and also guided a portion of the immigration of the following autumn into the Willamette Valley by this road, arriving in good season and in good condition, while the main immigration, by the Dalles route, partly on account of its number, suffered severely. This established the reputation of the Klamath Lake road; and the legislature of this year passed an act for its improvement, making Levi Scott commissioner, and allowing him to collect a small toll as compensation for his services. The troubles with the Cayuses, which broke out in the winter of 1847, and which but for the Oregon volunteers would have closed the Snake route, demonstrated the wisdom of its explorers in providing the mountain-walled valleys of western Oregon with another means of ingress or egress than the Columbia River;[1] their road to-day being incorporated for nearly its whole length with some of the most important highways of the country.
In June 1847 a company headed by Cornelius Gilliam set out with the intention of exploring the Rogue River and Klamath valleys, which from this time forward continued to be mentioned favorably on account of their climate, soil, and other advantages.[2]
- ↑ Applegate says: 'It is a well-known fact that when it was necessary to meet the Oregon rifle regiment in 1849, then on its march to Oregon, beef-cattle could not be driven to Fort Hall by the Snake River route with any beef on their bones; yet the regiment slaughtered at Fort Hall fat bullocks from the Willamette, kept fat by the abundant pasturage of the southern route.' Views of History, MS., 49. See Ross' Rept., in Or. Jour. Council, 1857–8, App. 19; Overland Monthly, v. 581.
- ↑ I find in McKay's Recollections, MS., 2, a reference to the ubiquity of the Americans. He says: 'Shortly after my arrival (1844) I was ordered into Oregon to join Mr Paul Frazer, who has established a station for the Hudson's Bay Company near the mouth of the Umpqua River. Mr Frazer was alarmed at the influx of American immigrants into his immediate neighborhood from different parts of the United States. Several trains arrived overland during the autumn. On account of this many of the Indians had shifted their location, hunting was neglected, and our business very poor.' Herewith I give the names of those belonging to the immigration of 1846, so far as I have been able to gather them:
Levi Anderson, J. C. Allen, John B. Albright, Elijah Bristow, Elijah Bunton, David Butterfield, John Baker, Hugh L. Brown, Jesse Boone, W. P. Breeding, George William Burnett, J. H. Bosworth, Alvin C. Brown, Orus Brown, D. D. Bailey, G. W. Bell, M. Brock, Sutton Burns, William Burns, Elisha Byrd, William Byrd, sen., William Byrd, jun., L. A. Byrd, Brisbane, Rev. J. B. Baldrauch, Jairus Bonney, Truman Bonney, A. Boon, William P. Bryant, J. H. Bridges, Heman C. Buckingham, Alphonso Boone, Tolbert
