Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 4.djvu/208

198 portage, two at The Dalles, and one at Wallula. The cost of the rails and the freight were both very great. When the road reached a point ten miles out from the Columbia it began to haul wheat, the teamsters being glad to avoid the long, hard pull over the sandy roads.

When the road had reached Whitman Station, six miles west of Walla Walla, Doctor Baker's available funds were exhausted, and he would not borrow. He thereupon announced that its terminus would remain there until the earnings sufficed to complete it to Walla Walla. The citizens, fearing a rival town would spring up at Whitman, promptly raised and donated $25,000 to secure the continuance of the road to Walla Walla.

In the inception of the enterprise, Doctor Baker had asked Walla Walla County, through the board of county commissioners, to guarantee the interest on a proposed issue of bonds, to be sold to provide funds for the construction of the road, offering in return to permit the commissioners to fix the rate for carrying grain to the Columbia, provided only the rate should not be less than $3 per ton. The question was submitted to a vote, and rejected by a decided majority. Doctor Baker then said: "I will build the road without your assistance, and you must allow me to fix the rate." The rate was $5 per ton from Walla Walla to the river. There was an additional charge of fifty cents for transfer to the steamboat. The Oregon Steam Navigation Company's charge was $6 per ton, and there was a wharfage charge at Portland of 50 cents, making a total of $12 per ton, or thirty-six cents per bushel from Walla Walla to Portland. The charge of $5 per ton seems now a pretty stiff rate, but teamsters in those days sometimes charged $12 per ton for the same haul, although the usual charge was $6. They could not always handle the crop, and the price fluctuated.

During the discouraging period of construction few