Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-09-04
TEE UPPER COLUMBIA.
coNrINUArroN OF THE ACCOUNT OF A
TRIP UP THE COLUMBIA.
story of a Railroad-Walla Walla-The
Wheat Region-Immigration-
Towns and villages
WALLA WALLA, August "a, 1880.

This place is reached by a narrow gauge
railroad about 80 miles long, that connects
Wallula on the Columbia with the rich
farming region that lies close under the
Blue mountains. Wallula is a miserable
looking spot, that owes its entire impor-
tance to its availability as landing-place
for steamers, which led to the construction
of the railroad two years ago by wealthy
and enterprising citizen, DIR. D. S Baker,
an enterprise that added nothing to the
importance of Wallula but greatly enriched
the protector, who IS one of those men
under whose manipulations the com
monest things in life some way turn
to gold or its equivalent. knew
Baker thirty years ago at Portland,
where his capacity for accumulation
was only partially de, eloped. He was one
of the few individuals who left that place
in It's infancy and achieved success else
where. As general thing the wealth OF
this region conferred IN the hands of the
wise men who stuck to the metropolis and
levied tribute on supplies and products as
they passed through. Baker went where
he pleased and put to naught the old
proverb that a rolling stone gathers no moss.
Finally he drifted against the current, up
The Columbia, became a banker and land
monopolist. and eliminated his career by
building the shabbiest rattle-trap OF rail-
road that was ever made available for COM
mercial uses. 1t climbed over ridges 1t
ought to have gone through; Its schedule
was only to be followed when the train was
unusually light, but such as it was 1t held
the ground against the world and carried
away the wheat from a region that was pro-
ductive, and is said to have easily paid for
itself IA one years operation, which may
not be strictly true, but is not impossible.
IT COINED MONEY
For the doctor, and when he found it
advisable to sell cut to the Oregon Steam
Navigation Company he did SO to great ad-
vantage This road, under new manage
ment, has been greatly improved, the
grades mended, the track graveled and
reIaid, so that there was not such heavy
sea on as before, and soon again it will be
Transformed into standard gauge road and
connected with Dallas City by continuous
rail Wallula is bleak and desolate. Here
the winds spend their breath telling of the
drifting sand and the rocky cliffs along the
river. They howl over what little
civilization they cannot blow away from
the place, and when the railroad con-
nection is complete, so that it will lose It's
importance as 4 forwarding point, 1t may
as well all blow away. The Walla Walla
river empties a small stream here and
threads the surrounding desert with braid
Of green willows and sometimes border
of grass that occasionally widens to a
meadow, but except the verdUre that fol-
lows the narrow bed, and that sometimes
fades entirely, the railway winds only
among crossword plains and barren hills
for twenty miles directly east though
occasional cattle may be seen cropping
the scattering bunch-grass but few miles
before reaching Walla Walla the sight Of
farms gladden. the eye, even orchards are
to be seen, meadows and gardens smile
along the river, and we find that we are
entering upon the rich, fertile belt that
skirts the Blue mountains for 20C miles,
aud give Importance TO the beautiful
town OF
wALTA wALLA.
This place has a business quarter that is
building up substantially; the streets are
wide, and in any ordinary season are
thronged with country teams and even
with pack trains. though they are not near
so frequent as when the distant mining
regions had to be supplied from here. The
plain on which Walla Walla is located is
naturally supplied with water from the
spreading branches of the. Walla Walla
river; the residences are many OF them
quite charming, and some even elegant.
The quick soil responds to irrigation, and
where was originally a treeless plain
now are beautiful streets and clustered
homes, all powered in rapidly thriving
poplars, naples, box elders, or locusts,
while occasionally cottonwoods, or rather
balm Of Gileads grow beside the little |
streams. The place is attractive and |
rapidly thriving; has many stores, lots of |
minor shops, business establishments of all |
degrees, including three banks, some really |
good hotels, three live newspapers, one of |
them sprightly daily that gives the latest |
news in brief dispatches, and In general |
trade and population is, and probably will |
remain, the most important point IN the |
upper country, because the Oregon Rail |
way ana Navigation Company (that now
controls all transportation, by steamboat |
or railroad, on the Columbia river, and also |
the steamers to San Francisco that are as
fine as any that float the ocean, seems to |
intend to have Walla Walla as the center |
of its railway system for the entire upper |
region. So Walla Walla has good pros
pect for the future, and as time grows will |
spread more and improve and beautify, |
until perhaps its poplar lines and various
shade trees will make us forget the dust
from the light soil, that is cloud in sum-
mer by day as well as by night.
About mile out from the town is the |
garrison and the extensive grounds of the |
military reservation. Here are barracks |
and quarters for infantry and cavalry, and |
as tins IS popular station with officers and |
4 general rendezvous for the military bust
ness OF the upper country, of course the |
garrison adds no little to Walla Walla |
social life. The Twenty-first Infantry |
band happens to be one of the finest con-
nected with the army, and it is as fashion |
able as it is delightful to drive out of an
evening, see the dress parade, the sunset
gun and the furled flag, and afterwards |
listen to as choice music from the band as |
heart can desire. The leader is professor |
who is almost music mad, they say, and |
the band gives many OF the choicest classi-
cal selections with exquisite effect, so that /
/ shall always remember with delight the
summer twilights at Walla Walla that |
saw night come down and day forgot
ton, while strains of music served to make |
one forget the sordid things of earth and |
dream Of Elysium.
THE WHEAT REGION.
The Blue mountains extend for about
200 miles in a northeast and southwest d.
rection, on a parallel with the Columbia
and Snake rivers, distant 10 to so miles,
and while the land along the river is in
general fit only for grazing, and much of it
not even valuable for that, there is great
deal of land along the base of the range,
and especially in the foothills, that is won
derfully productive as wheat producing
region. Thus we find all the pleasant lit
tie towns situated about twenty miles in
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