Page:History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana.djvu/414

382 territorial road from the Columbia to the head of Puget Sound, a distance of eighty miles. This road was put under contract in 1853. A movement was at the same time set on foot to open a road over the Cascade Mo intains to- ward Walla Walla. In the summer of 1852 R. H. Lansdale explo ed a route up the Snohomish River via the Snoqualimich fork to the grea-< falls, and thence eastward to the base of the mountains, where it followed uo the south fork of the * Dewamps or Black River' to the summit of the mountains. The trail then turned directly toward the head waters of the middle fork of the Yakima, and thence down the mountains towards the Columbia. This ap- pears to have been the first survey of the Yakima pass by citizens of the U. S. A portion of this route was an old Indian trail which could then have been traversed by pack-trains without serious inconvenience. Lansdale, who resided on Whidbey Island, proposed to begin the construction of a road over this route in the follov/ing spring, which would have brought the immigration to the lower portion of. the Sound. Ebey, the member of the Oregon legisla- ture from that region, failed, however, to obtain the approval of that body to establish a territorial road from Snohomish falls to Fort Walla Walla, the assembly preferring to memorialize congress fcr a military road. But he se- cured instead a road law for the counties on Puget Sound, which partly ac- complished the object desired. This law provided for the accumulation of a road fund out of a tax of four mills on the dollar, which, with the assistance of subscriptions by persons interested, would be sufficient to construct a good wagon-road from the mouth of the Cowlitz to Olympia, and of another across the Cascade Mountains. Before work could be begun in the spring, news was received that congress had appropriated $20,000 for a military road from Fort Steiiacoom to Fort Walla W^alla. Fearing government delay in furnish- ing the money for its construction, and wishing to have a road opened for the next immigration to come direct to Puget Sound, the people undertook the work themselves, and endeavored to bring the road to Fort Steiiacoom, thus inviting congressional aid, and securing a terminus near Olympia. A sur- vey was therefore made of the Nachess pass, and the road brought down the valley of White River to the junction of Green River, where it turned south across the Puyallup to Fort Steiiacoom. The road company proceeded to its task, about fifty men enlisting for the work on the promise of some 150 sub- scribers to the fund that they should be paid. Before its completion gov- ernment surveyors were in the field under McClellan at the head of the west- ern division of the Stevens exploring expedition. McClellan's instructions from the secretary of war, dated May 9, 1853, were to use every exertion to open a road over the Cascade Mountains in time for the fall emigration; but as McClellan did not arrive at Fort Vancouver until past the middle of June, nor leave it iintil July 27th, whence he proceeded northward, dividing his party, and examining both sides of the Cascade range, he could do nothing more than guarantee the payment of $1,300 earned by the men working on the last division of the road west of the mountains, promise to reconmiend the payment by congress of $5,700 still due the citizens' company, and give his approval of the pass selected.

The road was so far completed that a small immigration passed over it with wagons and cattle, reaching their destination with less suffering than usual. Had it been more numerous, it would have been better for the next immigration. But congress never reimbursed the road-makers. In the fol- lowing summer Richard Arnold exhausted the $20,000 appropriation without much improving the route, making but a single change to avoid the steep hill on the Puyallup, where wagons had to be let down with ropes. This, like all the military roads on the coast, was a miserable affair, which soon fell into disuse, as the people were unable to complete it, and the Indian wars soon practically put a seal upon it.

^ Early in 1854 F. W. Lander undertook at his own cost the survey of a railroad route from Puget Sound by the valley of the Columbia to the vicinity of the South pass, or Bridger's pass, of the Rocky Mountains, with a view to connecting Puget Sound by rail with a railroad to California, Lander's idea