Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-09-17
ALONG THE COLUMBIA
The Third Largest of All
American Rivers.
is BROAD, DEEP, MAJESTIC
Its Many Falls, However. Are I'm.
pediment to Navigation.
SCENIC BEAUTY OF ITS BANKS
Towering Palisades Prevent Its Use
for Irrigation and Make Trou-
BILE for the Railroads.
SCENIC BEAUTY OF ITS BANKS
RY WILLIAM +. CURTIS.
Special Correspondence of The Star and the
Chicago Record Herald

| t..
| Special Correspondence of The Star and the
Chicago Record Herald.
! PORTLAND. September s. 1909
| The Columbia river forms the boundary
between Oregon and Washington for near
| ly three hundred miles from above the
mouth of the Umatilla to the ancient and
| historic city OF Astoria, and it is full of
| interest the entire distance The Column
bia is the third river in size in the United
States. although it is not SO useful to
| mankind many smaller rivers. The
| waters cannot be used for irrigation very
/ easily because its banks are SO high. For
a greater part of its length it flows be-
tween mountains of more than thou
sand feet: at other places where the
banks are not so high they are pre-
| clpitOus, and it would be impossible to
pump the water up to the plateaus that
! lie beyond them. Navigation is limit ed
| by cascades and rapids. which prevent
| boats from ascending very far above
| Portland. and the United States govern
ment is wasting enormous sums of money
In digging canals and building locks so
that boats can get around them to the
| upper part of the stream; but there are
very few boats, and the combined value
of the freight that will be transported
| through the canals will not equal their
cost for generation of years combined.
| The salmon fisheries of the Columbia
| have been very profitable. Several large
fortunes have been taken out of the river
and many still remain. although the catch
| this year is not so l,.rSe as formerly. and
| the people who are most interested are
| quarreling about the reasons.
The Columbia is a broad, deep. ma
| lestic stream for nearly its entire length.
| 1t is an ideal great river. The Missis-
sippi. the Missouri and some other rivers
ph how
certain places. They sometimes look in
significant. and then they spread out into
broad lakes which do not look like rivers
| at ALL but the Columbia is consistent.
symmetrical. regular stream, nearly the
same width, the same depth and the same
speed for it's entire length, and the
scenery on both banks is worth seeing
nearly the entire distance.
There are two railroads. one either
bank. running along the edge of the water.
On the south bank are the tracks of the
Oregon Railway and Navigation Company.
an important and profitable factor of the
Hartman system On the north bank is
branch of the Hill system. which was
built two years ago to give the Great
Northern and the Northern Pacific rail-
roads an entrance to Portland. The south
bank is the more thickly settled of the two
and has the largest towns Perhaps that
is because it has had railway longer.
I ne Umatilla Indian agency, and the great
wheat country that surrounds it; the Hood
River valley. with its wonderful apples;
nearly all the salmon canneries, The
DalleS and other towns are on the south
side.
Discovered in 1887.
Capt. Robert Gray of the good ship
Columbia, which came around the Horn
from Boston In 1857 on fur trading ex-
petition, discovered this river and gave 1t
the name of his vessel. In May, 1872.
when opposite the point now known as
Fort Stevens. he noticed that the water of
the ocean was fresh, and Yankee inquis-
tiveness led him to inquire the reasons.
he found that great stream poured into
the ocean nearby. and, following it up.
sailed for a considerable distance into tire
interior. and pre-empted you might
say, the river in the name of Uncle Sam.
1t was the irony of fate that Capt. VAN
couver, the British explorer. passed up the
coast only twelve days previous with his
fleet, unconscious of what was there
Abouty twenty miles before the town
called The. Dalles is reached going down
stream. the canyon through which the
river passes begins to narrow, the seem
cry grows more bold and picturesque and
the immense volume Of water descends
rapidly by succession of falls and cas-
cades, the greatest and most beautiful
being Cello Falls. which extend the entire
width of the gorge and are about thirty
feet high. The rapids are called The
Dalles. And. in order to enable steam
ers to pass by them, as I have already
said. the government of the United States
long through solid lava rock at cost of
several millions of dollars The work
has been going on for years and is not
half finished. There will be three or four
locks. and the artificial channel will be
altogether about six miles long. People
here will tell you that this Is political
project and that the amount of merchan-
disc and the number Of passengers that
will be shipped through the canal do not
justify the expenditure.
About half way to Portland is another
canal at the Cascade locks. which Is not
SO long nor so expensive. and Is perhaps
justified I'm order to permit the vessels
! to come up to Hood river. the Dalles and
Intervening towns.
Just above Cello Falls, before the town
of The Dalles is reached, Is the mouth of
the Des Chutes river flowing from a
narrow canyon which is now being fought
| over by the Hill and Hartman railway
interests for the right of way into an
almost unknown region In central Oregon.
The canyon has always been there and
both the Hill and Hartman interests
have been aware of the fact. At the
same time the people of Oregon have been
clamorinS for a railway to open up the
central section of the state but neither
of the syndicateS appeared to care any
thing about it until one of them began to
| build into the canyon Then all at once
the other woke up and got busy. But
the people of the state do not care which
builds the road as long as it is built, and
they would rather have two roads than
one.
| The Dalles is thriving town and the
head of navigation on the Columbia. The
| country behind it is we'll settled and is
| producing vast crops of grain and fruit.
A Picturesque Panorama.
| From The Dalles almost all the way to
| Portland is a panorama of picturesque
| scenery and at places it becomes sublime.
| There are more than twenty waterfalls,
greater or less. streams of water. which
tumble over the rim of the canyon into
| the Columbia. Nature is splendid sculp-
| tor and the wind and the rain and its
other tools do thorough work. Both sides
| of the canyon have been carved into
palisades. turrets. pinnacles. battlements
| and other formations. some times fam
tastic sometimes dignihed, and always
| beautiful The Multnomah falls are not
| large but are very high. small stream
| which drains the plateau back Of the can
| yon with a recklessness that is fearful
| tumbles over the rim into a pool $50 feet
| below In the spring when the rneltjnp