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Walla Walla a great distributing centre. At Walla Walla, located a few miles above the site of the Whitman mission, a military post had been established in 1856, which soon drew about it a small settlement. This place now became the distributing centre for a mining region embracing nearly the whole of the eastern country. The Dalles sent goods up the John Day valley; Umatilla carried to Powder River, Owyhee, Boise Basin, and a few other places in eastern Oregon and southern Idaho; but Walla Walla sent its pack trains not only to most of these camps, but to Colville, Kootenai, the Salmon and the Clearwater, the Prickly Pear and the upper Missouri. The trails radiated in all directions from this little town, and during the packing season long lines of horses and mules were ever coming and going. In winter the feeding yards of the valley were filled with poor, worn creatures, whose scarred backs and ugly girth marks proved the class to which they belonged.^ The packers themselves were an important social element in Walla Walla and Wallula. Sometimes they gave grand balls which the entire community would attend. Many of them were enterprising young men who have since made themselves felt in business and professional life.

The Montana trade by steamboat and wagon.

^The number of pack animals maintained in the valley is almost incredible. In the winter of 1866-1867 between five hundred and six hundred were kept within seven miles of Wallula. During ten days in the month of July, 1869, when times were dull, trains aggregating five hundred and fifty-nine packs were fitted out at Walla Walla.