Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 4.djvu/228

218 valley in a high state of cultivation; the school-houses, dotting here a hill, and there a valley, betoken that the education of the youth of the country was not being neglected. Roseburg, the county seat of the Umpqua region, is a gem of a village; streets neatly laid out, and neat, white, frame cottages, giving the place a rare picturesque beauty, where mountain and dale, and the hand of refined culture, all joined in beautiful harmony. The line of telegraph posts extends throughout this entire distance from Portland to Canyonville—the farthest point south where they are as yet erected. It is fully anticipated to have the line from Salem to Portland in working order by winter; as also the line from Jacksonville to Yreka. The posts are supplied and erected by contract by the farmers and others living along the line, at a cost of from $1.25 to $2 per post, and the line when completed will cost $200 per mile. Local intelligence, and the interest which every citizen feels in the reception of intelligence, now bristling with so much import, will cause this line, as soon as placed in good working order, to pay to the stockholders fair dividends on their capital. This link between Canyonville and Jacksonville will be completed during the next season. I saw Mr. Strong in Yreka, and found him pushing ahead the line with all his characteristic energy. He deserves much credit for prosecuting this project thus far to a success that is to bring to our doors daily intelligence from the East, and it is to be hoped that the citizens of the Upper Columbia will move in the same matter as soon as the line is completed to Portland.

A ride of twenty hours brings us into the Rogue Valley and to Jacksonville, a region I regard as one of the most beautiful and picturesque to be found in Oregon. The valley is from twenty-five to thirty miles square, entirely taken up by beautiful farms and under high cultivation;