Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 18.djvu/194



166 Leslie M. Scott

and November, 1864, aggregated $1,376,678.82, according to Thomas Frazar, United States collector of internal revenue for Oregon. In the year 1863, the total was $4,505731.*^^ The gold production of the entire Pacific Northwest was estimated in 1861 at $1750,000; $9,000,000 in 1862."^

Shipments of bullion, from Portland, by Wells Fargo, arc summarized as follows:

1864, 6,200,000

1865, 5,800,000

1866, 5,400,000

1867, 4,001 ,000*"

This survey of the pioneer gold mining period and of the effects on the early development of the North Pacific regpion, could be extended to much greater length, but the space of the present writing does not permit. Moreover, it is the purpose of the writer to meet the desires of the easy reader. The "loose gold" was gathered up in a few years, just as in every placer country. But the opening of the wilderness and the impulse given to the growth of this region by the new energies of a large new population — ^these are the matters highly im- portant in studying the history of pioneer progress.

no S«e The Oregonian, March lo, 1864.

111 Ibid., December 15, i86a.

112 See the Quarterly, vol. ix, p. 290.