Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 18.djvu/181



The Pioneer 'Stimulus of Gold 153

Jacksonville, Scottsburg, Crescent City, Yreka became the leading supply points in Southern Oregon and Northern Cali- fornia. Portland soon leaped into pre-eminence, as the metrop- olis of the region, and held the chief rank forty years, until commerce routes of Alaska and the Orient transferred the primacy to Puget Sound. The population of Portland more than doubled, from 1280, in 1857, to 2917, in 1860. It grew to 6000 in 1865, to 9565 in 1870, and to 17,578 in 1880.» Vic- toria grew, beginning in 1858, from a sleepy trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company, to be a thriving town, with a large inland trade. Its population in 1857 was a few hundred and, in 1863, 6000,^ New Westminster, founded in 1859, became a leading city on the mainland, and once the capital of the province. The towns of Hope, Yale and Lytton were active in the trade of the Fraser River region.

The trade of the gold fields founded the cities of Jackson- ville, Scottsburg, Roseburg, Lewiston,^^ Boise^ and Helena,^ and many hamlets whose names are suggestive of the mining era. The Dalles" and Walla Walla^ became live centers for supplies and outfits. From those towns parties went to Fraser River in 1858,'* one led by Joel Palmer, who took the first wagons there, from The Dalles, by way of Okanogan River and Kamloops;^ the other, led by Archibald McKinlay and David McLoughlin, from Walla Walla. The latter town con- trolled a large share of the trade of the Qearwater and Salmon

a9 See Htnrey W. Scott's History of Portland, pp. 143. 151, is8. 30 See Howay's British Columbia, p. iS3-

fi Lewiston was founded in 1861. For details of the growth of the town, hs Oregonian, June 4. 1861; June 23, 27, i86a; May 12, 1889: January i, 1900; Quarterly, vol. xvi, pp 1S8-89. 3 J Boise was founded in 1861.

33 Helena was founded in 1864.

34 The Dalles grew from a Methodist mission, established in 1838. The Gov- ernment established a military post there in 1850. For descriptitm ojf the town in i86a. see The Ortgonian, June 11, September 11. 1862; description in 1848, ibid.. April 14, 1868. The town was a boat landing for Oregon Trail pioneers, en route to Willamette Valley. It was incorporated January a6, 1857 (Quarterly, vol. xvi, p. a6).

35 For description of early Walla Walla, see The Oregonian, August 10, November 18, 1861; March 21, June 18. 1862.

36 The mines of Fraser and Thompson rivers and the routes to them are described in The Oregonian. April 10, 24* May i, 15, June 12, 26, July 3. 17,

37' Joel Palmer describes the route to Simillcameen and Rock Creek in the Salem Statesman, February 14. i860; also in The Oregonian, February 4. i860. From Old Fort Okanogan the route was that of the fur trading days of the North-West Company (Quarterly* vol. xv, pp, 1-36, by William C Brown).