Vancouver, Washington

“ VANCOUVER: Oldest city in state; settled in 1824 by the Hudson Bay Company. It slopes gently towards the Columbia river, visible from all points. To the north are the prune orchards for which Clarke county is noted, and the English walnut seems to have found its ideal habitat. Adjoining city are the Vancouver Barracks, occupying 640 acres of land, 300 of which constitute a natural park with many winding roads. State schools for the deaf and the blind are located near. What is said to be the oldest apple tree in the Northwest still thrives. ”

“ PRINCIPAL CITIES AND TOWNS. Vancouver has a population of about 8,000, and is rapidly growing. It is the county seat, and is connected with Portland, Oregon, by a trolley line. The Northern Pacific, Union Pacific, Oregon Railroad & Navigation and North Bank railroads all compete for its traffic. It is the central distributing point of the county, and is the United States military headquarters for Washington, Oregon and Alaska. It is well represented in business establishments, including barrel factory, fruit cannery, ship yard, iron foundry, shoe factory, and others. ”

“ Above Vancouver, for a distance of twenty miles, there are many beautiful situations all along on the Washington side, though the country is timbered heavily. The southern shore is lower: the Sandy—a stream coming down from Mount Hood—having its entrance into the Columbia above and opposite Vancouver, through alluvial, sandy bottoms. Beyond this the whole surface of the country becomes elevated, and we are among the foot-hills of the Cascade Mountains. ”

“ Yet Vancouver must always remain the chief town of its county, and possess a good trade from the agricultural country back of it, which is already pretty well settled up, owning assessable property to the amount of a million of dollars. ”

“ Green fields, sometimes fringed with willows, near the waterfront, and dotted with orchards, farm houses, and dairies, are visible as far as the eye can see. These evidences of man's encroachments are noted all the [58] way to Vancouver (and beyond) , at which city, the oldest in the state, a tourist should linger long enough to appreciate the [59] region which arrested the attention of our earliest settlers and inspired the beginning of the first city in Washington. A bridge, costing nearly two million dollars, will soon connect it with the beautiful city of Portland. ”

“ They continually recalled to us the surprise of some of the early explorers at seeing an uncultivated country look so much like a garden. We were told that much less rain falls here than on the American side; the winds depositing their moisture as snow on the mountains before they reach Victoria, which gives it a dryer winter climate.
Vancouver, in his narrative, repeatedly speaks of the serenity of the weather here, and says that the scenery recalled to him delightful places in England. He felt as if the smooth, lawn-like slopes of the island must have been cleared by man. ”

“ All Vancouver's friends, patrons, and officers—lieutenants, pursers, pilots, and pilot's mates—are abundantly honored in the names scattered about this region. He appears, too, to have had a good appreciation of nature, and praised, in his report, the landscape and the flowers. He regarded somewhat, in his nomenclature, the natural features of the country; as in Point Partridge, the eastern headland of Whidby Island; Hazel Point, on Hood's Canal;158 Cypress Island, one of the San Juan group; and Birch Bay, south of the delta of Fraser River. ”

“ Vancouver had a greater number of academies in proportion to its population in 1885 than any other town in Washington. The Sisters' House of Providence, established in 1856, was the oldest academy then in the territory, besides which the methodists and episcopalians had a eminary, and the catholics a boys' school, in addition to the public school. ”

“ Vancouver failed in the same way to discover the Fraser, the great river of British Columbia, although he actually entered the delta of the50 river, and sailed about among the sand-banks, naming one of them Sturgeon Bank; while the Spanish explorers, who were there about the same time, recognized the fact of its existence far out at sea, in the irregular currents, the sand-banks, the drift of trees and logs, and also in the depression in the Cascade Mountains, which marks its channel. ”

“ Vancouver called it Deception Pass and he gave Whidby's name to the large island thus made known.
[241] Vancouver's boat expedition had traversed much of the waterway between Vancouver Island and the mainland. The Spaniards reported the probability of a large river. Vancouver declared it impossible. Later the Fraser River was discovered from the land side and traced to its mouth where the Spaniards had thought it to be.
[242] William Robert Broughton was associated with Vancouver as commander of the armed tender Chatham on which consort this journal written. ”

“ Northern Idaho, through to Fourth of July Canyon.
Long Lake, 30 miles northwest, $8,000,000 dam.
See also "Spokane Country" under the "Inland Empire."
WALLA WALLA: (Many Waters.) The "Garden City," at one time said to "have more bicycles, more pianos, more flowers, and more pretty girls than any other city in the Northwest." Population 23,275. One of the richest farm regions in the world is adjacent. Next to Vancouver, oldest city in the state, and home of first white woman in the Northwest. Picturesque hills, with gentle slopes, usually covered with waving grain, surround it ”

“ In these wanderings Winthrop visited the young communities of the Northwest, Portland, Salem, Vancouver, The Dalles, Olympia, Nisqually, Steilacoom, Port Townsend, Victoria. He studied its scenery, resources and people. He quickly won the regard of pioneer leaders, army officers, Hudson's Bay Company factors, and of the humbler settlers as well, by a hearty democratic appreciation of the meaning of their work in founding future states. ”

“ The legislature of 1854 also required their delegates in congress to endeavor to procure an appropriation of $50,000, and a section of land in each township along the different territorial roads, to be located by the road commissioners, to aid in the construction of these highways and the necessary bridges. It asked, moreover, for $30,000 to be expended in opening a practicable wagon-road from Vancouver to Steilacoom; for $25,000 for a military road from The Dalles to Vancouver ”

“ DOCUMENTS A New Vancouver Journal
In this portion of the new Vancouver journal (continued from the July Quarterly) we find the party arriving at Nootha and participating in the diplomatic negotiations there with Bodega y Quadra.
It is gratifying to note that the publication is attracting attention. One who has manifested an especial interest is Judge F. W. Howay of New Westminster, British Columbia. He is well known as a student and writer in the field of Northwestern history. ”

“ Thence down the Columbia and up the Cowlitz, across to Fort Nisqually and Puget's Sound, visiting the Cowlitz farm and the sheep ranch—a four days' journey from Fort Vancouver brought them to the company's steamer, the Beaver, on which they set out for the posts of the Pacific coast and Sitka—that coast trip now familiar to thousands of gold-seekers. ”

“ Vancouver's chart Johnstone's Arm. When we got near the Villages, which chiefly lye on the Southern Shore several canoes came off with Otter Skins to sell. Their demand was here as at Cape Classett-Copper or Blue Cloth, Musquets and Powder. Several of the Indians were habited in European Cloathes on most of which was a profusion of Metal Buttons, and of Musquets, there was scarce a canoe that we saw that had not two or 3 in it, and in excellent order. On the 18th by desire of Captn: Vancouver we parted from the Discovery to look into an Arm to the Northwd. ”

“ Equally delightful are the little voyages over the main traveled waters of the Sound from Seattle or Tacoma to Olympia and Shelton, to Bremerton, Everett, Bellingham, Anacortes, Port Townsend, and Port Angeles; also out to the ocean or through the San Juan Islands to Victoria and Vancouver in British Columbia. The mountains are always in sight although not so close as on the Canal trip, and there passes a continual procession of groves, hills, pebbly beaches, rocky palisades, gardens, orchards, green meadows, and summer homes. ”

“ Two miles and a half south-west of the town is the site of a United States military post, now abandoned. The prospect from this high bluff is remarkably fine. To the north-east, and nearly on the 49th parallel, is Mount Baker, with its ragged, double peak fretting the heavens. Far to the south-east is Mount Rainier, the most beautiful peak of the northern Andes; on the west, the Olympian Range; on the east, Whidby's Island, spread out like a garden; and across the straits, San Juan and Vancouver's islands dimly visible. ”

“ By act of congress approved July 2, 1862, 30,000 acres of land for each senator and representative to which the states were respectively entitled was granted for agricultural colleges. Under the provisions of this act the legislature of 1864-5 passed an act establishing Washington College at or near Vancouver, and vested its government in a board of trustees, of which the governor was ex officio a member. ”

“ Vancouver, Broughton's Archipelago. [242] In this business we were employed upwards of a week. We met with but few Indians (the populous part of this Sound being the So. side) they had all of them skins and for the first time we got from them plenty of excellent Salmon. On the 29th we again join'd the Discovery, she had since we left her, been at anchor off a very large Village call'd by the natives Whanneck, the chief's name was Cathlaginness, it was numerously inhabited but they were subject to Maquinna the chief of Nootka Sound ”

“ After getting outside, by desire of Captn: Vancouver, we parted company with the Discovery, in order to examine an opening in the N. W. quarter, whilst she proceeded up an arm to which the Continent had been brought, to the Eastd. of Port Quadra. We cross'd [Pg 137] the Streights with a fine Breeze, and entered the opening about 6 o'clock in the evening and came to an anchor for the night. In the morning boats were dispatched to examine the branches which run within this opening, which employ'd us till the 23rd. It is very extensive being full of Islands. ”

“ This is the route by which cattle and sheep are driven from the great pastures of Eastern Washington to the markets of the Sound and Vancouver's Island.
Seattle is built upon the face of rather a steep slope; is pleasant and cheerful-looking, and contains about twelve hundred inhabitants. The Territorial University is located here, and is a fine structure—so situated that it can be seen for a long distance up and down the Sound. Seattle has a great extent of wharfage, which impresses us with the conviction of its business capacities. ”

“ The Methodist Episcopal mission on the Willamette was begun by the Lees in 1834. In 1836 Dr. Whitman and Rev. H. Spalding with their wives—said to have been the first white women to cross the mountains—had begun their work among the Indians, as did also two Roman Catholic missionaries in 1838—while a chaplain, Rev. Mr. Beaver, and his wife, had come from England to supply the spiritual wants of Fort Vancouver. More than a decade of Christian [Pg 204] teaching, it will be seen, had failed to eradicate superstition and savagery from the native character ”

“ The Pacific Highway extends from the southern limit of the state of California to Vancouver, British Columbia, twenty-seven miles north of Washington's boundary line, a total distance of about two thousand miles. ”

“ With an energetic and indomitable spirit, his capacious mind conceived and pushed forward every kind of improvement for the advancement of commerce and the benefit of civilization. With only seven head of horned cattle and others which he imported from California, by good management and perseverance, he stocked the whole of the Oregon territory, until they had increased to thousands. He built saw mills and cultivated an extensive farm on the beautiful prairie of Fort Vancouver. Subsequently he laid the foundation of Oregon City, where he built a splendid grist mill. ”

“ The Land Offices for Washington Territory are at Olympia, at Vancouver, and at Walla Walla." It is only in the List four or five years that Oregon has thoroughly realized the importance of railroads to progress. ”

“ Already they have most of the things that make citizens pleased and proud—a beautiful site, fine streets, the most splendid of public parks, water-ways innumerable in front, and, behind, a country good to look at and rich in potentialities. Vancouver's industries, even if they do not justify the size of the place, are important and prosperous; and its propinquity to the salmon fisheries and vast timber tracts of British Columbia is something which alone would make a great town. In tone it is new world compared with Victoria, but old world compared with Seattle. ”

“ They catch the earliest hint of sunrise, they hold the last color of sunset. Twin mountains they are, lifting their twin peaks above the fairest city in all Canada, and known throughout the British Empire as "The Lions of Vancouver." Sometimes the smoke of forest fires blurs them until they gleam like opals in a purple atmosphere, too beautiful for words to paint. ”