Marcus Whitman blazed the way across the continent for the first wagon wheels to cross the Rocky Mountains and to come into the Oregon country, less than a century ago. How swift has been the change since a member of Congress said to Marcus Whitman, "There cannot be made a wagon road over the Mountains; Sir George Simpson says so," whereat the intrepid pioneer replied, "There is a wagon road, for I have made it."
Only seventy-three years have elapsed since Fremont made his first expedition. There are men and women now living in our Northwest who participated in the Indian wars of the '50's. and escaped massacre and death by narrow margins, enduring untold hardships, and overcoming obstacles apparently insurmountable.
Theodore Winthrop came from California to Portland, a city of fifteen hundred souls, in 1853. He saw the beauty of this country, loved the great mountains, and admired the Gorge of the Columbia, writing to his sister, he said, "There is a feeling of grandeur connected with the mountains and forests and the great continental river of this country that belongs to nothing in the land of gold. . The Columbia is most imposing in its lower course, a great. Inroad, massive stream. Its scenery has a breadth and a wild power every way worthy of it. It will bear cultivation admirably; also and sometime—a thousand years hence—the beauty of its highly finished shores will be exquisite. * * * It is only lately in the development of man's comprehension of nature, that Mountains have been recognized as our noblest friends, our most exalting and inspiring comrades, our grandest emblems of Divine Power and Divine Peace. * * * Our race has never yet come into contact with great mountains as companions of daily life, nor felt that daily development of the finer and more comprehensive senses which these signal factors of nature compel. This is an influence of the future."[1]
Mr. James J. Hill, the empire builder, is continually calling to the people of the Northwest to "grow into the greatness of their natural surroundings." If the people of Oregon would do this in all respects, physically, morally, spiritually, look at the mountains, and behold! what Giants they could be!
- ↑ "The Canoe and the Saddle," edited by John H. Williams.
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