Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 4.djvu/253

Rh shuts the pass from being seen in outline from the east.

The failure of Meek to get his party through raised the question in the settlements as to whether there was so easy a means of passing the Cascade range at that point as the Hudson Bay Company trappers and traders represented, and in the spring of 1846 a public meeting was held at Salem and a committee of six citizens was selected to go and make an examination of the trail. Col. Cornelius Gilliam was the head of the committee of the American portion of the party, and Joseph Gervais, a Canadian trapper, preëminent for general intelligence among his class, went along to show the way. The Hon. T. C. Shaw, nephew of Gilliam, was of the party (the youngest). He is at present (1887) county judge of Marion County, and recently went over part of the ground they then passed. From him it is learned that the trail did not then pass through the narrow gorge which has been spoken of, but took over the tops of the most broken and rugged portion of the range. The party proceeded until they came to what they termed the "scaly rock mountain," which Colonel Gilliam pronounced impassable for wagons. The party returned and reported accordingly, and from that date till late in 1873 that pass way was unused and to a great extent forgotten.

In October, 1873, two hunters in search of good game range penetrated up the north bank of the river through the gorge before mentioned, and found that about twelve miles from the then settlement on King's Prairie that the valley widened out and the mountains seemed lower; narrow belts of bottom land lay between the mountains and the river, and appeared to continue up to near the base of Mount Jefferson, which, in fact, they do. One of these hunters (Henry States) sent for John Minto, being unable, on account of a sprained ankle, to go to the latter, and told him of their findings. This rediscovery or new