East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1915-09-24
The Story of the Cello Canal
Early History Of Navigation

OF it's length have been poured more
than four and a half millions Of gov
ernment dollars to pay for construc-
tion.
It's use will extend water navigation
and competition from the sea unin-
terruptedly into the great inland EN-
pire Of oregon, Washington and Ida
no.
And its existence is a monument to
and an evidence Of one of the finest
exhibitions OF persistent patriotism
and untiring public spirit in the mem
ory of the west
The human history Of the Cello
canal is an epic of development and
the romance of an undiscouraged
faith.
The man whose influence is most
intimately associated with the tedious
and now successful effor for the Ce-
lilo canal from the public viewpoint
is Joseph N. Teal. He is a lawyer,
but 1t is as citizen and for the CO.
lumbia basin that he has held his
greatest brief. The portage railway
and the Cello canal have bulked in
his mind as means to the develop
ment of the broad interior. The
stamp OF his leadership is upon much
that has been done to this end He
has represented and spoken the faith
OF a little group both here and at
Washington, when only the most ex-
act information and the strongest ar
guments could defeat failure.
AS you read into the minute books
and records Of the Open River Asso-
citation. the portage railway, the open
River transportation Association and
the Portland Chamber of Commerce,
the names Of few men recur time
and again. They constitute the
group always at the center of the
fight for the open river. Without
any reference whatever to notes, the
names of DR.. n. G. Blalock, w. j.
Mariner, Arthur H. Devers, the late
Herman Wittenberg L. A. Lewis,
Joseph T. Peters. Henry Hahn and
others come to me Nor is 1t i'm
proper to say that the steadfast news
paper champion of the open river
campaign has been The Journal
have searched the records in vain
to find who first proposed The Dalles-
Cello canal It may be that as the
founders OF the oregon Steam Navi-
CATION company in the seventies
planned their northwest monopoly Of
transportation they chafed more and
more under the delays and cost OF
the portages, first made by Indians
and laborers a backload to each, and
later by wagons AT any rate, the
thought of canal came long before
the portage, which was built first.
George II. Hines of the oregon
Historical Society suggests that 1t lay
within the statesmanship of Rev.
George II. Atkinson to make the sug-
gestIon Atkinson gave to the great
country east Of the Cascade range In
the Columbia basin the name, In
land Empire" and was called a wis
ionary ideallst" for it. He also con-
Quoted the experiments that demon
strated the wheat growing fertility OF
the Palouse country and other Sec
tons of the Inland Empire. Anoth-
er who is suggested as the possible
author OF the canal Is DR.. d. S. Ba-
ker, who built the first little railroad
from the Columbia river at Wallula
to walla Walla.
Z. E. Lytle was exceedingly active
in securing the initial appropriations
for the portage railway.
The general impression is, however
that the Cello canal grew into the
community consciousness, inspiring the
plan by the need.
Major NJ. Michler OF the United
States engineers made the initial ex-
animation in 1874, at what prompt
ing record discloseth not.
The first survey was not ordered
by act of congress until 1879, 1t was
found that the Columbia, the only
river of the west with power to cut
through the mountain ranges that lay
between its headwaters and the sea,
had, at a point about 80 miles from
Portland, encountered four rock reefs
named in their down stream order,
Tumwater or Cello falls, Ten-Mile
rapids. The Dalles. or Five Mile rap
ids and Three-Mile rapids. The rap
ids were named in accordance with
their distance from Dalles City.
The total drop in the IL miles
from Tumwater falls to the foot oil
Flve-Ml rapids is 81 1-2 feet at
low water. Steamboats, have run the
series in time Of high water, when
the drop is about so feet