The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1911-08-10
ASTORIA STARTS
ITS CELEBRATION
Centennial of the Founding
of Astor Trading Post
in Oregon.
National News Assoeiatioul

National News Assoeiatioul
ASTORIA, Ore. Aug. 10.-In COM
memoration of the Tooth anniversary
of the arrival on the Pacific coast of
the expedition sent from New York
by John Jacob Aston. the United
States Army and Navy. the State of
Oregon and the city of Astoria joined
today in the formal Inauguration OF
gest celebrations of its kind ever held
in this part of the country, The cell
ebration will continue an entire
month.
Soldiers and sailors, business men,
school children, Indians. public Off
the states embraced in what was for
merly known as the Oregon country"
will participate in fetes, pageants,
demonstrations on land and water, his
torical parades, memorial exercises
and monument unveilings-all in COM
memoratiOn of the transformation
within centur of IAN undiscovered
dred rowing Indians, into prosperous
states with millions of white inhabi-
tants, the building of railways, irriga-
ton works, towns and cities; the de-
velopment of complex and highly diff
terentiated industries, the conversion
of vast areas of unproductive plains in
to gardens, orchards and grain fields;
the creation of hundreds of millions
of wealth.
The various shows, and there is a
different one scheduled for every day
of the celebration, will be held in the
open forest among the hills which lie
back of Astoria. One of the features
will be a reproduction of the old fort
and settlement founded by the men of
the original Aston expedition. Indians
of the Northwest will take part in a
historical pageant and in other festiv-
tiles.
One of the features of the celebra-
ton will be the holding of the big
meet of the Pacific Coast Amateur
Athletic association, which will take
place August Is and rs. A rowing re-
gatta, will be another of the attrac-
tons A convention of the Oregon
Development league is expected to at
tract hundreds Of visitors. A band
tournament will bring together brass
bands from all over the Northwest, in
addition to an Indian band made up of
members of the tribes which inhabit
the reaches of the Columbia River.
August 20 will be known as Aston day,
on which occasion 2 statue of John
Jacob Aston will be unveiled with ap-
propriate exercises.
The settlement of Astoria by the AS
tor expedition, which the celebration
is to commemorate, was the first per-
manent settlement in the far North
west and gave the United States it's
strongest claim to the Oregon coun-
try. Though the British took posses
sion of the Astoria fort in the war of
1912 and renamed the place Fort
George, the place was restored to the
United States after the treaty of peace
with American claims of settlement
unimpaired.
John Jacob Astor was the driving
force in the exploration and settlement
of the new country and the man who
did more than any one else to save to
the Union the territory now embrac-
ed in the States of Oregon, Washing
ton and Idaho. Measured by the con-
ditions of a century ago and those of
today. the project of Aastor far sur
passes those of any later day captain
of trade, transportation or finance. He
planned real winning of the West, a
peaceful conquest of great region to
which the nations title was doubtful,
the establishment of long chain of
trading sations that would blaze the
way for civilized man and open the
door of opportunity for countless mil
lions and beyond the West itself he
reached out to give America the trade
of China and practically the control
of the Pacific.
A fine ship, the Tonquin, was
equipped for the Aston expedition for
the far Northwest, and on September
s, 1910 she sailed from New York. At
ter many perilous adventurse in the
hazardous voyage around Cape Horn
and up the Pacific coast the ship ar
rived off the mouth of the Columbia
river on March % 1911. The weather
was tempestous and eight days elaps-
ed before an entrance was gained to
the mouth of the river. At last, after
much delay and trouble, the Tonquin
got inside and on April IL site was
selected on a small bay for the estab-
fishing of the station which was to be
the company's headquarters On the
Pacific.
A fortified post was built, the Stars
and Stripes were raised and the settle
ment was named Astoria. Had the
Americans made their settlement but
a few months later, the British, who
had several expeditions in the field,
would have planted the first claims of