Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 18.djvu/302



266 Harvey W. Scott

Pugct Sound country left that r^on, in the days of the pio- neers, far behind. All the lands, or nearly all, in the Puget Sound basin, that possessed fertility, were covered with heavy growths of timber. The labor and expense of bringing these lands into cultivation was and is inunense. The valleys of Western Oregon, south of the Columbia River, between the Cascade and Coast ranges of mountains, had large areas of open plains. In them the settlement naturally began.

But after a while — it was long years — the idea of trans- continental railroads got into action. First, for California; and San Francisco was the center of everything for the Pacific Coast.*^ Later, for the Oregon country;^® and connection in the north from the east with the open ocean, by the easiest way for shipping, carried the thoughts of men to Puget Sound. The transcontinental railroads, on Northern routes, sought that connection with the open ocean.^ Conditions of pioneer life were superseded by the new movement; and the greater energy, that formerly had been exerted upon the line of pio- ner effort — whose basis was ag^culture and cattle — shifted gradually to the north, where commerce was the leading idea. Railroads were rushed across the country, on northern lines. Our connection in Oregon and at Portland, with California, was earlier, but it left us in subordinate position. It was at a later time that we got the Oregon Short Line and the direct connection with Eastern cities and states.

The phenomenon has simply been the transformation from one basis of life to another — from the ag^cultural life, which was simplicity, to the more highly specialized and developed life — ^the product of human evolution, which has no stopping place. It must be admitted that Oregon, founded on old con- ditions and established on old ideals, has been behind hitherto in this movement. It was a necessary consequence of the ccmi- ditions. Naturally, therefore, it has been hard to move the

17 The tranacontanenul railroad to Sm Francisco was opened in i860.

iS The railroad between Portland and Sacramento was opened in 1887: Union Pacific railroad connections, with Portland, in 1884.

19 The Northern Pacific transcontinental line to Puget Soimd was ODcncd in 1887; the Great Nortbcra, im i8»3. t-i— ^ «.