Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 25.djvu/282

 .•* • 244 JOHN TILSON GANOE There was nothing enticing about such an aid as this. Capitalists could not be induced to finance a $30,000,000 road with only a loan of $40,000 a year as a maximum guarantee for such a short period. Yet Barry and Gaston were themselves largely to blame. It is probable that the State could not have done much more but the ease with which the money could be raised as indicated by Barry's facile pen did not show that the company needed a great deal of aid. Barry estimated that the annual earnings of the road would be $5,600,000. If the oper- ating ratio was not too high, the earnings as figured by him, would take care of the interest so the only aid needed from the legislature would be a small aid the first few years. The company had tried to gain the proceeds of 500,000 acres of land granted to Oregon for internal improve- ments, but this bill had been indefinitely postponed. 10 1. Route: 11 The route of the Barry survey caused no little dis- cussion. Places in the Willamette Valley cried against it because, as they said, it did not go through the Willamette Valley. 12 The beginning of Col. Barry's survey was at Jacksonville. Through the Umpqua Mountains he re- ported two passes, one by Grave Creek which involved a one hundred foot per mile grade and the second by Trail Creek, which although he did not examine thoroughly, he thought would be better. From thence he went through the Umpqua Valley, winding among the hills with a grade not exceeding eighty feet per mile; from the Umpqua he crossed the Calipooiahs at Applegate's Pass instead of by Pass Creek as Elliott had done; from there down the west side of the Willamette through the Tualatin Plains. He realized that Portland must be the terminal of the company and showed that several passes of the Ik 10 Lavas and Journals, 1864. 11 A photostatic copy of the Barry survey has recently been made and is now easily accessible. 12 Notably the State Journal of Eugene.