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THE QUARTERLY

of the

Oregon Historical Society

VOLUME XV DECEMBER, 1914 NUMBER 4

The Quarterly disavows responsibility for the positions taken by contributors to its pages

HISTORY OF ASTORIA RAILROAD

By LESLIE M. SCOTT

A railroad, speeding ahead of the drifting Columbia River to the sea, or gliding back up its toilsome currents, was a dream of nearly half a century ere it came true. The canoe of Indians, explorers and fur traders, the row-boat of pioneer settlers, were relegated in 1850 by the river steamboat. Right afterward came the railroad idea but not the railroad for yet many a waiting year.

It seems natural enough now that the steam locomotive should follow the river to the ocean; one may wonder at the long delay. But railroads, like each other pioneer improvement in Oregon, grew slowly from their beginnings in 1868-9 ; the down-Columbia line reached Goble not until 1883; and halted there fifteen years before going on to Astoria, fifty-eight miles further.

These latter years were restive ones for that city by the sea. Its efforts were persistent; its offerings to railroad builders continuous. It wished to be the seaport and railroad terminus of the Columbia River Basin to win that place from Portland. It finally got the railroad, but has not realized the other ambi- tion. Its success in winning this much was the result of or- ganized self-help. As an example of self-dependence and pub- lic achievement the completion of this railroad deserves to go down in the annals of things highly praiseworthy in Oregon. The people of Astoria, knowing from repeated failures that they must help themselves, offered a land prize, and enlarged