Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 5.djvu/135

Rh $500 a share. Bradford & Co. were the largest shareholders, having 758 shares; R. R. Thompson, 672; Harrison Olmstead, 558; Jacob Kamm, 354; and so on down, the smallest shareholder having but eight shares.

This combination put both portage roads and the gorge of the Columbia into the hands of a corporation, giving it perfect control of all transportation to and from every point beyond the Cascades. Thus owning both portages and all the steamboats, it is needless to say that the Oregon Steam Navigation Company found it unnecessary to consult any one as to what prices they should charge. Such an opportunity, with such unlimited power, seldom ever falls into the hands of man. It made them the absolute owners of every dollar's worth of freight and passage going up or down the great valley of the second largest river in America.

In 1855 there were no settlers living beyond the Deschutes River, but after that date they began to spread out over the country pretty fast. Previous to that date, the government had given transportation companies nearly all the carrying trade they had. But by 1860 the natural growth of the country was making considerable business. In 1861 the discovery of gold at Orofino awakened a new life in the valley of the Columbia. As if by magic the tardy wheels of commerce are unfettered, human thought and energy unshackled and turned loose with determined purpose to meet the great emergency and reap the golden harvest.

From Portland to "Powder River, Orofino, and Florence City" mines, the country resounded with the busy whirr of trade. All the steamboats and portage roads were taxed to their greatest capacity. So great was the demand for transportation that the Oregon Steam Navigation Company had to build new steamboats and improve their roads at the Cascades. The old portage wagon mad at The Dalles was entirely inadequate to do the immense business, and the company was obliged to build a railroad from Dalles City to Celilo, 15 miles.

So enormous were the charges for freight and passage, I