Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 25.djvu/241

Rh Gibson that "Col. Ruckel tells me he can take over 175 tons per day after Monday." The Dalles Mountaineer of July 23 stated further that

"The repairing of the Cascades railroad is now completed and the arrangements are such as to admit of passing two hundred tons of freight over the road daily. With another week it is expected that the capacity of the road will be equal to the transmission of three hundred tons daily. In that event the steamers Idaho and Hassaloe will both be placed on the line. With all these facilities the Company will be able to deliver at our landing an average of eighteen hundred tons of merchandise per week. * * *"

This is from the pen of C. H. Hall who was on his way to the Clearwater mines and was written on July 26, 1862:

"It really seemed like once more going to 'America' as we passed over Col. Ruckel's road where we had once more the pleasure of being dragged through the mountain gorges on a train of cars drawn by an actual, live, smoking, panting, fire-breathing 'iron horse.But the company is constructing a much more substantial road on the Washington side and from the number of men employed we should conclude that ere another season opens, freight and passengers may be transported from Portland to Lewiston,a distance of about four hundred miles entirely by the Company's steamers and railroad cars. * * *"

And this, written in the late fall of 1862 is the testimony of Lieutenant Mullan, the builder of the Mullan wagon road from Walla Walla to Missoula in the early sixties:

" * * * Herring portage of the Cascades, heretofore so great a bugbear in the trip from The Dalles to Portland, is now made in a brief hour on the cars, without detriment or danger. An extra dollar for riding on the cars is charged, though, if you prefer it, you can walk on the road in nearly the same time, free of cost. No traveler passes over the portage without awarding to Colonel Ruckel every praise for the bold prosecution of his bold project, and no one begrudges his the ample reward