Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/93



It was a happy as well as a timely thought on the part of Rev. J. Neilson Barry, rector of the Protesant Episcopal Church at Baker, Oregon, to begin early in 1911 to agitate the question of celebrating the one hundredth aniversary of the arrival of the first white men in the Powder Valley. These men were led by Wilson Price Hunt, a partner of John Jacob Astor, who left St. Louis on March 12, 1811, and constituted the overland section of the Astor Expedition. Mr. Barry followed the suggestion by making a critical study of the route followed, so far as it is described by Washington Irving in his "Astoria," and other books relating to the subject. And furthermore, from the time when the expedition left Snake River on its way to Powder River Valley and on westward to the locality where Baker is now situated, and on beyond to Grand Ronde Valley, a distance of over one hundred miles, Mr. Barry explored the route the Hunt party followed, by rail, bicycle, wagon or on foot, as the necessites of the self-appointed task required. By describing these experiences from day to day and comparing the trails he found with the roadways of the present time in the daily papers of his city for several weeks prior to the date fixed for the celebration—December 28th—much interest in the event was aroused among the citizens of Baker.

During the afternoon of the day appointed two auto loads of the, guests from outside of Baker—among them Judge Stephen A. Lowell and Senator C. A. Barrett, Pendleton, T. C. Elliott, Walla Walla, Washington, Senator Walter A. Pierce, Hot Lake, and George H. Himes, Portland—were taken to "Ogden's Fountain"—Peter Skene Ogden's camp, Sept. 30, 1828—and camping ground of Hunt one hundred years ago—both on the "Cold Spring Ranch," six miles south of Baker, owned by Mr. D. H. Shaw. This trip was made in the teeth of a fierce snow storm, which gave the participants a