Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/768

 way eastward from that town, through a pass at the head waters of the Santiam river. From the summit, which is 4,377 feet above sea level, the descent was easy and from Des Chutes river the route laid out passed through a farming country equal in productiveness to the famous wheat-growing basin of the Columbia in Washington, taking in the Harney and Malheur valleys, running through a pass in the mountains to Snake river and thence to Boisé, there to connect with eastern roads. The road at Yaquina connects with the Oregon Development Company's line of stoamers to San Francisco. The last spike was driven January 28, 1887, on a railroad from Pendleton in eastern Oregon to the Walla Walla, and other extensions of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company's lines speedily followed.

The Portland and Willamette valley railroad is an extension of the narrow guage system of the western counties before described. It was carried into Portland along the west bank of the Willamette, in the autumn of 1887, and affords easy and rapid transit to the suburban residences within a few miles of the city by frequent local as well as through trains.

Portland improved rapidly between 1880 and 1888. It left off its plain pioneer ways, or all that was left of them, and projected various public and private embellishments to the city. It erected two theatres, and a pavilion in which were held industrial exhibitions. A beautiful medical college was a triumph of architecture. The school board, inspired by the donation of $60,000 to the school fund by Mr Henry Villard, indulged in the extravagance of the most elegant and costly high-school building on the Pacific coast, and several new churches were erected. Citizens vied with each other in adopting tasteful designs