Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-05
GOLD RUSH PROVED
EPIC OF CENTURY
Wagons BIazed Memorable
Trials to West Coast in
Days of Forty-NinerS.
BY DIR. E. A. BRYAN,
State College of washington.

From 1885 to 1850 canoes were very
much in evidence among the Pacific
Coast settlers, especially in the lower
Columbia and its tributaries and on
Puget Sound and its tributaries. But
the settlers fiocking into the William
cite Valley and the sound country be-
tween 1910 and 1850 expected to be
farmers and, of course, brought horses
with them.
The second stage of transportation in
the Northwest arose in the decade be-
tween 1850 and 1870. The decade i'm
mediately following the discovery OF
gold in California was marked by
great influx of population into that
State. Thousands of gold seekers came
around the Horn, other thousands
crossed the Isthmus and thence by sea
to the Golden Gate and still other
thousands crossed the plains, following
the 'forty-niners."
Oregon Settlers Made Trail.
These were not the pathfinders, for
the trails were already deeply worn
from independence, Mo-. up the Platte
River to the forks of the Sweetwater,
up this tributary to the summit, across
the great South Pass of the Rockies,
down the Big Sandy to Green River, on
beyond Bear Lake and Bear River to
the Port Neuf, past where Pocatello,
lQdIlO, IlOW SGdHuS W t1dil, d
HudSons Bay post on the Snake River
For 10 years prior to the discovery of
gold the Oregon settlers had been using
that route to Fort Hall. Thence they
had proceeded down the Snake over the
old Oregon trail, across the Blue Noun
tains to and down the Columbia to
the mouth of the Willamette.
The early gold seekers branched of
from the oregon Trail near Fort Hall
10 &rA Daff
the deserts of Nevada and the Sierra
Nevada Mountains and on down into
California, with it's golden sands.
The Oregon folk and early California
| settlers had brought their own outfits,
and had thus worn deep the parallel
trails across the plains and the Rockies.
There was then no other transporta-
| ton system to care for the traffic.
,, Whether the objective was Pixies Peak
or Bust" or California, or the William
cite Valley, they were not travelling.
but merely going somewhere" taking
their own people, supplies and outfit.
But such an urge to move people and
things to a distant point was sure to
create a transportation business. The
old ConeStoga wagon, with its heavy
oak wheels and axles, its high, strong
wagon box, its covered canvas top-the
prairie schooner-even then had long
been we'll known. Long lines moving
to the frontier, with strung-out OK
teams or horse teams, had filled the
highway west Of the Alleghenies with
an ever-advancing band of pioneers in
tent on pushing on to a new frontier.
It furnished the great American epic
of the last century.
In 1880 William Sublette, famous fur
| trader, had sent wagons over the Ore
| gon Trail as far as Green River. In
| 1885 Marcus Whitman, missionary to
| the Indians, had driven his four wheeled
| light wagon as far as Fort Hall, on the
Snake River, where he converted it into
a two-wheeled cart and pushed on as
| far as old Fort Boise. In 1847 the Nor
mons trekked over this trail to the Salt
Lake Valley.
From 1910 to 1s49 the great westward
tide had passed over the Blue Mountains
and on down to The Dalles, thence by
water to Vancouver and the Willamette
Valley until the Barlow road around
Mount Hood had been opened. Five
| hundred freight wagons frequently
passed Fort Kearney, on the Platte. in
! a single day. Within q single "a hours
! it was said 8S8 westbound wagons,
drawn by 10000 oven, were counted at
Fort Kearney.
Stage Follows Freight Wagon.
|
mented by stage coaches, with regular
stage stations, and which ran on reg
ular schedule. Fare to Salt Lake City
! from Missouri River points was $3.50; to
California $225. In 1860 the famous
pony express was established with relays
Of riders, day and night, between reg
ular but not distant stations.
The pony express operated only 10
months and was Supplanted by the still
swifter telegraph. In 1849, $4,000 emil
grants crossed the plains. That was the
first year of the California gold rush.
In 1860 Russell, Majors and Waddell
established a freighting system across
| the plains with $3.50 wagons and $4,000
oxen and 100 stations.
| The gold rush to the Pacific North
west had begun in 1861. 1t was served
at first by pack trains. Soon freight
trains-lines of heavy wagons drawn by
oxen and horSes-were developed. Toll
roads were constructed and culverts and
bridges which charged tolls were estab-
| lished at many points and proved profit
able to their owners. One famous road
was from Walla Walla Cor Wallula on
| the Columbia) through the tollgate on
the summit of the Blue Mountains.
through the Grande Ronde Valley and
on to Boise, following the old oregon
| Trail.
A famous highway was the MullaI
road 1t extended eastward from Walla
Walla, where the Army post had been
established, to Fort Benton on the Mis-
souri, with like transportation on the
Columbia The Mullan road was 624
miles long. Thus was completed the
first system of transcontinental trans
portation from ocean to ocean. the
mouth of the Columbia being the west
ern terminus.
People Are Talking Faster.
According to the observation of a