much going the other way, save twice a week when it would take down from 500 to 2000 pounds of gold dust from the Salmon River mines. One of the cherished memories Mr. Goffe bears of that time is of the late Henry W. Corbett, who used to ride as a traveling salesman over the road once each week going up the river with his little hand satchel to solicit trade. He would always ride on the locomotive with the engineer and invariably had a pleasant word and a smile for him.
In 1864 [1862-3] another railroad was built on the Washington side of the river with heavier locomotives and better rails, and the "pony" was sent up to another portage at Celilo. But its work in Oregon was over. It was soon after sold to Mr. Hewes of San Francisco. Mr. Hewes had a contract for leveling off the sand hills of San Francisco and dumping them into the low places, on one of whieh the Palace Hotel now stands. He bought the "pony" and used it hauling dirt cars for many years. Mr. Goffe left it when Mr. Hewes bought it and became an engineer on the San Francisco and San Jose line. A. M. Stetson then became its engineer.
It was in San Francisco that Colonel Henry Dosch, the director of exhibits at the Lewis and Clark Fair, became connected with the pony. He was keeping time for Mr. Hewes and saw much of the little engine. Colonel Dosch is one of the most genial of men, and he told me its later history.
After Mr. Hewes had used it for many years he finally stored it away in a warehouse. It remained there for nearly 20 years. Not long ago the warehouse burned and ​the pony was reduced to a mere skeleton of its former self. When it was decided to hold the Lewis and Clark Exposition here, several gentlemen,among them Colonel L. L. Hawkins, proposed that the pony should be brought up and exhibited as the first locomotive in Oregon. The matter was taken up through Colonel Dosch and Mr. Hewes readily consented to lend the engine to the exposition. With great generosity he had the parts which were destroyed rebuilt as nearly as possible like the original, at a cost of over $2,000, and then donated it through Colonel Dosch as the permanent property of the State of Oregon. * * * * * * * * * *
Let us listen to the first traveler over the line who appears to have taken the pains to tell posterity about it. It is the editor of the Pacific Christian Advocate telling of a visit he has just made to The Dalles, a matter of two or three weeks after the trial trip:
On the Oregon side [at the Cascades] a railroad traverses the entire portage—five miles—the lower half being used with a locomotive and cars and the upper with mule cars. Upon the lower part the ties are four feet part; the Upon the lower part the ties are four feet apart; the rails are of fir, six inches square and covered with bar iron. The road is staunch and smooth, the passage over it of "the Pony"—it should be called "the Pioneer"— with a train of twenty tons making no perceptible jar. The cars run over this safely at the rate of twenty miles an hour. Over this end of the portage we rode twice, in a freight car. It was our first railroad ride on the coast, and it inspired us with animating hopes for the not dis- tant future when not only through the rocky portals of the golden west, but far beyond to the teeming cities of the Mississippi, the iron horse would thunder with its tread, slaking its thirst at Snake, Green Water, Platte and other rivers and waking the solitudes of the Rocky Mountains with its shrill neighing. That event will come. We stand upon its threshold and there are those living who will witness its full accomplishment, fii the business and travel of northern and eastern Oregon and of our sister Territory a new era has dawned. Henceforth we shall ​turn to the east for the rising sun of our progress and prosperity.
Messrs, Ruckel and Olmstead deserve high credit for their forecast, energy and perseverance in pushing this portage railroad to its present stage of completion. By autumn they expect to have it finished for the passage of the locomotive train from end to end. Next season they intend to erect the road on higher and better ground above all floods and to lay it with heavy iron rails, dispensing altogether with the present temporary one. Even under the existing disadvantages they transport over a hundred tons per day from the lower to the upper landing and unless interrupted by floods they will soon be able to convey goods forward as fast as needed.
A short time after the editor of the Advocate made his over-Sunday trip to The Dalles, some one who hid his identity under the nom-de-plume of "Observer," traveled from Portland to the Salmon river mines in western Idaho, and, as he journeyed, prepared descriptive accounts of the country for the Oregonian newspaper. By this time the early rush of prospectors and goods to the mines was over.
Leaving the city in early morning on the steamboat Julia he early in the afternoon was at the Cascade portage, and taking writing material in hand he wrote:
At the lower Cascades and on the Washington side is a military post but without features worth mentioning. There is here a break in the Columbia, or a "portage" as it is termed, of about four miles, and a railroad of Col. Ruckel's on the Oregon side for the transportation of freight and passengers. The cars are drawn by horses about half the distance and the iron horse takes his stately step o'er the other half of the way. Who expected two short years ago to hear the whistle of the locomotive, that harbinger of civilization, in these wilds? About fifty yards of the upper end of the track is washed away, which will be repaired [as] soon as the waters will permit. The O. S. N . Co. are engaged in building a railroad on the Washington side which is said to be much the better track ​for a railroad and the road is proposed to be completed in four months.
Yes, hardly had the Pony commenced its journeys through the gorge when the Oregon Steam Navigation Company bought the Bradford & Co. portage railroad and undertook the immediate construction under the charter of the Cascades Railroad Company of a much more substantial railroad with T rails and locomotives of standard design.
The Oregon line had at this time again suffered at the annual rising of the Columbia river. The Daily Oregonian newspaper of June 12, 1862 reported that the Ruckel railroad was now impassable, a considerable part of it being under water. "No portion of it," the chronicler said, "has floated away, and it is thought that the piling of rocks on the planking will probably prevent much ser- ious injury." From the same newspaper in its issue of June 14, it seems that this altogether unprecedented and, save for the June rise of 1894, since unequalled flood, had caused the caving in of the river bank at the middle of the railroad for about one hundred and fifty feet. The lower and upper parts of the railroad were still standing, and "large quantities of rock have been piled on the works, which will undoubtedly secure them from further damage provided the river does not raise any higher. Only the wings of Col. Ruckel's house have been washed away, and," said the scribe, "we are authorized to say that he is not yet a ruined man, the report in yesterday's Times to the contrary notwithstanding. * * * About two hundred tons of freight is now at the Cascades being gradually transported in wagons across the portage on the wagon road but under great difficulties. * * * *"
"The repairing of the Cascades railroad is now completed and the arrangements are such as to admit of passing two hundred tons of freight over the road daily. With another week it is expected that the capacity of the road will be equal to the transmission of three hundred tons daily. In that event the steamers Idaho and Hassaloe will both be placed on the line. With all these facilities the Company will be able to deliver at our landing an average of eighteen hundred tons of merchandise per week. * * *"
This is from the pen of C. H. Hall who was on his way to the Clearwater mines and was written on July 26, 1862:
"It really seemed like once more going to 'America' as we passed over Col. Ruckel's road where we had once more the pleasure of being dragged through the mountain gorges on a train of cars drawn by an actual, live, smoking, panting, fire-breathing 'iron horse.But the company is constructing a much more substantial road on the Washington side and from the number of men employed we should conclude that ere another season opens, freight and passengers may be transported from Portland to Lewiston,a distance of about four hundred miles entirely by the Company's steamers and railroad cars. * * *"
And this, written in the late fall of 1862 is the testimony of Lieutenant Mullan, the builder of the Mullan wagon road from Walla Walla to Missoula in the early sixties:
" * * * Herring portage of the Cascades, heretofore so great a bugbear in the trip from The Dalles to Portland, is now made in a brief hour on the cars, without detriment or danger. An extra dollar for riding on the cars is charged, though, if you prefer it, you can walk on the road in nearly the same time, free of cost. No traveler passes over the portage without awarding to Colonel Ruckel every praise for the bold prosecution of his bold project, and no one begrudges his the ample reward ​which he is today deriving in token of his past labors * * * "
It may be asked, how were the train movements over the Oregon Portage Railroad regulated? There was no telegraph line, and the telephone had not been invented. No mention is found of any passing tracks on the line, but whether there were or not, the presumption is a fair one that the trains were moved by the superintendent's orders received and transmitted by the crews by word of mouth. If engineer Goffe were living we might ask him, but he died in 1916. Colonel Ruckel died on May 23, 1876, in Washington, D. C. Harrison Olmstead is no doubt long since gone, and there is probably no one now living who worked on the Oregon Portage Railroad while it was a real link in the transportation system of the sixties.
At each end of the Railroad were wharfboats, rather than fixed wharves which must have been useless at high water stages unless double decked or built on an incline. A small house for the locomotive, stables for the animals and a barn for the storage of provender, a tool house, maybe, for the repairmen, with the residence of the superintendent probably comprised the structures of the line. Of water stations and fuel stations in the ordinary sense of those terms, for the locomotive, and depots for passenger and freight business, there seem to have been none.
Oregon Steam Navigation Company
Portland, Ore. Oct 26, 1862.
Dear Sir:
Yours etc.,
J. C . Ainsworth, Pres't.
From this letter it would seem that the "Oregon Pony" unless laid up for repairs, was unable to haul all the freight, since mules had to be made use of again on the Oregon Portage Railroad.
The division of the portage earnings between Bradford & Co. and Ruckel and Olmstead when only the latter's railroad was in use, and there was now no likelihood whatever of the Bradford line's being restored to traffic, soon became distasteful to the Oregon portage owners, and D. F . Bradford, hearing of this from his brother Putnam while the former was traveling in the Puget Sound country, in a letter of August 24, 1862 to "My Dear Captain" (J. C . Ainsworth), said that he had learned that Ruckel had asked Ainsworth or Thompson whether Bradford & Co. were entitled to any of the earnings of the Cascade portage as they had no railroad. "I don't believe," the letter went on to say, "the Col. has entirely lost his judgment or he would hardly agitate such a question. As it is, it is not a matter for the Company's consideration; they have a contract with Bradford and Olmstead and 'tis for the latter parties to settle their own difficulties if there are any. You will keep the accounts as you have always done and I will see to the rest."
Apparently this stopped any plans Ruckel and Olm​stead may have made to make void their agreement with Bradford & Co., but the subject came up again, as we shall see. In order that the reader may grasp the situation, it should be explained that when Bradford & Co. sold the charter and survey of the Cascades Railroad Company to the Oregon Steam Navigation Company in May, 1862, they also sold their mule-power wooden track railroad, but as to the latter, with the provision that the sale was not effective until May 1, 1865. As this earliest railroad on the Pacific Coast was then out of use and about to be abandoned, the only object in Bradford & Co's retaining it, must have been to secure to them for three years more the seven-twelfths of the earnings accruing to the upper portion of the portage under the 1860 agreement with Olmstead and Ruckel.
THE RAILROAD SOLD, AND ITS OPERATION DISCONTINUED
It was, of course, the building of the first class railroad across the river that prompted Harrison Olmstead, on behalf of the owners of the Oregon Portage to propose to the directors of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company on October 24,1862, that they purchase the property On the same day Ruckel, Harrison Olmstead and D. H . Olmstead signed articles of incorporation of Oregon Cascade Rail Road Company which were filed in Oregon three days later, on October 27, 1862; this was probably a protective measure on the part of Ruckel and Olmstead which proved unnecessary through the sale of the property, as the corporation never acquired title to the Oregon Portage Railroad,was apparently never organized, and if so never really possessed a legal existence.
The purchase of the portage was considered at a directors' meeting held October 25, 1862, and Harrison Olmstead was invited to come down for a conference with president Ainsworth. Ruckel was also asked by Ains​OREGON'S FIRST RAILWAY 213 worth to come in. "Mr. Olmstead," said he, "has made a proposition to sell the railroad, etc., at Cascades to the company; the company have authorized me to enter into negotiations for the purchase. I should like to see you very much as soon as you can come down." 49 The result of Ainsworth's meeting with Olmstead and Ruckel was an offer to sell out for $175,000, and this was rejected upon its presentation to the Directors, Nov- ember 3, but the next day the two last named gentlemen appeared before the board, offering to take $155,000, and at this price the sale was carried out. Harrison Olmstead, as a part of the understanding then reached with the Ore- gon Steam Navigation Company for their purchase of the Oregon Portage, now wrote to Bradford & Co., telling them that the agreement he had negotiated with them in 1860 for a division of the portage earnings was no longer operative, but null and void. It was not recognized by the purchasers. The deeds conveying the title to the Oregon Portage property were made on November 6, 1862, one for Mult- nomah County, and one for Wasco County, as it then was, though now Hood River County. These deeds indicate that there were besides the fixed property,and other things grouped under a general description the following: 1 locomotive 12 mules 1 passenger car 5 horses 20 freight cars 3 wagons with double harness 1 steam hoisting engine at the lower landing, evi- dently to haul the freight cars up a steeper grade than the "Pony" would surmount. 60 tons of flat iron with spikes for the same, tools for the railroad harness for car animals 3 wharfboats blacksmith tools, etc. 49 Letter J. C . Ainsworth to J. S . Ruckel, October 28, 1862. ijy
FRANK B. GILL
The payment for the property disclosed in part its ownership, or its indebtedness: Cash paid Harrison Olmstead on the delivery of the deed $ 9,000 Notes given him, payable in 9 months— August 6, 1863, six in number....? 3,753.00 10,684.00 10,000.00 5,000.00 2,216.19 8,346.81 40,000 Note given Ladd & Tilton, Portland bankers, payable June 1, 1863, with interest at 2^% per month 106,000 $155,000 It is a fair presumption that $49,000 was all that Ruckel and Harrison Olmstead, and their unnamed partners, in- cluding, as before stated, possibly Joseph Bailey, Captain McFarland, Captain Van Bergen and D. H. Olmstead, got for their outlay of money and time, outside of the profits received from the operation of the property, what- ever they may have been. The six notes may have repre- sented the respective interests of that many individuals as partners. The Oregon Portage Railroad in itself was not of much value to the Oregon Steam Navigation Company; to them the value of the purchase lay in the ownership it gave of the entire portage. It was now impossible for any intend- ing competitor to obtain by purchase or construction equal facilities with themselves, and the only independ- ent route over the portage was the none too good military wagon road on the Washington side, which in fact was from time to time made use of by invaders who sought to share in the Columbia river trade. To the directors of the Oregon Steam Navigation Com- pany D. F. Bradford presented on March 31, 1863, the claim of Bradford & Co. for their agreed share of the
San Francisco, Feb. 6, 1864.
Cap. J. C. Ainsworth. My Dear Sir:
You yesterday mentioned to me the receipt of a letter from Mr. Flint and I now desire to say a few words in regard to the subject matter of that letter—understand what I write is not official but as between friend and friend. You are fully aware of my position toward our company when I made the sale of certain interests at Cascades and that in determining the price I was persuaded by you and other members of the directory, that by our company placing an Iron Road on the Washington side of the river I should be confirmed in my contract with the Co. even should Ruckle desire to try to break the contract we had with the Company and this consideration should more than repay me for any given sum stated at the time. You will also remember that previous to the purchase made of Ruckle's side of the river you told me in reply to my question whether this would affect my interest, that it would not; therefore trusting to our mutual understanding I did not deem it necessary to make any writings. You will bear me out that in all my transactions with the Company I have in all things acted a liberal part and felt that in counselling with you I was getting advice that I could rely upon. The ground taken by you in the board that the note of Olmstead's destroyed all former positions taken by me may appear on the face to be correct but ​FRANK B. GILL I cannot see it in that light. I hold that inasmuch as I have at all times acted with you and Mr. Thompson in the antagonistic position which the company held toward the parties owning the Oregon Side of the River that you should do by me what at the time you expressed your- self willing to do, which according to all our judgment was for the best interests of the Company. The facts connected with the purchase of the Oregon Side of the River are to me very mortifying. I have never mentioned to you that I was aware (but not for a length of time afterwards) that at the time I was asked to try to get Ruckle to recede from his price of $175,000 you already had an understanding with him to take $155,000 and also that Olmstead was to write the note he did, in fact the whole transaction has been told to me by the parties in- terested and laughed at as being a smart operation. It may have been but I don't see it—and never shall. The whole object I have in this letter is to get you to go back and review the whole case in your own mind and in the action you will be called upon in the matter to take do what you believe to be right as well toward me as an individual as toward the company whose officer you are. I do not wish to sway you through any friendly relations existing between us, but I do ask to put you in my position or rather if you had not a dollar in the case you would act according to your views of right and wrong. I am satisfied both morally and legally I shall have to pay Mr. Flint his share of the business. I write this for yourself alone. I do not expect or require an answer. Hoping you will have a speedy and pleasant trip home, Truly your friend, Danl. F. Bradford. The Flint referred to in Bradford's letter was J, P. Flint of San Francisco, who as already stated, backed the Bradford enterprises with his money. Five months later the directors, on July 19, 1864, voted that "whereas certain differences exist between Daniel F. Bradford and Bradford & Co., and the Cascades Railroad Company, and also between the same parties and the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, which it is mutually desired should be amicably settled," the matters in controversy should be submitted to an arbitrator without appeal from his de​cision. E. D. Shattuck was asked to settle the matter and his verdict, which included an award of $21,862.50 to Bradford & Co., was given in January, 1865. This indicates that Shattuck, whose decision has not been preserved and its full terms therefore are not known, decided that Bradford & Co. were entitled to a share in the Oregon Portage Railroad's earnings up to the close of its operations, April 20, 1863. Part of the dispute was concerned with the right of way of the new Cascades Railroad on the Washington side of the Cascades portage.
The new railroad on the Washington side was com- pleted ready for operation in time to begin its use on Monday, April 20, 1863, and on the preceding Friday the following letter was sent to the superintendent of the Oregon Portage Railroad at the Cascades:
Oregon Steam Navigation Company
Portland, Ore., April 17,1863.
D. H. Olmstead.
Dear Sir:
I send you $3,000 in coin to pay employees on Oregon side up to Monday night next. Keep one good man on lower wharfboat (at low price) and enough to take eare of the mules and take over lumber, 'till further orders. Lay up the "Pony" and pay off engineer.
The passengers by Hunt Monday will go up on Washington side, the down passengers by Idaho will go down on your side. The Idaho will take her freight on Monday and then tow the [upper landing] wharfboat to the Washington side. Try and have it arranged so that she can land at the head of the incline to take animals on board as all the animals will have to go on the Oregon side.
Let me know how many men it will be necessary to keep, in your judgment. We are running opposition and must reduce expenses as much as possible.
Yours truly,
J. C. Ainsworth, Pres't. ​The wharfboat at the middle landing had already been floated down to the lower landing, and on Monday, April 20, 1863, the "Pony" made its last run and the Oregon Portage Railroad practically ceased to function.
The locomotive was moved to The Dalles on May 11 or shortly thereafter and its wheels were changed for use on the new fourteen mile Dalles portage railroad where fifty pound T rails were used, though it may be questioned if it was ever used there. Some of the animals and wagons were shortly removed to Wallula; the hoisting engine was sold in October, 1864. Joseph Bailey was appointed super- intendent of the Oregon portage, superseding D. H . Olm- stead on May 13, 1863. Bailey had crossed the plains in 1853, and settled at the Cascades about a year later. He used to drive a four mule train on the Bradford railroad but was serving as a volunteer soldier above The Dalles at the time of the Indian attack upon the Cascades settle- ments in March, 1856. Afterward he made some money at the Cascades in raising hogs and in selling supplies to the prospectors going to the mines, and still later he was in charge of the men who got out the timbers for the Cascades Railroad (Washington side) in 1862-63 . He bought an interest—eight or nine thousand dollars, his widow says— in the Oregon Portage Railroad from Ruckel. Under Bailey the Oregon Portage employes got out logs and operated the Eagle Creek sawmill during the summer, and in winter they repaired the railroad, much of which as has been remarked had been built on trestle work.
After standing at The Dalles for over three years, the Pony locomotive was sold to David Hewes of San Francisco, for two thousand dollars. The little pioneer was brought down the Columbia and on October 18, 1866, put on board the independent steamship Montana. Hewes was one of the pioneers of California and was known as "Steam Paddy Hewes" because of his use of that novelty ​OREGON'S FIRST RAILWAY 219 of early days, a steam shovel. These excavators were nicknamed "steam Paddies," and Hewes utilized one or more in leveling most of the streets of San Francisco be- tween Montgomery street and the bay, reaching as far over as Bryant street. In this work he used several other small locomotives, in addition to the Pony which he called the "Oregon Pony." David Hewes in more recent years built the Hewes Building, on Market and Sixth streets in San Francisco. He died in June, 1915, at the age of ninety-three. 51 For several years after the removal of the locomotive, while Joseph Bailey was in charge of the Oregon Portage property, the Railroad was used for the transfer of stock shipped over the line of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, the animals being driven over the portage, using, because there was no other means of passage, the long bridges past the Tooth rock and over Eagle Creek, which were part of the Railroad. The baggage of the stockmen was taken over on the Railroad as in its early days, by mules. The Columbia River Road Company, an Oregon corpor- ation dating from October 14, 1862, having completed a cattle trail along the Oregon bank of the Columbia river approximately between Portland and The Dalles, was given permission to use the Tooth and Eagle Creek bridges under an agreement made April 7,1863, for which use superintendent Bailey was instructed to collect 25 cents per head of cattle and for sheep at half rate. An associated enterprise which projected a railroad upon the route, but never passed beyond the initial act of organiza- tion as far as now appears, was the Columbia River Rail Road Company, incorporated on November 22, 1862, by Joel Palmer, Joseph Watt and John F. Miller. In the summer of 1869 forest fires were menacing the Cascades portage, and superintendent Bailey led the fire 51 Letter Chas. L. Hewes to the writer, January 25, 1916.
lfW ​220 FRANK B. GILL fighters with unsparing zeal—so much so, indeed, that he contracted pneumonia from exposure during the days and nights of exhausting labor, and he died early in Novem- ber, being buried in the cemetery on the Washington side, near the scene of his early work. THE OREGON PORTAGE IN DANGER While the Oregon Steam Navigation Company in 1862-3 was strengthening its position on the Columbia river by the purchase and building of portage railroads, an antag- onist of some caliber—the People's Transportation Com- pany—was preparing to start a strong competition, with new and powerful steamboats at least the equal of the older line's. This contestant, seeking a crossing over the Cascades portage,decided to obtain title to a right of way for a wagon road on the Oregon side from the middle landing, to which point their steamboat E. D . Baker was well able to go, to the upper landing. They went through the formality of offering the 0. S . N. Company $200 for this land, and being rebuffed as no doubt was expected, sued the company in the Wasco county court. The case was set for trial on May 12, 1863, at The Dalles, and its outcome has not been found, but this is immaterial, since the Oregon company fought their rival so vigorously that the People's Transportation Company on June 26 quit the Columbia. Apparently not long after the death of Joe Bailey, the Oregon Portage Railroad ceased to be used for live stock shipments in transit between Portland and upper Colum- bia points, the sawmill at Eagle Creek went out of use, and solitude reigned along the route formerly trodden by the original Iron Horse of Oregon. As the country be- came more populated, however, the Oregon portage began to be the object of wistful glances from would-be pro- moters of rival lines and from time to time plans were
Among these would-be competitors which after 1863 declared intention of obtaining right of passage over the Oregon Portage were three successive companies with which W. W. Chapman of Portland was connected. These were in turn The Oregon Cascade Rail Road Company, incorporated December 18, 1866, by W. W. Chapman, F. J. Carter, John B. Price and J. H. Mitchell; Portland Dalles, and Salt Lake Rail Road Company incorporated March 20, 1871, by Josiah Failing, Jacob Stitzel, S. J. McCormick, C. M. Carter and others, and The Portland, Salt Lake and South Pass Railroad Company, incorporated September 9, 1876, by Chas. P. Church, J. M. Strowbridge, Gideon Tibbetts, J. G. Glenn and W. W. Chapman. The latter was a lawyer, and one of a group of men who owned the townsite of Portland in its earliest days. The president of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company took notice of the steps taken by Chapman's first company in a vigorously worded communication to the superintendent at Eagle Creek:
"One Mr Neyce, we learn, went to the Cascades yesterday, at the instance of a few sharpers here who have filed articles of incorporation, for the purpose of locating a railroad on the Oregon side at the Cascades. I write this to say that if Mr. Neyce attempts in any way to interfere with our road we shall expect you to boot him off the premises. * * * We are tired of paying blood money to such men as Mr. Neyce and his associates. If he in any ​way interferes with our property, order him off and if he refuses make it rough for him." 52
and again, a month later, more mildly, perhaps:
"I understand the new railroad company recently or- ganized in Portland for the purpose of appropriating the company's road at the Cascades are about to send a party up to make a regular survey. They will probably go up this week. I wish you to collect toll from each one if they cross Tooth bridge. Don't fail in this. You will also order them not to survey the road occupied by us. This is all I want you to do. If they persist in the face of all this, let them go ahead but never give possession." 53
In December, 1869, three years after the above episodes, the Chapman company, after filing amended or supple- mentary articles of incorporation 54 extending the project to include a line from Portland to The Dalles, filed suit in Multnomah County, Oregon, for condemnation of a right of way over the Oregon Portage, alleging disuse by the owner of the property. The Oregon Steam Naviga- tion Company denying the allegation, the jury visited the spot and decided that the defendant was entitled to a verdict. 55
After two years more, in August, 1871, after the in- corporation of his expanded project, the Portland, Dalles and Salt Lake, Chapman tried again to obtain the coveted strip of land. He offered the Navigation Company $500 for sixty feet of right of way four and a half miles long, and was of course refused. Then he went into court to obtain his dues. The suit was not pressed, and only came to trial on June 12, 1873. The jury, like the former one, went to the Cascades to view the premises, and when their verdict was given it required a payment for the desired strip of ten thousand dollars and costs. 56
52 Letter J. C . Ainsworth to Joseph Bailey, December 20, 1866. 53 Letter J. C. Ainsworth to Joseph Bailey, January 20, 1867. 54 Oregon Daily Herald, November 7, 1869 . 65 Portland Daily Oregonian, December 7; December 14, 1869 . 56 Portland Daily Oregonian, August 12, 1871; July 15, 1873; June 19, 1873. ​Chapman set his case before the public in a column-long newspaper appeal headed "The Gateway of the Cascade Mountains—A Monopoly's Attempt to Hold the Key of Our Interior Country, to Prevent Competition and to Strangle Portland and Oregon" from which the following is extracted:
Contracts which I was enabled to make for the portage links were made upon condition of obtaining the right of way at the Cascades * * * immediately on effecting an organization in 1871 a survey and location was made at the Cascade portage of four and one half miles of road, and suit instituted to condemn the land 60 feet wide for a roadway, which was not pressed for trial, as arrangements for its immediate use had not been made. But having this spring made contracts for the construction of the two portages to be commenced immediately upon obtaining the right of way at the Cascades, the counsel of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company was notified in advance that the suit would be pressed for trial at this term of Court. In the winter of 1871-2 the Northern Pacific Railroad Company became the owner of three-fourths of the stock of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, and more recently the president of the latter has become a managing director of the former, so that the contest by our company and the people of this country for competition and reduction of the cost of transportation on the Columbia river is substantially with the Northern Pacific Railroad Company in the name of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company. This was apparent in the trial on the question of the value of the land—or rather rocks and mountains. Last fall, when the legislature was about to pass the bill for aid in the construction of the road over the Cascade Portage, and also for a wagon road over the same ground, known as the Sandy and Dalles wagon road, the Northern Pacific dropped their work, whipped across the Columbia and ran a line crossing and recrossing our lines, extending it on to Portland. Again, all of a sudden, on its being reported that work would shortly be commenced on our portage roads, a display is made of improvement and repairs upon a dilapidated horse railroad which a mule has grown old in holding against competition while the business is being done upon a first-class railroad on the opposite side of the river. On the trial ​it appeared from the testimony of the managing director referred to, that the Oregon Steam Navigation Company was negotiating a sale of their old track and our road-way to the Northern Pacific Company for a very large sum, and therefore the land was very valuable, worth $50,000. As though a pretended taking of the money out of one pocket and putting it in the other of substantially the same company, could or ought to give value to such land! Land which respectable witnesses stated, for any other purpose than a railroad compelled to have it, was worth scarcely Congress price—literally valueless—the jury allowed $10,000. As land it is of no value, but as the gateway upon the Oregon side, barring the navigation of the Columbia river against rival enterprise, the right of way secured at that point is beyond computation to the country.
The contracts being made upon condition of obtaining this right of way, I am not prepared to say that the contractors will advance this unexpectedly large sum, and it will be for you to say whether the immense advantages that have been obtained shall be surrendered and the chains of corporate power again clasped upon Oregon's dearest interest. * * * * It is a triumph now nearly complete, but carried thus far at my own expense, of time and money, and under the surprise of this enormous verdict, without your assistance, I can carry it no further. * * *
The appeal was in vain and the court dismissed the suit on July 19, 1873. Chapman, it would appear had before this lawsuit came to trial, indicated a willingness to sell his project to the Northern Pacific Railroad Company which then, as he said in his appeal to the people of Oregon, controlled the Oregon Steam Navigation Company. This conclusion is based on a telegram which General Cass, the president of the Northern Pacific Company sent to Portland to ask if J. C. Ainsworth was willing to have the Navigation Company buy Chapman's charter for $50,000. Ainsworth's reply was, "No, would not give fifty cents." "This Chapman," said Ainsworth, "is a man ​without means or reputation and has long been trying to blackmail the O. S . N. Co. He has neither friends nor credit. I don't believe he could borrow fifty dollars in Portland without giving security. * * * His railroad chart- er is worth nothing; no intelligent capital can ever be in- ducedtotakeholdofit.***Heofcoursewilltryto annoy us, but he can do nothing, and we do not fear him*****"
Evidently lacking the confidence of the men who had means enough to undertake the financing of the Chapman project, the pioneer lawyer was defeated in his plans, meeting success only in the halls of Congress and of the Oregon state legislature, and the aid there voted he was unable to utilize within the time limits set. Leaving out of consideration the seeming lack of confidence in the man, it seems obvious that the time had not arrived for the expenditure of millions in the construction of a rail- road from Portland, or Umatilla even, to Salt Lake City, as the traffic then in prospect, through as well as local, would not begin to support the line. Further, though the Oregon Steam Navigation Company's rates were high, the whole country was very sparsely settled, and their expenses were proportionately great, with four transfers of goods across the two portages encountered before the upper country was reached, and even their best steam- boats were short lived.
Other than the Chapman projects, there were several contestants for rights across the Oregon portage worthy of mention here. First in order of time was The Oregon Pacific Railroad Company which was incorporated on September 22,1874, by several persons among whom were J. L. Hallett and Hans Thielsen, both experienced rail- road builders, the one a successful superintendent and contractor, and the other a civil engineer of high standing who had been the chief engineer of the Oregon and California Railroad and who a few years later became chief ​226 FRANK B. GILL engineer of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company. This was apparently an outgrowth of the Chapman pro- ject, intended to take it up when his failure should ap- pear manifest, but nothing came of this company. Another competing scheme of similar purpose was the Columbia River Portage Railroad Company, incorporated August 25, 1878, by U. B. Scott, Z. J. Hatch and S. H. Brown, the two former being well known steamboat men. Oregon Portage Railroad Company, incorporated Septem- ber 24, 1878, was fathered by E. J . Jeffrey, Noah Lambert and P. G. Baker. Neither of these companies accomp- lished anything in the way of railroad construction. The Portland and Dalles Wagon Road Company, the project referred to in Chapman's-lengthy appeal, was more suc- cessful. It had a road built in 1874 by Orlando Humason between the upper and middle landings, two and three- quarters miles, and between the latter and the lower landing by John Cartwright, 60 with the help of the State under an Act of October 23, 1872. 61 This wagon road was referred to in the Portland Oregonian of August 6,1878, as completed an in use from The Dalles to a point one mile below Lower Cascades, and in the issue of that news- paper for January 6,1879, it was characterized as finished between The Dalles and Lower Cascades, and "good" from Portland to a point beyond the crossing of the Sandy river, but without any road at all for seventeen miles of the distance between the described sections. The Cascade Canal and Lock Company, incorporated on October 21, 1874, by Augustus C. Kinney, B. H . Bow- man and Ruf us Mallory was as its name indicates, a plan for a steamboat passage at the portage. A new corportion was almost immediately substituted when the Columbia River Improvement Company was incorporated on Nov- ember 3, 1874, by Augustus C. Kinney, Marshall J. Kin- 60 Portland Daily Oregonian, July 11, July 22, August 24, August 31, 1874. 61 Portland Daily Oregonian, October 1, 1874.
During these years the Oregon Steam Navigation Company had not been unmindful of the value of its Oregon Portage property, and of the danger to the company's interests which would result from its getting into the control of competitors. Although a passing traveler in 1869 in recording his impressions along the way, wrote down that "at the head of the rapids is the terminus of the old Oregon railroad, built many years ago as a link in an opposition line of transportation but now in the last stages of dilapidation and decay," this condition can hardly have been reached at that time, for John W. Stevenson, already mentioned as employed on the railroad until 1870, assured the writer that the line was kept in repair throughout his connection with the property. After the "June rise" of 1870 in the Columbia was over, at a meeting of the directors of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company held July 20, superintendent and chief engineer of railroads John W. Brazee was ordered to immediately repair the damage done by the high water of that season to the Oregon Portage Railroad, and to make all necessary repairs thereon. Similar instructions were given him on July 6 of the following year, "so that the railroad shall be in working order."
The Northern Pacific Railroad Company surveyed a route along the Oregon bank of the Columbia and made a proposal in November, 1872, to purchase a right of way through the Oregon portage. That company had early in the preceding spring obtained control of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company by purchasing three-quarters of its capital stock. They may have at this time intended to make use of the Oregon Portage lands and of course they would do so if their line were built upon the Oregon side of the river. A price of one hundred thousand dollars ​was named by the directors of the Navigation Company, together with certain requirements intended to protect the use as a portage for passengers and freight between the upper and lower landing. This transfer of property was not carried out; it may indeed have only been a protective measure to guard against invasion by opposing interests; certainly the Northern Pacific had more immediate needs for its construction funds; and in September, 1873, that company was shut off from its principal sources of money and credit by the failure of Jay Cooke & Co., and other houses, a period of financial depression setting in that year the effect of which lasted almost until 1879.
A PERMANENT RAILROAD
The precise beginning of the present railroad may be traced to a resolution of the board of directors of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company adopted on May 27, 1873, under which orders were given to place the Oregon Portage Railroad
   "in ample order, by substituting iron rails, changing the gauge of said road to the established gauge of four feet, eight and one-half inches, changing the gauge of rolling stock or creating new, also changing the line of said road where necessary, building of inclines and making any and all changes and improvements requisite for a first class road."
It was shortly decided to strengthen the company's position by forming a separate corporation which could be given legal title to the railroad, and so the Cascade Portage Railway Co. was incorporated on June 28, 1873, Theodore Wygant, Shubrick Norris and William Strong, all officers or employes of the Navigation Company, signing the articles of incorporation. Deeds were prepared for transfer of the right of way to the new company, but they were never signed, and nothing was done by this corporation whose articles provided for a railroad ​extending from Tanner Creek (Bonneville) to the upper end of the rapids (Cascade Locks).
Late in August, 1873, John W. Brazee commenced a survey for the improved railroad authorized by the directors of the Navigation Company. The Portland Daily Bulletin of August 23, in the interest of the unemployed of the city published a statement that "several men can now receive employment on the Oregon Railroad at the Cascades and receive good wages therefor;" these men were evidently wanted for building bridges and grading for the new line, which work was carried on during September, October and November, and resumed in February, then continuing until November, 1874.
On February 23, 1874, the Oregon Steam Navigation Company to further guard the portage conveyed the right of way for the railroad to Joseph M. French of San Francisco to be held by him in trust. In this trust it reposed until March, 1880, when the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company succeeded the former company and the lands were deeded back by French.
In 1875 no money was spent on the permanent railroad, but an outlay was made of a few thousand dollars in the spring of 1876. The directors of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company were seriously handicapped during the elapsed period in the management of the company's property by the placing of the three-quarters' share of the company's capital stock bought by the Northern Pacific in 1872, in the hands of E. M. Lewis, as trustee in bankruptcy for account of Jay Cooke & Co., and they did not venture to assume responsibility for further expenditures for construction of the permanent railroad over the Oregon portage while the future control of the company was involved in uncertainty. Forced to activity on the line by the fear of seizure of the Oregon Portage in the interest of any one with sufficient means to seriously ques​tion the monopoly the company had on the Columbia, and with control now practically put in their hands on account of the distribution of the trustee stock in small lots among the hundreds of creditors of Jay Cooke & Co., the directors of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company on November 17, 1876, ordered fifty pound iron rails, fish bars, spikes, etc., purchased and the prosecution to completion of grading, bridging, etc, as soon as possible.
The work now went on for five or six months, or until a condition apparently not noticed before this year became so serious that it was decided to halt the construction of the railroad. Quoting from a resolution adopted at a meeting of the directors held on May 5, 1877:
" * * * during the vigorous prosecution of said work in March and April of the present year, the chief engineer, J. W. Brazee, has repeatedly represented that the disturbed condition of the ground for two miles or more, over which said road must be built, caused by unusual slides from the mountains, is of so serious a character as to create doubts as to the propriety of grading until the ground shall show evidence of being undisturbed by further slides,' and whereas the president and vice-president of this company have personally inspected the ground and substantiated the chief engineer's report, and whereas the Government is about to construct a canal in front of the ground named, and proposes to build a seawall on the bed rock that may prevent further sliding of said ground, * * * * resolved, that further work on said railroad be suspended * * * *"
The material for two miles of track which president Ainsworth had ordered through Messrs. A. E. and C. E. Tilton of New York on the date of the passage of the November resolution arrived via Cape Horn in August and September, but was not applied to the construction of the Oregon Portage Raliroad. On December 26, "in view of the great increase of business on the river" the directors regardless of the condition of the ground, voted to resume construction, and to purchase rails for five miles of track.
​The completion of the permanent railroad was now placed in the hands of H. M . McCartney, an engineer of Wide experience who died a few years ago in Los Angeles. The writer had some correspondence with Mr. McCartney in 1915 which elicited details of interest regarding the condition of the railroad at the beginning of 1878 when the latter went to work. The project was to produce a practicable portage railroad which could be operated very cheaply. It was now to be of three foot gauge, the earlier plan for a standard gauge line being abandoned. The whole of the original line of 1858-1862 could then be traced, but its bridges were decayed and useless. The new engineer reported as had Brazee, that "for two miles along this side hill the whole country seems to be moving steadily toward the river like a glacier. It is all broken and full of fissures and unstable looking to the last degree * * *" A slide had even carried away the wagon road for four hundred feet. The grading and bridging were completed under McCartney's direction, except for the inclines to the rievr's edge bt the two ends of the line, shortly before Christmas when the work was suspended to await the return of spring. This new and permanent line cut through the rock bluff east of Bonneville, and through another just east of Eagle Creek, which the original track had gone around, but left the passage of the Tooth Rock on a trestle bridge as at first. During the early stages of the work under McCartney, a map which is a treasured relic of the Union Pacific engineering department, was made by his draftsman. It is embellished with a pen sketch of the anticipated steamboat landing, when passengers would be transferred through a covered wharfboat between the Oregon Steam Navigation Company's steamboat Wide West and a waiting train whose two cars were named "Astoria" and "Lewiston." As a ​reminder of the beginning of the portage twenty years earlier, the artist added a smaller sketch labeled "1860," showing two balky mules attached to a car resembling the old horse drawn street cars, on a track upon the river bank, while below a small steamboat is moored.
No work was done on the railroad in 1879 because first, at the beginning of the year the directors of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company strengthened the company's position on the rivers by combining with the most powerful opposition they had to face, the Willamette River Transportation Company, and by buying six-sevenths of the capital stock of Dr. Baker's Walla Walla and Columbia River Railroad, and, second, in June, 1879, the control of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company passed into the hands of Henry Villard who with eastern capitalists then formed the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company which proceeded to build a standard gauge railroad along the Columbia river connecting Portland with eastern Oregon and Washington with permanent bands of steel. The day of the steamboat as the chief dependence of the population was over. A new era had begun.
The Oregon Railway and Navigation Company found on the unused grade of the Oregon Portage Railroad 236 tons (five track miles) of thirty pound steel rails, which were too light weight for their use, and fifty-six pound rails were laid upon the line which engineers Brazee and McCartney had been constructing since 1873. On November 20, 1882, the first train from Portland rolled over the route of the little pioneer locomotive of 1862, on its way to The Dalles, Walla Walla, Dayton and Pendleton and to transfer some of its passengers at Wallula to the Northern Pacific main line then being extended eastward through Spokane.
The United States Goverment began in 1877 the preparatory work for the present canal at Cascade Locks, and condemned the land which was taken for it by legal ​process begun in February and terminated in September, 1878, thus cutting off a substantial acreage that had been part of the Oregon Portage property. The building of the canal and locks was a long job, only completed on November 6, 1896, when the first steamboats passed through the excavation. In connection with the canal construction the Goverment improved the river channel below, blasting out the rocks which had made the passage difficult.
The "Sliding Mountain" as it came to be known, regarding which the engineers had complained in the seventies, was an annual annoyance and a heavy expense to the railroad company until a few years ago when the cause was discovered and remedied by the placing of a series of drainage tunnels leading from the depths of the hillside into the river, thus emptying the subterranean water pockets and draining the ground, stopping entirely the movement of the surface.
The Tooth bridge is a bridge no longer—long ago replaced by a solid embankment, and the six by six inch sticks on which the Oregon Pony locomotive made its twenty miles an hour are now represented by ninety pound steel rails laid on heavy fir cross ties embedded in crushed rock ballast. Yet here was Oregon's first railroad, here first in the Pacific northwest the steam locomotive drew.its hot breath; here the key to the interior of Oregon once was said to be. Remember this, twentieth century traveler, as you journey today up the Columbia's world-famed gorge, "through the rocky portals of the golden west * * * to the teeming cities of the Mississippi," or beyond, drawn by a present day prototype of that original "actual, live, smoking, panting, fire breathing iron horse," the Oregon Pony of 1862.
What of the Pony, indeed? In 1905 it was decided to hold an exposition at Portland, in commemoration of the one hundredth anniversary of Lewis and Clark's great expedition from St. Louis to Astoria and back, and for ​this David Hewes resurrected the little engine, had it repaired and presented the relic to the State of Oregon. On its side a brass plate reading
OREGON'S FIRST LOCOMOTIVE
Presented to the State of Oregon
by David Hewes,
A Pioneer of San Francisco, Cal. Illustrative of the development of commerce up
the Columbia River by the Oregon Steam
Navigation Company.
The Lewis and Clark fair of 1905 came to an end, but no arrangements were made by the people's representatives, the State Legislature, for a permanent abode for the pioneer locomotive, and the State Historical Society asked the Union Pacific System officers at Portland to house it somewhere until the legislators should take the matter up and make an adequate provision for the Pony. For this, nothing has yet been done by the State. The historic relic is deserving of a better fate, and Samuel C. Lancaster, the engineer of the Columbia River Highway has suggested its being placed at Crown Point, but the writer suggests as in his opinion a more desirable location a position in the parkway facing the Portland Union Station, at the head of Sixth Street. Here it should stand on a section of five foot gauge wooden track, with ties four feet apart and planked over between the 6"x6" fir rails which should be faced with strap iron. At the same time it is urged that the Pony be restored to what must have been its original appearance, similar to the second and third locomotives turned out by the Vulcan Iron Works, of which photographs are preserved.
* ↑ Letter of J. C. Ainsworth, president, Oregon Steam Navigation Co. to J. Ross Brown, August 31, 1867.
* ↑ Portland Weekly Oregonian, January 6, 1855, Oregon Times, August 1, 1856.
* ↑ Portland Weekly Oregonian, March 3, 1855, August 16, 1856.
* ↑ Oregon Weekly Times, July 21, 1855.
* ↑ Oregon Weekly Times, August 4, 1855.
* ↑ Portland Weekly Oregonian, March 29, 1856.
* ↑ Religious Expositor, September 13, 1856.
* ↑ Portland Weekly Oregonian, July 18, 1857.
* ↑ Oregon Weekly Times, April 12, 1856.
* ↑ Portland Weekly Oregonian, May 17, 1856.
* ↑ Oregon Weekly Times, September 27, 1856.
* ↑ Oregon Weekly Times, September 27, 1856.
* ↑ Oregon Weekly Times, November 8, 1856.
* ↑ Portland Weekly Oregonian, August 1, 1857.
* ↑ John W. Stevenson's statement to the writer.
* ↑ Portland Weekly Oregonian, November 21, 1857.
* ↑ Portland Weekly Oregonian October 2, 1858.
* ↑ Portland Daily Advertiser, August 19, 1859.
* ↑ Portland Daily Oregonian, April 17, 1865.
* ↑ Walla Walla Statesman, April 1, 1876.
* ↑ Bancroft, History of Oregon.
* ↑ John W. Stevenson's statement to the author.
* ↑ Oregon Statesman, November 23, 1858.
* ↑ Told the writer by George H. Knaggs in 1917; also Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society, Vol. IX, page 279.
* ↑ Portland Weekly Oregonian, February 19, March 5, 1859.
* ↑ Portland Weekly Oregonian, April 23, 1859; February 4, 1860; Dalles Journal, December 16, 1859.
* ↑ Portland Daily Oregonian, May 3, 1861.
* ↑ Letter D. F. Bradford to Captain John Wolfe, May 4, 1861.
* ↑ Portland Weekly Oregonian, September 28, 1861.
* ↑ Portland Daily Oregonian, November 15, 1861.
* ↑ Pacific Christian Advocate, October 12, 1861.
* ↑ Letter J. C. Ainsworth to C. W. Stevens, Febraury 22, 1862.
* ↑ This would be the rocky hillock since cut through by the Union Pacific, just east of Bonneville.
* ↑ Pacific Christian Advocate, May 24, 1862.
* ↑ Portland Daily Oregonian, June 7, 1862.
* ↑ Portland Daily Oregonian, June 10, 1862.
* ↑ Portland Daily Oregonian, June 11, 1862.
* ↑ Portland Daily Oregonian, June 20-27, 1862.
* ↑ Portland Daily Oregonian, July 31, 1862.
* ↑ Walla Walla Statesman, November. 29, 1862, reprinted in the Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society, Volume IV, No. 3, (September, 1903).
* ↑ Portland Daily Oregonian, May 24, 1876.
* ↑ Letter J. C. Ainsworth to P. C. Dart, October 18, 1866.
* ↑ Portland Daily Bulletin, June 23, 1873.
* ↑ Letter J. C. Ainsworth to General Geo. W. Cass, July 19, 1873.
* ↑ Letter J. C. Ainsworth to General Geo. W. Cass, February 15, 1873.
* ↑ Portland Daily Oregonian, November 19, 1875.
* ↑ Portland Daily Oregonian, December 13, 1875.
* ↑ Letter J. C . Ainsworth to E. M . Lewis, Trustee of Jay Cooke & Co., in bankruptcy November 20, 1875.
* ↑ Portland Daily Oregonian, September 6, 1869.
* ↑ Letter J. C . Ainsworth to A. Hayward, May 3, 1872.
* ↑ Portland Daily Oregonian, August 30, 1873.
* ↑ Letter of H. M. McCartney to Gen'l J. W . Sprague, General Superintendent, O. S. N. Co., February 10, 1878.
* ↑ Letter H. M. McCartney to S. G. Reed, vice president, O. S . N. Co., May 3, 1878.