Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 25.djvu/200

178 Cascades which he named after the Oregon county in which he lived, Wasco. A necessary step obviously to complete the alliance was the opening up of a portage on the Oregon side. The Fashion began again on a regular schedule shortly after the middle of July, 1855, at first twice a week, but later triweekly, between Portland and the Cascades; the Wasco commenced her trips between the Cascades and The Dalles about August 1 and the Portland paper which announced the beginning of the Wasco's service, gave the news that a portage on the Oregon side of the river at the Cascades would be completed two weeks later. No subsequent mention of the new Oregon portage is found in the newspapers of 1855, but it may be concluded that some sort of a road with teams and wagons and storage warehouses was very shortly put into use for the transfer of business between the Wasco and the Fashion, as these steamboats continued to operate a through service between Portland and The Dalles, and the Bradford portage was in hostile hands.

Colonel Ruckel took up his residence at what was called the Middle Cascades, on the Oregon bank of the Columbia, and it would appear that he lived there for -several years, until 1862. It seems also that he and his associates early acquired a contract for the transportation of government supplies, for the Oregon Weekly Times of March 8, 1856 referred to him as the "agent of the Quartermaster's Department at the Cascades." The advantages of the newly constructed portage road were set out in the following advertisement which ran for a short time in the Portland Weekly Oregonian, commencing with the issue of February 9, 1856, and a news item in that issue stated that "a new road around the portage of the Cascades on the Oregon side has been completed and goods are now being transported on this side with safety and dispatch."