Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 7.pdf/117

Rh line was one of the moving factors to induce action for a connection with Oregon. But the Oregonians were not unanimous as to the best route. Mr. B. J. Pengra, the Surveyor General of Oregon, and a very able and enterprising man and the successful promoter of the Oregon Central Military Wagon Road, with a land grant running from Eugene to the southeast corner of the State, together with a large following of wealthy and influential men, was actively advocating a line for an Oregon railroad connection with the Central Pacific road, called the "Humboldt Route," which should run from the City of Portland to Eugene City, thence southeast by the middle fork of the Willamette River and over the Cascade Mountains, near Diamond Peak, and thence by Klamath marsh and lake on to Winnemucca on the Central Pacific Railroad in the State of Nevada. And had Pengra been supported by as much political influence as southern Oregon was able to command he might possibly have defeated the location through the Umpqua and Rogue River valleys and secured the land grant to the line of his wagon road.

We pass now from the history of the location of the line to the administration of the land grant. The Oregon legislature met in September, 1866, six weeks after Congress granted the lands in aid of the road. It was decided to abandon the original organization which had so far promoted the enterprise, and accordingly the writer of this paper prepared articles for the incorporation of "The Oregon Central Railroad Company," the office and headquarters of which should be at Portland, Oregon. These articles were signed by J. S. Smith (member of Congress for Oregon in 1870), I. R. Moores, John H. Mitchell (for twenty-two years United States senator for Oregon), E. D. Shattuck (for thirty years justice of the supreme and