Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/484



shadowed by the next city below — St. Helens — which was founded by Captain Knighton and others in 1845.

It is not hard to understand the fact of so many townsite locations having been made in the vicinity of Portland. Everybody in the country in those pio- neer days, could see as well as we can now, that there would be somewhere above the Columbia river bar a town started, which would grow into a great city, and make fortune or fortunes for the lucky proprietors. Every man had his individual ideas of the proposition. The city would either be at Astoria, where Astor located, or it would be up near the mouth of the Willamette river. It would be wherever the ships cast anchor to discharge cargo. If they did not stop at Astoria, they would sail on up the river until they reached the outlet of the Willamette Valley. And every man of much prominence was busily engaged in trying to find the favored spot. It was not even a question of buj'iug the townsite. The whole country was open to location. The land was free. No one knew whether it would be English or American. But it did not cost any money to claim it if the true location could be determined. And so there were, counting in Portland, the ten locations we have named ; and the result was a contest for the survival of the fittest; a purely evolutionary move- ment in a commercial development.

Every townsite proprietor had his unanswerable reasons why his town was the right place for the great city, but not one of them, except Hall J. Kelley, who has not been counted among the competitors, ever supposed there would be a town of more than twenty thousand people. The Oregon City lot holders with Dr. McLoughlin at their head, believed that the great water power for manufacturers at that point, and the head of navigation for ocean vessels, would build the city at the falls. i\Ioore and Bums argued that as their side of the river was the best place for the canal and locks and nearer to the Tualatin county farms by a ferry charge, therefore the city would be on the west side of the river opposite Oregon City. They guessed right as to the canal and locks, but missed on the farmers.

The Milwaukie ownei's claimed that Oregon City was not the head of naviga- tion, because the Clackamas river had dumped a pile of gravel into the Willam- ette, that ships could not get over, although Captain Couch had once got his ship clear up to the falls on the June freshet. But the gravel argument did finally "sand-bag" the hopes of all the falls people on both sides of the river. But while it shut out the two falls towns, it did not help out ililwaukie to any appreciable extent. Milwaukie had its days for several years, and then, had to yield to Portland.

St. Johns and Linnton united to decry Portland as the head of navigation, just as JMilwaukie had cried down the Willamette falls towns. They pointed out that Swan Island was an impossible barrier to ships from the ocean, and that while they could easily sail in over the Columbia river bar, and along up the Columbia to their towns, the ships could never do any business at Vancouver or Portland. And Linnton pointed with pride to the fact that it had three rivers to support its hopes and make sure its prosperity — the Columbia, the Willamette and Willamette slough.

Wyeth's townsite on the end of the nose of Sauvie's Island, was the first aspirant to the honor and profit of the great city ; and also the first failure in