character, or both, they relinquished the station to the Presbyterians, who held it at the breaking out of the Cayuse War in 1847. On this occurrence the whole country east of the Cascades was abandoned by all missionaries of Protestant denominations, and Dalles was converted into a military station, the mission buildings having been burnt down.
When the Donation Act was passed, giving missions the ground previously occupied by them, the Methodists laid claim to a portion of The Dalles. The government, however, had appropriated a portion of the claim for a military post, paying for the part thus taken. The Presbyterians then disputed the claim, on the ground that they were in possession at the breaking out of the war, which compelled them to quit the place, and had never abandoned it, but had a right to return at the cessation of hostilities. The question of ownership has, however, been satisfactorily settled by the claim of the town being recognized by the government as superior to any of these.
The mining rush to Idaho in 1862–63 gave The Dalles its first start. It has now a good trade, and ought with its fine situation to become a place of importance. There are many attractive homes here, but not the appearance of thrift which might be expected. The Dalles is hoping to have a boat railway from the foot to the head of the Dalles Rapids, the government engineers having made a favorable report upon the project, which is to be accomplished by means of hydraulic lifts at each terminus, the lower to raise the boats sixty-eight feet, and the upper one forty feet, at low water. The lifted boat will be lowered upon a car, and transported by rail to Celilo, the track being of very heavy iron, but of ordinary gauge and double track. Thirty-four wheeled trucks, placed in two lines of seventeen each, are expected to have sufficient flexibility to pass over the curves in the road; and nine hundred tons is the maximum weight to be carried, including the car. Two fifty-ton locomotives will do the hauling. The estimated cost of the whole system, with equipment of two cars and four engines, capable of passing eight loads of six hundred tons both ways in twelve hours, and including the necessary buildings, with ten per cent, for contingencies, is two million six hundred and ninety thousand three hundred and fifty-six dollars. It is also in contemplation to
