Cottonwood report. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1893-1901, 1896-04-10
FOUNDING OF ASTORIA
SECOND rScURsIox OF WHITES IN
1sI0-1sII.
second Expedition of White Men
started Overland From st.
Louis Oct. Fl, 1910.

prise in the early history of the Ameri-
cas-: the precious metals of the south,
and the rich peltries of the north
While the fiery and magnificent Span
lard, infiamed with the mania for gold
has extended his discoveries and con-
quests over those brilliant countries
scorched by the ardent sun of the trop-
les, the adroit and buoyant French
man, and the cool and calculating Brit
on, have pursued the less splendid, but
no less lucrative traffic in furs amid
the hyperborean reign of the Canadas,
until they have advanced even within
the Arctic circle.
These, two pursuits have thus, IN
a manner, been the pioneers and pre-
cursors of civilization. Without paus-
ing on the borders, they have penetrate
ed at once, in defiance of difficulties and
dangers, to the heart of savage coun-
tries; laying open the hidden secrets of
the wilderness; leading the way to re-
mote regions of beauty and fertility
that might have remained unexplored
for ages, and reckoning after them the
slow and pausing steps of agriculture
and civilization"
SECOND INCLUSION OF WHITES.
white men into our inland empire in its
virgin state was that of the overland
detachment of the Aston Fur Com
Company, in 1911.
That portion of the colony which trav-
eled by sea had reached the mouth of
the Columbia in March, 1911, and soon
after, hearing that a rival company
had established trading post upon the
Spokane river, sent out such of its men
as could be spared, to take possession
of the country, and post was actually
established at the junction of the Okla
hogan and Columbia rivers near
enough to keep the rival establishment
on the Spokane in check, and left-for Il
tine-with feeble garrison of but four
men. The rival post proved to be cor
respondingly weak, a branch of the
Northwest Company. which had it's
range in the British possessions, but
was thought to be casting covetous
eyes toward the territory claimed by
the Yankee company. An expedition
from this same Northwest Company
had also been dispatched across the
continent in 1910 to forestall the Astor
colony in reaching the mouth of the
Columbia, but journeying too far t.
the northward, and weakened by whole
sale desertion, only a small party OF
them reached their destination, and
then only to find the American com
pany already established.
Also, branch of the Missouri Fur
Company, under Mr.. Henry had cross
ed the Rockies in 1909, being driven from
their range on the eastern slopes by
the hostile Blackfeet, and wintered at
the spot known as Fort Henry, on the
upper Snake river, but had abandoned
their camp and returned to the Missouri
at the first opportunity.
The land travellers of the Aston COM
pany, however, came with sufficient
numbers and equipment to take possess
sion of the most desirable streams and
trading points. Their choice of a route
was fortunate, and their base of opera
tons was established by the ocean trav-
elers before they arrived.
THE ASTOR ENTERPRISE.
Moreover, the Astor enterprise is ac-
credited with broader motives than
mere shortsighted plundering of the re-
sources of the country, of which all
the other trading companies have been
accused. With the true commercial
foresight of the Dutch, John Jacob AS
tor planned not only to grasp the fleet
ing advantages of trade with a savage
people in the products of their wild land,
but he anticipated and encouraged the
day of greater things, the development
of the country, the influx of population,
the commerce of great civilization.
In speech before the National Geo
graphical Society, a short time ago,
Senator ], H. Mitchell of Oregon paid
the following tribute to this fine old
Dutch-American missionary and his en-
terprise for the material salvation of
this land of the Continuous woods
where rolls the Oregon
After a lengthy comparison between
occupancy and actual settlement. as
exemplified respectively by the British
and the American claimants to this
northwestern land, Senator Mitchell
says:
THE interests of civilization. says the
law of that civilization, can not permit
great empire of wild country to re-
main as such for the use of wild men
for game life; no less could the law
of that civilization permit that great
foreign monopoly, the Hudson Bay
Company, to occupy such country for
the sole purpose of accommodating and
specializing on the spoils of the hunter,
and without any effort whatever to
either develop or increase the natural
productions of the country, or locate, or
promote single settlement. 1t was
therefore by mere occupancy. and not
by settlement, that England sought or
iginally to strengthen her claim to and
acquire rights in the Oregon territory.
with the United States, and the peo-
pie of the United States it was entirely
different. With the latter. occupancy
was coupled with that other and higher
attribute of development and civiliza-
ton, namely, scientific exploration and
actual settlement.
HAD A HIGH PURPOSE
''Astor's project contemplated not
merely occupancy of this distant terri
tory for purposes similar to the Hudson
Bay Company; his purposes were of a
much higher order. They embraced set
Element, the establishment of civil So
ciety, the physical development of the
lcountry, the leveling of the forest, the
construction of houses. the cultivation
of the land, the founding of homes
the erection of school houses and church
es, the making of towns and cities. the
establishing of marts. the creation OF