Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 20.pdf/17

 SNAKE RIVER IN HISTORY

9

the lost, as far as Caldron Linn, now the site of to determined three hunters the where Milner again dam, great

accountably

breast the tide of fortune.

Milner, Idaho, probably stands on the ground where Hunt cached his goods after a vain attempt to negotiate the river in boats. The two rocks which swamped the boat and caused the first

death of a white

man on

the Snake river, and

upon which

the Stuart party found the boat still clinging, now support the dam which diverts water sufficient to create a veritable irri-

gated empire, covering as it does 1,300,000 acres of land reclaimed at a cost of nearly $50,000,000.

Following the arrival at Astoria of the Hunt party, Donald McKenzie, who, with Reed and McClellan, had been detached from the main party at Caldron Linn, and who preceded Hunt to Astoria

set out to establish a post among conclude that he traveled the same

by nearly a month,

Nez Perces Indians. trail from the mouth of the

I

the Walla Walla to the forks of the

Clearwater that Lewis and Clark followed on their return trip six years before and that McKenzie established his post near the

and

mouth of

the

North Fork.

his party after leaving

The movements

Caldron Linn

is

of

McKenzie

involved in

much

mystery but from the nature of the man, his subsequent acts and a knowledge of the country through which he passed, I have no hesitancy in adopting the view that he left the Snake river at the mouth of the Weiser and followed a well known Indian trail up Monroe's creek, thence over to Mann creek, thence over to the Weiser, which he followed to its source. From here he descended the Little Salmon to its junction with the Salmon river proper, which he followed to the mouth of

From here the trail led over the divide somewhat west of old Mount Idaho and down to the Clearwater above the present town of Stites, thence down the Clearwater to the North Fork.

the Whitebird.

I

think, too, that his success in

making

his

way through

the mountains, the knowledge he acquired of the trails and of the country through which they passed, determined Mr. Hunt in

designating McKenzie as the one to operate in the

Nez