Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 3.djvu/240

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In the autumn of 1861 Joseph Watt, R. P. Boise, and Lucien Heath associated themselves together in the enterprise of sending 4,500 head of sheep into the Yakima country, east of the Cascades. It was a world of rich grass, in the condition of sun-made hay. There was no provision for winter feed. Late in December a snowfall covered all of the Columbia Valley. The weather set in clear and cold and gave fourteen weeks continuous sleighing at Salem in Western Oregon. East and north all weather conditions were more severe, which made the season the most destructive to live stock known to the white race of men on this coast. This first sheep venture east of the Cascades was represented by 45 living skeletons in March, 1862. It crippled Mr. Watt financially, but did not shake his faith in the upper Columbia Valley as a grand pastoral region. Mr. Heath, who had been very sanguine of large and certain profits, said: "I will never own another sheep as an investment." Cattle and horses had been colonized from west to east of the Cascades, and these, also, were almost a total loss, except in the lake region of Southeastern Oregon. This longest snow-lay had been preceded by floods in Western Oregon, and some loss of sheep had occurred by drowning on the Willamette bottom lands. This unusual season had no apparent deterrent effect on the movement to Eastern Oregon and Washington. Horses, cattle, and sheep were taken without attempts to provide winter feed in the case of the two former, and generally very inadequate efforts in the latter. The ranges were wide and mixture of flocks on them was very rare. Herding as a business had to be learned by most Americans, and general man-