Page:Wishram by Henry J. Biddle.djvu/1



The purpose of this article is to show the true location of that ancient Indian village, commonly referred to as Wishram, which was situated somewhere on that broken stretch of the Columbia River beginning at the Falls of Celilo and ending at the rapids a few miles above the city of The Dalles. This broken stretch of river consists of a series of falls and rapids, not continuous, but alternating with stretches of gentle current; and to each of these rapids names were given by the early explorers, and by those that followed them. The question is to ascertain, by a study of the old writers, and by a study of the topography of the region involved, on which side of the river, and on which particular rapid, Wishram was located. The writer has made this study, and, while he does not pretend to have exhausted every available source of information, he does not think that sufficient additional evidence will be discovered to change the conclusions, as hereafter expressed.

To understand the question, it is first necessary to know something of the locality. The first white men to visit it were those keen observers, and accurate map makers, Lewis and Clark; and a study of their map of the region will give as good an idea of its character as the description of any later writer. It is unfortunate that most of the editions of the Lewis and Clark narrative do not contain the maps made by the explorers. But the Thwaites edition has facsimile copies of them. While it would be difficult to print one with this article, yet an idea of the map can be given by reproducing the lettering in the position it occupies on the copy of the original. Imagine then the top of the map to be East, the bottom West, the river shown in the center, and the lettering on each side of the river as below.