Page:Willamette Landings.djvu/22

 sula that thrusts like a wet thumb between the Columbia River and the upper mouth of the Willamette. For several years Kelley made urgent appeal to East Coast dwellers, seeking to enlist west-bound settlers who would bring to reality his dream of an Oregon empire. This appeal served to fire the imagination of one Easterner, Nathaniel J. Wyeth, also of Boston, who in 1832 and again in 1834 led an expedition across the continent to set himself up in business as a trader in the new country.

Ignoring Kelley's townsite, Wyeth built Fort William (around which he hoped to establish a town) on the west side of Sauvie or Wappato Island. But circumstances moved against him and he retraced his way eastward, never to return.

In 1829, Dr. John McLoughlin, anticipating needs not to be supplied by the soil or wilderness bounty, laid claim to the area immediately adjacent to the east shore of the river at “the Falls.” Because of settlement on French Prairie, where wheat-raising was begun, a flour mill was needed. To make the operation of one feasible, the Hudson's Bay Company, in 1832, blasted out sufficient rock from the fall's eastern fringe to clear a narrow but free-flowing mill-race. A flour mill and sawmill were soon in operation. In the middle 'thirties three log cabins were erected and a field planted to potatoes. McLoughlin, in 1840, found it expedient to establish a trading station there, for the receipt of furs and the issuing of supplies to the Hudson's Bay Company trappers.

Strategically situated on the main water artery up the Willamette Valley, the Falls soon became the principal trading point and overnight stop for travelers. Portage of boats and supplies around the falls was necessary; usually one night was spent in rest. There Jason Lee, and his companion missionaries, tarried for sleep on trips up and down the river in 1834 and after. There evangelizing members later returned to establish a mission.

In 1841 Lieutenant Wilkes wrote in his report: “We reached the falls about noon where we found the missionary station under charge of Rev. Mr. Waller. The Hudson's Bay Company have a trading post there and are packing fish which the Indians catch in great quantities.”