Page:History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana.djvu/415

 being that a direct line to Lake Superior would be exposed to severe cold, injurious to the material and the service of the road. He objected, besides, that, in the event of a war with England, it would be too near the frontier, and also that a railroad on a frontier was not in a position to develop territory. Lander's Railway to the Pacific, 10–14. Lander made his reconnoissance, of which I have given some account in my History of Oregon, the territorial legislature memorializing congress to make an appropriation compensating him for the service. Wash. H. Jour., 1854, 167. His report was published, and congress appropriated $5,000 to defray the expense of the survey. U. S. Stat. at Large, 1854-5, 645; Gov. Stevens without doubt having influenced both the territorial and congressional action. The legislature, at its first session, en- acted laws for the location of territorial roads from Steilacoom to Seattle, from Steilacoom to Vancouver, from Seattle to Bellingham Bay, from Olym- pia to Shoalwater Bay, from Cathlamet to the house of Sidney S. Ford in Thurston county, from Shoalwater Bay to Gray Harbor, and thence to inter- sect the road to Olympia, from Puget Sound to the mouth of the Columbia, from Seattle to intersect the immigrant road, and from Olympia to Monti- cello. Wash. Stat., 1854, 463-70. These various acts were intended to pro- vide a complete system of communication between the settlements as they then existed. Others were added the following year. They v/ere to be opened and worked by the counties through which they passed, the costs to be paid out of the county treasury in the manner of county roads.

George Gibbs and J. L. Brown undertook to explore a route from Shoal- water Bay to Olympia in Dec. 1853, and had proceeded a part of the way, when they were compelled to return by stress of weather and scarcity of provi- sions. The exposure and hardships of the expedition resulted in the death of Brown. In the following July, E. D. Warbass, Michael Schaffer, Knight, and Geisey set out from Cowlitz landing to locate a road to Shoalwater Bay, which resulted in opening communication between the settlements on the coast, and points along the route inviting settlement. By this route, also, Astoria, the distributing point for the mails, could be reached. The first legislative body had memorialized congress relative to establishing a mail-route between Astoria and Olympia, but by the course marked out for the territorial road to Cathlamet. Subsequently, in 1866, $10,000 was asked for to open a wagon-road from the Columbia at Cathlamet to the Boisfort prairie, to there intersect the road to Olympia. Neither request was granted, though the latter was repeated in 1873. The legislature of 1854 also required their delegates in congress to endeavor to procure an appropriation of $50,000, and a section of land in each township along the different territorial roads, to be located by the road commissioners, to aid in the construction of these highways and the necessary bridges. It asked, moreover, for $30,000 to be expended in opening a practicable wagon-road from Vancouver to Steilacoom; for $25,000 for a military road from The Dalles to Vancouver; and for .$25,000 to complete the military road over the Cascades, and to pay the people the amount expended by them in opening it. Wash. Jour, House, 1854, 163-6. To the propositions for roads connecting the military stations, congress lent a willing ear and granted the appropriations asked for, but gave no heed to the appeal to complete and pay for the road to Walla Walla, for which the legislature continued to petition year after year. During the summer of 1855 a reconnoissance was made of a line of road from The Dalles to Vancouver, and from Vancouver to Steilacoom. The first was com- pleted Nov. 23, 1856, but in the following winter was so injured by heavy rains as to require ten thousand dollars to repair it, which was expended on it in 1857. The road to Steilacoom was begun at Cowlitz landing, on tiie west side of the river, and constructed as far as Steilacoom by Nov. 1, 1857.

Upon petition from the legislature of 1855-6, $35,000 was appropriated for a road from Steilacoom to Bellingham Bay, and a reconnoissance was made the following year. In 1863 a franchise was granted to complete the military trail to Whatcom, followed by another petition in 1864 to congress to continue the road to its northern terminus.