Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/742



stock through Nevada, and purchasing old Fort Hall, which he resold to the government 3 years afterward. In 1869 he settled in Raft River Valley, Idaho, where he had a horse and cattle rancho. In the autumn he shipped the first cattle ever carried on the Central Pacific railroad from Humboldt House to Niles, Cal. He continued in this trade for several years longer, and in 1883 sold out his stock and land at Raft River for $100,000, bought 10,000 sheep and placed them on a range in Utah. After looking over new and old Mexico for land, he finally settled in Union co., Oregon, where he raises grain, and buys and sells cattle, an example of what can be done if the man knows how to do it. His real property lies in 4 different states and ter ritories, and he has $100,000 in live-stock.

Wasco county, named after an Indian tribe inhabiting about the dalles of the Columbia, was organized January 11, 1854, comprising under the act creating it the whole of eastern Oregon, these boundaries being reduced from time to time by its division into other counties. Its area is 6,250 square miles, of which about 80,000 acres are improved, valued at $1,700,000. The products of farms were valued at a little less than half a million for 1879, while the live-stock of the county was assessed at not quite two millions. The gross valuation of all property in 1881-2 was set down at about four and a half millions, and of taxable property $3,220,000. The population of the county at the tenth census was not much over 11,000. Wasco county pos sesses a great diversity of soil, climate, and topography. There is a large extent of excellent wheat land, and an equal or greater amount of superior grazing land. More sheep and horses were raised in Wasco than in any other county, while only Baker exceeded it in the number of horned cattle. The Dalles is the county seat of Wasco. Its name was first given it by the Hudson s Bay Company, whose French servants used a nearly obsolete word of their language dalle, trough or gutter to describe the channel of the Columbia at this place. By common usage it became the permanent appella tive for the town which grew up there, which for a time attempted to add used. To the dalles, which rendered a portage necessary, the town owes its location. It was founded by the methodist missionaries Lee and Perkins, in March 1838, abandoned in 1847, taken possession of by the U. S. military authorities, partially abandoned in 1853, and settled upon as a donation claim in that year by Winsor D. Bigelow. During the mining rush of 1858- 65 it became a place of importance, which position it has continued to hold, although for many years under a cloud as to titles, as related in another place. It was incorporated January 2G, 1857. It was once contemplated establishing a branch mint at The Dalles for the coinage of the products of the mines of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana. Such a bill was passed by congress, and approved July 4, 1864. An edifice of stone was par tially erected for this purpose, but before its completion the opening of the Central Pacific railroad rendered a mint in Oregon superfluous, and the build ing was devoted to other uses. Down to 1882 The Dalles w r as the transfer point for passengers and freight moving up and down the river, but on the completion of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company s line from various parts of the upper country to Portland, a large portion of the traffic which formerly centred here was removed. Yet, geographically, The Dalles remains a natural centre of trade and transportation, which, on the comple tion of the locks now being constructed at the Cascades, must confirm it as the commercial city of eastern Oregon. The Dalles has several times suffered from extensive conflagrations. The last great fire, in 1879, destroyed a million dollars worth of property. A land-office for the district of The Dalles was established here in 1875. The lesser towns and settlements in Wasco county are Cascade Locks, Hood River, Celilo, Spanish Hollow, Bake Oven, Lang s Landing, Tyghe Valley, Des Chutes, Mount Hood, Warm Spring Agency, Antelope, and Scott. There are a number of other post-offices in Wasco county as it was previous to the division into Crook and Wasco in 1882, which I have not put down here because it is doubtful to which county they belong. \n
 * city to Dalles, but relinquished it, since which time The Dalles only is