Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/94

86 ARRIVAL OF FIRST WHITE MEN IN BAKER COUNTY hint of the conditions which both Ogden and Hunt and his men frequently encountered, to say nothing about the contrast in the method of locomotion.

At six o'clock P. M. a banquet was given at the Geiser Grand Hotel, with over one hundred of Baker's principal citizens present in addition to the guests from abroad. Two especially interesting characters David Littlefield and William H. Packwood were in attendance as guests of honor. Mr. Littlefield is the only survivor of the party which discovered gold in Griffin's Gulch, about nine miles from Baker, in August, 1861, and Mr. Packwood is the only surviving member of the Oregon Constitutional Convention of August- September, 1857. Mr. Charles H. Breck, of Baker, was toastmaster and responses were made by a number of the visiting guests.

At eight o'clock the formal exercises were held at Nevius Hall, with Judge William Smith, of Baker, presiding. The principal address was given by T. C. Elliott, Walla Walla, Washington, and his subject was "The Earliest Travelers on the Oregon Trail." This address appears in full elsewhere in this number of The Quarterly. Judge Lowell, Senators Pierce and Barrett, Mr. Littlefield, Mr. Packwood and Mr. Himes followed with short addresses; emphasis being given by each speaker to the educational value of preserving the memory of historical places and the actors connected with the same.

At the suggestion of Mr. Himes the following telegram, signed by Mr. Elliott, Director, and himself as Assistant Secretary of the Oregon Historical Society, was sent to the American Historical Association in session at Buffalo, New York: "Citizens of this place and members of the Oregon Historical Society are celebrating the one hundredth anniversary of the entrance of Americans into the Powder River Valley. This body of men, led by Wilson Price Hunt, was the overland section of the Astor party. We send you greeting."

An announcement was made by Judge Smith that the centennial of the discovery of Hot Lake, Union County, would be celebrated in August next with special exercises and a barbecue.