Page:All Over Oregon and Washington.djvu/367

Rh Twenty miles of this road are completed, and the cars were running to Cornelius, between Hillsboro and Forest Grove, in January, 1872.

The third great road, which as yet is only projected, is from the Dalles to a point on the Union Pacific, near Salt Lake City. This road, when built, will command the trade of the rich mineral districts of Southern Idaho and Eastern Oregon. Another road is talked of, from the head of the Wallamet Valley, via Diamond Peak Pass, or thereabout, across the Klamath country and the Humboldt Valley, to a junction with the Union Pacific.

The railroads of Washington Territory are also making good progress. The Northern Pacific, traversing the continent, from Lake Superior to Puget Sound and the Columbia River, has already completed its first twenty-five mile section on that portion of the line between the Columbia and the Sound. This road has secured a grant from the General Government of land equivalent to 25,600 acres per mile through the Territories, and 12,800 per mile through the States. If by pre-emption, settlement under the Homestead Law, or other cause, the Company are not able to obtain the quantity of land per mile which its charter entitles it to, it may make up the deficiency outside the twenty-mile limit of its land-grant.

But this Company also, like "The European and Oregon Land Company," have so systematized and facilitated the business of land sales to actual settlers, as to make it even easier for a man to select land to his liking, than it would be without the Company's assistance. The terms offered are also easy and equitable.

The second railroad of importance in Washington