Pacific Northwest

“ The physical geography of the Northwest shows a country so rich and varied in diversity of surface, of wide plains, smiling valleys, dense forests, broad rivers and rushing torrents, that the influence of the face of nature is inspiring. We look from some high mountain summit over the grand forests and valleys of our country, watching the clouds chase their shadows across the gorges and canyons, and, as the voices of the swaying pines, the murmur of a torrent or roar of some unseen waterfall falls upon our ear, our minds are full of thoughts that words fail to express. ”

“ In this one hundred years since Simon Fraser's exploration of the Fraser River, the whole Pacific Northwest has grown Wonderfully in population and in civilization. The days of centennials, beginning with that of Gray's discovery of the Columbia River, show that while the long ago of this part of the continent is comparatively new, its traditions are those of a hardy, a brave, and an intrepid people. ”

“ Through his assiduous reading and thought on the most fundamental interests in human experience he saw in clear perspective the course of change down through the centuries. The meaning of the occupation by the white man of the Pacific coast in all its relations was clear to him. As he had grown up with the country he was doubly at home in the discussion of any phase of the history of the Pacific Northwest. ”

“ The North Pacific coast is the most anomalous of the North American areas, and its history is in many ways unique. It is nearer in miles to the Southwest and Mexico than is the Northeast, yet agriculture and pottery never reached it. At the same time the Northwest culture is obviously more than a marginal [388] one. ”

“ It will have a natural basis, address itself to natural problems, unite those in co-operation whom nature has joined, and result in increased strength and prosperity. The isolation of the Pacific Northwest from the rest of the world and the natural unity of the region create for it peculiar problems of transportation, markets, and manufacture. ”

“ We may hope that study of our Pacific Northwest history will now and henceforth receive the wide attention it deserves. Not the least, therefore, of the grounds upon which we ought to welcome the coming centennial of exploration is the educational work in our own history that it will effect among us. The inspiration of their past is the greatest of motives for a progressive people. ”

“ As much as Wisconsin and the states of the Pacific Northwest have reason to be grateful for such supreme talents spent in recording and interpreting their histories, it must be said, in consideration of the tremendously wider capacity of this man, that, however important regional chronicles may be regarded, he was qualified beyond all men for a particular kind of achievement of much greater significance. ”

“ The realness and directness of this problem in the Pacific Northwest is seldom realized. Our deforested areas are great and growing, but of even more peculiar significance is our unparalleled opportunity for making them quickly profitable to the community. ”

“ The heart of man of the Western races expresses his responsive glow in them. As a nation, we have our Lincoln and Washington birthdays, our Memorial day and Fourth of July to appeal to the best in us. But in this Pacific Northwest there are traditions peculiar and environment that is unique. ”

“ But to go back to the beginning of a journey from Portland to and through West Washington. The Northern Pacific (Branch) road skirts the Wallamet highlands and river for fifteen or twenty miles, the traveller getting glimpses of each, and of Sauvé Island, as he rushes past old homesteads whose sacredness the "steam eagles" of civilization have invaded, the iron track often cutting in twain blooming orchards, now laden with the promise of a rich harvest. There certainly never were such cherry-trees as grow in the Northwest ”

“ In this region, therefore, this far northwest territory of the United States, we find the highest elevations on the North American continent. The mountain ranges of California and Montana unite with the Rocky Mountains, and turning to the south and west form the Alaska Peninsula, finally disappearing in the North Pacific, except where a high peak appears now and then, raising its rocky crest above the sea, like a giant standing breast-high in the ocean, and thus they form the Aleutian chain of treeless islands, which stretch away westward towards the opposite continent. ”

“ No large city has grown up in the Northwest on the site of the great water powers of the Columbia, Fraser, Willamette or smaller streams. Also, excepting Victoria and New Westminster, no large city has grown up on the site of the trading posts of the Hudson's Bay Company or the villages first started by the American settlers in the Willamette valley or on Puget Sound. ”

“ The government should seek that passage, and having found it should establish naval stations in the North Pacific, say near California, and in the South Pacific, say at the Isle of Easter. From these stations as centres, explorations should be made throughout the great ocean, north and south. He believed there were thousands of islands, perhaps continents, still to be found there and these were doubtless peopled with tribes waiting to be supplied with British goods. ”

“ Origin of Cook's third voyage. We have now reached an important turning point in the history of the Northwest Coast. The British, through the earlier explorations already mentioned, had developed an extraordinary interest in the Pacific. Cook had explored Australia and New Zealand, great land masses occupied by numerous aboriginal tribes; numerous smaller islands had been found especially in the South Pacific, so the dream of Arthur Dobbs was beginning to take on some of the features of reality. ”

“ Paul, Northern Pacific, Oregon Shortline and Southern Pacific railroads had all reached Pacific coast terminals, and in consequence the great Northwest had gained remarkably in population, wealth and volume of trade and commerce.
In the Willamette valley the water power afforded by the streams of the Cascades and Coast ranges served to operate the early wood working and flouring mills, the woolen mills and small [300] manufacturing plants, but on Puget Sound it was more economical to operate the saw-mills by steam where the ships could reach the docks easily and quickly. ”

“ The varied experiences of life in the Northwest have developed in him a sane and sweet philosophy, perhaps nowhere better set forth in his writings than in his poem “Pacific’s Pioneers,” read at a reunion of the founders of the state a few years ago, and with which I close this brief and inadequate sketch:
“PACIFIC’S PIONEERS.
“A greeting to Pacific’s Pioneers, Whose peaceful lives are drawing to a close, Whose patient toil, for lo these many years, Has made the forest blossom as the rose. ”

“ Like the climate of California, it is everywhere. If you enter the State by the Southern Pacific you have one whole day, at least, of mountain views greatly excelling in variety and interest the crossing of the Sierra Nevadas, and a lovely ride through the Wallamet Valley after it. If you come by the Union Pacific, you have the Columbia River views, whose grandeur I have but faintly indicated. By the Northern Pacific you are brought in view of an extraordinary and wonderfully extended panorama, including lakes, plains, the crossing of the Cascade Range, Puget Sound, and West Washington. ”

“ As we reach the Rocky Mountains, we would be unwise did we not pass the narrow space which separates the mountains from the ocean, to secure advantages far greater than the existing advantages of all the country between the Mississippi and the mountains. Sir, our national boundary is the Pacific Ocean. The swelling tide of our population must and will roll on until that mighty ocean limits our territorial empire. ”

“ The two sides of our great sprawling continent, the East and West, differ from each other almost as much as day differs from night. On the coast of southern California the dominant impression made upon one is of a world made up of three elements—sun, sea, and sky. The Pacific stretches away to the horizon like a vast, shining, gently undulating floor. Its waves are longer and come in more languidly than they do upon the Atlantic coast. ”

“ Westward the sun hung like a red shield, close to the horizon, over vast reaches of prairie billowing to the sky-line in the tide of a boundless ocean. Such was the discovery of the Canadian Northwest.
Doubtless the weary gaze of the tired voyageurs turned longingly westward. Where was the Western Sea? Did it lie just beyond the horizon where skyline and prairie met, or did the trail of their quest run on—on—on—endlessly? The Assiniboine flows into the Red, the Red into Lake Winnipeg, the Lake into Hudson Bay. Plainly, Assiniboine Valley was not the way to the Western Sea. ”

“ Fewer and still fewer of her people return East, to spend their hard-earned fortunes; and the generation now growing up there regard the Coast as their natural home, and love it dearly. Proud of the soil and enamored of the climate, they expect great things of the future, and surely all the world should wish them well. There are no better or braver men, than our citizens there generally, and the Pacific slope is safe in their hands and brains, beyond peradventure. ”

“ Next morning, an hour after sunrise, through the blaze of light striking the Pacific across the far-off Californlan coast, San Juan showed like a flake of spar on the horizon to southward.
The sea all there is of an impossible blueness, the Pacific blue deepened by the Kuro Shiwo current, that mysterious river of the sea which floods up the coast of Japan, crosses the Pacific towards Alaska, and sweeps down the West American seaboard to fan out and lose itself away down somewhere off Chile. ”

“ We need hardly allude to the commercial advantages of the territory. Its happy position for trade with China, India and the Western Coast of America. The growing importance, however, of the islands of the Pacific is not so generally known or appreciated. ”

“ Of course he who "takes a run over to California" from, the East, predetermined to be back in his office or shop within five or six weeks from the day he left home, can not see the Columbia River and Puget Sound. But travelers are beginning to discover that it is worth while to spend some months on the Pacific coast; some day, I do not doubt, it will be fashionable to go across the continent; and those whose circumstances give them leisure should not leave the Pacific without seeing Oregon and Washington Territory. ”

“ The waters of the North Pacific are among the world's great fishing grounds, and the offshore banks of Washington, its salt water inlets and bays, and its coastal rivers are of leading importance in this region. Convenient to the coast of Alaska, the Aleutian chain, and the Bering Sea, Washington ports are outfitting, processing, and shipping headquarters for the whole vast Northern Pacific area. ”

“ There is a marked difference between the people who came to the Pacific coast by sea and those who crossed the continent, that is not accounted for by the fact that one class came from the Atlantic seaboard, and the other from the western frontier ”

“ I say the man is alive, full grown, and is listening to what I say, (without believing it, perhaps) who will yet see the Asiatic commerce traversing the North Pacific Ocean—entering the Oregon River, climbing the western slope of the Rocky Mountains, issuing from its gorges, and spreading its fertilizing streams over our wide-extended Union! The steamboat and the steam-car have not exhausted all their wonders. ”

“ These nations are at present the British, whose possessions of Canada secures them access to the north-western desert of America, the Americans, who have free access to the wilderness that lies between their territories and the Pacific Ocean, and the Russians, whose immense empire borders on the north-west coast of America, giving them ample opportunities, which they have duly improved, of establishing settlements on its shores ”

“ After striking the Yellowstone Valley the ride westward becomes pretty. The mountains are bold, with fine outlines, often lifting in picturesque precipices from the water's edge. Great strata of coal are frequently seen stretching in level parallel lines for considerable distances. Snow appears in seams and gorges on the loftiest heights. While not offering as grand displays as are seen in one or two points of other across-the-continent roads, the Northern Pacific presents more varied scenery, and far more that is pleasing and restful to the eye, than any other except the Canadian Pacific. ”

“ The warm "Chinook" winds from the Pacific coast, coming through the mountain passes, temper the cold, making the balmy atmosphere favoring grass and animals alike. The Pacific route follows the Bow River Valley into the heart of the mountains, with magnificent snow-covered peaks all about, their saw-like edges, gaunt crags and almost denuded surfaces justifying their name of the Rockies. ”

“ While the Atlantic thus formed a long north-and-south rift across the inhabited world at the period of the great discoveries, the Pacific, strewn with islands and land-rimmed at its northern extremity by the peninsulas of Alaska and eastern Siberia, spread a nebula of population from the dense centers of Asia across to the outskirts of America. ”

“ If the Northwest be plain like a picture in your mind’s eye, you can recall how in the far North the Cascades and Rockies are intermingled, and how, as we come down through British Columbia to our own soil, they gradually separate, slope apart, so that by the time they reach the latitude of Portland, Oregon, a wide, flat domain lies between them. ”