Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/236

 228 J. NEILSON BARRY A traveler on the observation car of a through Pullman train who sees the pine-clad mountains, and the sagebrush plains, with the wonderful transformation which is taking place wher- ever civilization has gained a foothold, must naturally feel an interest in the story of the first travelers through this region, so charmingly told by Washington Irving in "Astoria," which was written in part at the home of Ramsay Crooks in St. Louis. The attempt in 1811 of an American corporation, the Pacific Fur Company, to establish Astoria as a trading post at the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon, was of far-reaching consequences, as it became one basis for the claim to the Ore- gon country as part of the territory of the United States. . The overland expedition to Astoria under Wilson Price Hunt did much to increase the knowledge of what had been an un- explored wilderness, and contributed to the ultimate discovery of that natural highway between the Mississippi and the Pacific, which became the route of the trappers, and in later years "The Old Oregon Trail" of the emigrants, and is now used by the trunk line of a transcontinental railway system. The chief natural features along the route of the Astorians have remained unaltered, although irrigation has produced an almost miraculous change in parts of the desolate wilderness, such as that around "Caldron Linn," now Milner, Idaho, which has become like an immense garden. A network of railroads now covers what was formerly a trackless wild, while through- out the region, where no foot of white man had ever trodden, are now scattered a steadily increasing multitude of towns and cities, with all the adjuncts of modern civilization that they imply. It was the view from the Pullman car that first caused the writer of this article to desire to learn the stories that must lie behind the outward scenes, and later the fertile Baker valley at the foot of the beautiful Elkhorn range was recognized as the "fine level valley" and "chain of woody mountains" men- tioned in "Astoria." The thought that here had actually trodden the footsteps of the half famished, but resolute, band of explorers, aroused the