Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 15.djvu/252



240 LESLIE M. SCOTT

Alfred C. Kinney, president; J. Q. A. Bowlby, vice-president; B. Van Dusen, secretary ; John C. Dement, F. J. Taylor, C. H. Page, J. W. Welch, J. A. Fulton, W. C. Smith, John Adair, George Hill, C. W. Shively, C. R. Thompson, E. A. Seeley, D. K. Warren, H. B. Parker, Gabriel Wingate, W. G. Howell, G. W. Sanborn, S. D. Adair, P. A. Trullinger.

On August 7, 1899, Henry Villard, who had opposed As- toria's ambition twenty years before, rode over the line to that city as the guest of Hammond. In 1899 the track was extended two miles from Flavel to Fort Stevens. In Septem- ber of this year a rate war was started against the road by the O. R. & N. steamboats, and the fare was cut to twenty-five cents between Portland and Astoria. The war lasted twenty- two months, until June 1, 1901.

The road gained steadily in earnings with the succeeding years and grew in value, although it did not bring to Astoria the commercial lead that the city was ambitious to win. Ex- tension to Nehalem and Tillamook was announced by Mr. Hammond July 25, 1906, and was formally authorized by the directors of the company October 22 of that year, with a fur- ther extension to Yaquina. But before the new project was developed Hammond sold the road to James J. Hill for the Great Northern and the Northern Pacific on December 19, 1907, the purchase price being $5,000,000. The cost of the road had been less than $2,500,000. This sale stopped exten- sion plans. The road was later transferred to the Spokane, Portland & Seattle (North Bank Line) which has since operated it.

The first projected railroad through Nehalem to Astoria is not yet built. In 1907, William Reid made an unsuccessful effort to carry through his old plans via Nehalem and Lewis and Clark river. His company at that time was the Portland, Oregon, Seacoast Railway. His twenty-five year endeavor for a railroad to Astoria ended with his recent death.