Page:The Overland Monthly, Jan-June 1894.djvu/254



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Up the Columbia in 1857.

[Feb.

from the fact of its having been until recently the main trading post of the Hudson Bay Company. It was now headquarters of the Department of the Columbia, and distributing point for all the United States posts and forts of the Upper Columbia, and for the several Indian reservations. Colonel George Wright commanded the post. This was about three years after the massacre of whites at the Cascades, and two years after the subjection of the confederated

of the rapids. The captain and pilot, both at the wheel, watching every cur- rent and eddy, ran the boat up to the Middle Cascades, the highest point it could reach, into an eddy formed by a jutting mass of rocks, and made fast to the wharf boat on the Washington side. W T e transferred ourselves to a horse cai on Bradford's wooden railroad, buili along the river's edge, which took us the Upper Cascades, the scene of the massacre in March, i856. a

Photo by Watkins

THE DALLES OF THE COLUMBIA

tribes of Indians of the entire region of the Upper Columbia.

Between Fort Vancouver and the Cas- cades there are many views to delight the eye of the traveler, among which may be named Castle Rock, Rooster Rock on the Oregon side, about twenty- five miles below the Cascades, and a number of waterfalls. Horse-tail Fall, (now called "Multnomah") is one of the highest, it being 700 feet high. A portion of it only can be seen from the steamboat as you pass. Two miles more brought us to the village of Lower Cas- cades. We now entered the swift waters

The settlement consisted of Fergu- son's Hotel, the residences of Mr. Put. F. Bradford, Engineer Grenzebach, and three or four others. Bradford's store was on a small island, connected with the main land by a bridge, while higher up on the hill was the block house over- looking all. Bradford's store was a curi- osity ; it was built when the Indians were troublesome, and was a combined store and fort. They had quite an In- dian trade. The interior was so arranged as to admit but two or three persons at

J See " Phil Sheridan's First Fight." OVEKI.ANO for October 1889.