Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 9.djvu/176

 158 John Minto. States, detail to Mr. Beers his exploration trip which had taken him to the base of Mount Jefferson in search of that pass. Of course I talked of these hearings now, and Henry States, one of the hunters who thought they had discovered the old passway, sent for me, having a sprained ankle, I carried his statement to the board of county commissioDcrs, simply saying that it seemed a matter of public interest to know if there was such a natural pass. The result was an order of the county court to John Minto to take two men and make examinations and report findings. Mr. States, one of the hunters, was written to and responded promptly. He was commissioned to find the third man, and unfortunately found not so much a pass or gold hunter, as a camp hunter, for which other parties were to furnish the "grub." He was a man of great natural intelligence, who would rather tell a smart lie than the simple truth. We penetrated up the valley through about seventeen miles of narrow gorge, past where the two hunters had reached, to where Breightenbush makes in from the north; found John Breightenbush—a one-armed hunter and nothing else— there ahead of us, and named the beautiful affluent for him. We pushed on, following a large elk being chased by wolves. A wide space of sand and gravel in the river bed showed us where the chase began and guided us over what is now the site and station of Detroit, and on east, keeping the bank to about a mile beyond Idana. There we took the point of a ridge leading straight toward Mount Jefferson, as I after- ward learned, and followed it an estimated five miles with steady, moderate rise; noting an occasional blazed tree. We seemed shut in by half-grown pine and fir timber, to which the clouds came very near. The big man began to talk camp. I noted a spot of light, and asking the others to wait, went to it and found myself on the brink of the ridge with a noisy stream at its base. There were patches of fern and bushes of upland willow and hazel around a half-grown fir tree, limbed down close to the ground. Halloing for my company to wait, I pulled myself up that tree. The valley below was