Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/454

 er, and the

Oregon, belonging to the Oregon Steamship Company, iron ships, built at Ches- ter, were the finest and most conspicuous.

The wheat exports required the services of 70 vessels, and 19 vessels were also engaged, either wholly or in part, for flour. The wheat reached 1,932,080 centals, worth $3,611,240; flour, 209,098 barrels, valued at $1,143,550. The total value of wheat and flour shipped both to domestic and foreign ports was $5.345400.

The following table exhibits the rise and growth of the wool exports:

1873 2,000,000 pounds

1874 2,250,000 pounds

1875 2,500,000 pounds

1876 3,150,000 pounds

1877 5,000,000 pounds

1878 6,500,000 pounds

1879 7,000,000 pounds

For 1880 the shipment of wheat was 1,762,515 bushels, valued at $1,845,537; flour, 180,663 barrels, valued at $891,872. The value of shipments to San Fran- cisco aggregated $4,500,000. The wool shipment was 7,325,000 pounds ; salmon, 472,000 cases.

For 1881, the value of wheat was $1,845,537, or 1,766,515 bushels.

The years of 1880- 1 were marked by the great business activity resulting from the construction of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company's lines, the section from The Dalles to Walla Walla to the Blue mountains and to Texas Ferry, then building. The Northern Pacific Railroad was running trains from Kalama to Tacoma and constructing the section of their road northeast of Ains- worth fifty-seven miles. The value of imports for this year are given is $486,208.

The following statements will show the state of business during 1882: "Pros- perity of business has been unparalleled. The commerce of the city has been constantly increasing during the past year. The tonnage of ocean steamers arriving at this port shows an increase of more than double the records of any previous year, many first-class steamships from foreign countries having made exceptionally prosperous voyages to and from Portland. Our regular ships ply- ing hence to San Francisco, have been constantly improving in character and increasing in number until the Portland line has become the busiest, most re- liable, and most profitable marine traffic from the city of San Francisco. The number of passengers carried on this line amounts to 5,000 or more every month, and freight averages 40,000 tons. The 'deep sea crafts' which visit our river prove the ignorance or malice of those who would represent entrance and navi- gation of the Columbia and the Willamette as perilous or impossible. There are now lying at our docks, vessels which will load to twenty-two feet drafts before slipping their hawsers, and make the open sea without danger or delay."

The Willamette river was much improved, and agitation for the improve- ment of the Columbia bar was begim. The following excerpt shows the general spirit prevailing at the time. "Every unprejudiced observer of this vigor and of Portland's relation to the surrounding country, says 'Portland ought to do the business of Oregon, Washington, and Northern Idaho.' The completion of an unbroken line having five hundred miles of railroad eastward, with Portland as its great terminal point, marks an era in our history which will only be eclipsed by the present year."

The year 1883 fully realized all the hopes that were raised by the construc- tion of the O. R. & N. Company's lines. Portland took long strides towards the pre-eminence naturally assured her by right of position. "It used to be said that three-fourths of our interior trade passed Portland, and was supplied by San Francisco. The past year has changed this condition of things so mate- rially, that possibly the conditions are reversed."