am credibly informed, that the steamer Okanogan paid the entire cost of herself on her first trip. It makes my head swim now, as memory carries me back to those wonderfully rushing days, when the constant fall of chinking coin into the coffers of the company was almost like the flow of a dashing torrent. The Oregon Steam Navigation Company had become a millionaire-making machine.
The price of freight from Portland to The Dalles, about 100 miles, was $40 per ton; from Dalles to Celilo, 15 miles. $15 per ton; from Dalles to Wallula, $55 per ton; and from Portland to Lewiston, $120 per ton.
All freight, excepting solids, such as lead, nails, etc., were estimated by measurement, 40 cubic feet making a ton.
Passage from Portland to The Dalles was $8, and 75 cents extra for meals. From Portland to Lewiston passage was $60, and meals and beds were $1 each. Now the price of freight between Portland and The Dalles on farm products by boat is only $1.50 per ton ; for passage, $1.50, and 25 cents for meals. By the railroad, freight on farm products between Portland and The Dalles is $1.50 per ton, and passage $2.75; between Portland and Wallula, by rail, freight on farm products is $3.30 per ton; passage, $8.50. Between Portland and Lewiston, by rail, freight on farm products is $4.25 per ton; passage, $14.60. At the present time freights are classified, some classes being much higher than the products of the farm. Yet, notwithstanding the astounding reduction in rates, transportation companies of to-day are thriving and prosperous.
H. D. Sanborn, a merchant of Lewiston in 1862, informed me that among a lot of freight consigned to him, was a case of miner's shovels. The case measured one ton, and contained 120 shovels. The freight, $120 per ton, made the freight on each shovel $1.
A merchant at Hood River said that always before the railroad was built freight from Portland to Hood River. 85 miles, on a dozen brooms was $1.
