Page:Oregon, her history, her great men, her literature.djvu/155

 Many of the leading citizens of Oregon are descendants of that missionary band.

Beach Mming. Beach mining was probably introduced in Oregon as early as 1832. In 1853 a thousand miners were engaged in wsishing gold from the sand along the south" em beach of the Oregon Coast It waa gold that had once been carried by stream and freshet from the mountain to the 8ea» then wadied with ^e sand from the ata, to the shore* and shifted back and forth by the wares until it became so fine that much of it could be seen only by means of the microscope. Yet with the aid of quicksilver, shovel, and golddust pan the miner obtained it in paying quantities^

OregoriDivided Into Tenrllories. The Territory ofOregon in 19H~was larger than the German Empire was in Sff^tSS^9\4, Hence it was only natural that it should eventually be divided into other territories. But few were they who realized that this would come to pass and that the new territories would be so large that th^ in time would become states to be subdivided into other states. Yet within nineteen years after Oregon was proclaimed a territory, this succesrion of changes began.

Washington. In response to a petition from a portion of the Oregon Country lying north of the Columbia River, Washington was organized as a Territory, March 2, 1853, and admitted into the Union as the iorty-second State, November 1 1, 1889. Its capital is Olympia. Washington is bounded: on the north by British Columbia, east by Idaho, south by Oregon, and west by the Pacific Ocean. It has a total area of 69, 127 square miles^ and (1917) a population of 1,565.810.

Idaho was organized as a Territory, March 3, 1863, and admitted into the Union as the forty-third State, July 3, 1890. It is composed of part of the following states: Oregon, Washington, Utah, and Nevada, it is bounded on the north by Briti^ America and Montana, east by Montana