In 1869 the Oregon and California Railroad, from Portland to Sacramento, was commenced; but so late in the season that but twenty miles of road were completed that year. The following year it reached Albany, seventy-eight miles from Portland, and in 1871 had been pushed as far south as Eugene City, at the head of the Wallamet Valley. By the time these pages are in print, it will have been completed to Oakland, in the Umpqua Valley, one hundred and eighty-two miles from the starting-point at East Portland. At the same time, it is advancing from the south, being now completed to Tehama, one hundred and twenty-three miles north of Sacramento. Thus the six hundred miles of staging between Portland and Sacramento are being rapidly reduced, so that in another year only a day of staging will remain to vary the monotony of railroad travel.
This road receives from the General Government a grant of land amounting to 12,800 acres per mile, and becomes proprietor of nearly all the unclaimed lands in the valleys through which it passes. By very just and equitable regulations, however, the owners of these lands, called "The European and Oregon Land Company," have placed it in the power of actual settlers to select and occupy homesteads on their lands, and pay for them on exceedingly easy terms.
The second great railway in Oregon is the Oregon Central Railroad, commencing at Portland, on the west side of the Wallamet, and running to Junction City, at a point between Corvallis and Eugene. This road will also control a large amount of land; and will have a branch to the Columbia River at Astoria, or at some point in Columbia County, or both, opening up a great extent of valuable timber, mineral, and farming lauds.
