Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 25.djvu/266

228 demnation," in addition to the refund of the $400 paid into court in those proceedings.

During these years the Oregon Steam Navigation Company had not been unmindful of the value of its Oregon Portage property, and of the danger to the company's interests which would result from its getting into the control of competitors. Although a passing traveler in 1869 in recording his impressions along the way, wrote down that "at the head of the rapids is the terminus of the old Oregon railroad, built many years ago as a link in an opposition line of transportation but now in the last stages of dilapidation and decay," this condition can hardly have been reached at that time, for John W. Stevenson, already mentioned as employed on the railroad until 1870, assured the writer that the line was kept in repair throughout his connection with the property. After the "June rise" of 1870 in the Columbia was over, at a meeting of the directors of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company held July 20, superintendent and chief engineer of railroads John W. Brazee was ordered to immediately repair the damage done by the high water of that season to the Oregon Portage Railroad, and to make all necessary repairs thereon. Similar instructions were given him on July 6 of the following year, "so that the railroad shall be in working order."

The Northern Pacific Railroad Company surveyed a route along the Oregon bank of the Columbia and made a proposal in November, 1872, to purchase a right of way through the Oregon portage. That company had early in the preceding spring obtained control of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company by purchasing three-quarters of its capital stock. They may have at this time intended to make use of the Oregon Portage lands and of course they would do so if their line were built upon the Oregon side of the river. A price of one hundred thousand dollars