Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 16.djvu/185



THE DALLES-CELILO CANAL 167

ful effects produced by this piercing of these eternal hills by this majestic river of the West. * * *

"The navigation of the Columbia River is now in the hands of a strong and energetic company, that not only have the capacity to improve all its present opportunities, but the fore- sight to seek out and create new ones. They are, indeed, making new paths in the wilderness, and show more com- prehension of the situation and purpose to develop it than any set of men I have yet met on the Pacific Coast. Organized in 1861, with property worth one hundred and seventy-five thou- sand dollars, they have now, with eighteen or twenty first class steamboats, the two railroads around the Cascades and The Dalles, and their appointments, warehouses at all the principal towns on the river, including one nine hundred and thirty-five feet long at Celilo, and real estate in preparation for future growth, a total property of rising two million dollars, all earned from their business. Besides this great increase of wealth from their own enterprise, they have paid to themselves in dividends three hundred and thirty-two thousand seven hun- dred and fifty dollars. * * *

"So large have been the travel and trade in this direction in the last few years, that the Oregon Steam Navigation Com- pany has carried to the Upper Country sixty thousand three hundred and twenty tons in the last four years, beginning with six thousand tons in 1862 and rising to nearly twenty- two thousand tons in 1864. In the same time, their boats have carried up and down on the river nearly one hundred thousand passengers, increasing from ten thousand in 1861 to thirty-six thousand in 1864."

It is assumed that the famous Umatilla House at the City of The Dalles was considered too lively (fleas) for the com- fort of this distinguished party during the hours usually devoted to sleep, but the reason for their being taken to Celilo for the night may have been regard for their early morning nap, as will be understood from the following schedule of trains on the Portage Railroad, published under date of De- cember ist, 1866: