Polk County observer. (Monmouth, Polk County, Or.) 1888-1927, 1907-02-01
- ~ 1IsEs11t - IS l9lNSes se3NeN
POLK COUNTY
Its Past, Present and
Future.

"
tine following contribution is from Tho non
Oh one OF OregOns earliest pioneers q ras,do,,
oi Dallas, who has been a keen Observer of MAJ
ana close student of events. The ORsppvpD
gladly gives 1t space, as 1t contains muc,, tho,
VIII be oil interest not only to pioneers bpt N
."o many people VINO have come to Polk county
III recent years to make their homes.-EdI
EDITOR OBSERVER =
Some psychological something has
put your correspondent in a remin-
iscent mood, and thinking of the past
has brought him to the present. and
the present leads him to the future Of
Oregon, and especially to the future
OF Polk county, the gem of the Will.
lamette Valley. The golden key that
unlocks the galleries of the past"
opens wide the memories of too manv
things that rush the fountains of the
soul for us to attempt anything like a
history OF the past in Polk county.
Your space is valuable, and our
attempt will be only to give the
readers of, the OBSERVER faint idea
OF this country as it appears to US
from memory, take look at it at
present, and view it in our imagina-
ton in the future.
These "reminiscences are not given
for the entertainment of pioneers, but
rather to give the "new conner" some
idea of the exquisite loveliness and
ravlshing beauty Of this land, when
the "woodman's axe had scarcely
marred single tree" when the con-
tented red man looked on this beautiful
scene of lofty mountains and deep
green valleys, with mighty rivers
flowing down to the sea, past hills and
dales that were ''never scar, but
always green )" when the untutored
savage was led to eXclaim: ''Sothlie
Tyee, Skookum momouk och-och close
IIihee" God did great work when
he made this good land. The red
man, to whom the SUBMITS of the
surrounding mountains was the end
of the world, felt that the Creator of
land like this had, at least, showered
on it more blessings than he, with all
his egotism, was able to comprehend.
The Indian, though an egotist, and
willing and anxious at all times to re-
count his valorous deeds, is yet a
patriot and loves the land Of his birth,
the home of his squaw and papoose,
and. when driven from it by the in
vasion Of the white man and compelled
to occupy an agency, invariably pines
for his own country, no matter how
forbidding it may be. The Modocs,
when taken from the Lava Beds,
longed to return, though nature could
not conceive of a more desolate, God
forgotten country than was the home
OF Captain Jack and his valiant little
band that defied all the power OF Uncle
Sam for months, and then only sur
rendered when starvation was before
them. They fought to a finish for a
country absolutely without redeem
ing feature-nothing but sage plains,
rim rock, and caves filled with rattle
snakes and lava. But the tribes
occupying the Willamette Valley
surely had a iustiflable pride in their
country, for
Mature in primeval beauty lay all
around him,
And gave freedom to the brown
savage there;
No plow of the white man had ever
marred the plain;
He was monarch of all, and owned
everywherel"
His wickyup and sweat-house were
n Al
built or pitched in the shade OF the
oreat trees that skirted the crystal
Streams crossing the valley at inter
walls from the source of the Willamette
to its mouth.
Then came the immigration PerlOu'
and with it the white man, KNOW" "'
the "Boston tilicum" by the Indians
because the first white men ever seen
NV them came into the mouth OF tne
Columbia river with Captain Gray
from BOSTON. The time had come "heH
the neaoeful occupation by a savage
race alone must cease and the lana DC
occupied by the dominant wnlIe raOe,
The first intimatiOn, we imagine o.
the coming of the Bostons IN a Dooy y,
was the discovery by the natives ol
the long trains of wagons dragglns ius
serpeut-like their weary lengths a'io0' @
the valleys and mountains Oh WV
tbousand miles of inhospitaole "asV'
between the Missouri and ColumDl'
rivers, the sight of which inspired IN IN
.ovooa of the plains to resist Il'