Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/265

Rh sessed one-tenth of the energy and public spirit of these founders of the city, Portland would have been larger today than all the Puget Sound towns and cities combined.

Two important facts combined to locate the principal city of the north Pacific coast at this point. The first in importance was that of a ship channel from the Pacific ocean to this townsite; the second point was the farmer's produce. Without that there would have been no city here. Fort William, St. Helens, St. Johns and Linnton each had the first advantage equally with Portland, but they were left behind in the race because they lacked the other advantage. The other point was equally vital when the race for commerce commenced, for no matter how many ships could come in over the Columbia bar and come up the river, they must have some cargo to carry away. And they could only get that at a point where the farmer could come with his produce, and it must be the shortest practicable haul between the farm and the ship; and Portland alone of all the other points offered that advantage. Portland alone of all the other points could complement the end of the ship channel with the shortest wagon haul to the farm and could thus halt the ship where the wagon unloaded. In these days of railroads wagon transportation would cut no figure. But in 1845, when the railroads had not even then reached the Alleghany mountains from Atlantic tide water, the city must be where the wagons and ships could meet. The scattered farmers of the Tualitin plains of Washington county, hauling in their produce and hauling out their supplies through the old Canyon road, was a mighty factor in locating Portland as the chief city. And it is a notable fact that for more than half a century the people of this city and the people of Washington county have always stood shoulder to shoulder in all enterprises to promote each other's welfare. When it was proposed to build railroads up the Willamette valley more than forty years ago, Portland gave its support to the road that was to run west into Washington county, and gave nothing to the road that was to run south along the Willamette river. And years ago Portland built superb macadam wagon roads out to the Washington county line, and would have gone further west with them if the county line could have been pushed back.

The commencement of a great work has always commanded unaffected interest. And how much greater the interest is the founding of a city or a nation. The semi-fabulous story of Romulus and Remus founding the city of Rome more than twenty-five hundred years ago, has enlisted the attention of young and old, children and philosophers for thousands of years. And every reader involuntarily goes back, or tries to get back to the man who started a great movement, performed a great deed or founded a city or state. So it is with all the readers of this book. They are wondering what manner of man it was that selected this site, backed up against the rock-ribbed hills that flank north and south from Council Crest, and look out upon the grandest panorama of forests, plains, valleys, rivers and mountains that can be found on the face of the earth. They are wondering if it was an accident, or did that man think it all out by himself, and come here and drive down the first stake for Portland, Oregon, in the midst of the mighty forests.

After the native red man, according to all reliable evidence, the first white man to come upon this townsite and say, "This is my land, here will I build my hut, here will I make my home," was William Overton, a young man from the state of Tennessee, who landed here from an Indian canoe in 1844, and claimed the land for his own. He had not cleared a rod square of land; he had not even a cedar bark shed to protect him from the "Oregon mist," when one day on the return trip from Vancouver to Oregon City, he invited his fellow passenger, A. L. Lovejoy, to step ashore with him and see his land claim, which he did. The two men landed at the bank of the river as near as could be located afterward, about where the foot of Washington street strikes the river, and scrambled up the bank as best they could, to find themselves in an