The Spalding party, which had been left in Powder River Valley to travel more slowly with the livestock, arrived safely, by what trail across the Blue Mountains we do not now know. The northeast bastion of the fort was assigned to the Spaldings for sleeping quarters; bunks for beds and blankets for bedding. Access to these bastions was by stairs from inside the stockade. The fort stood in a desolate place, exposed to frequent and strong winds blowing from the southwest through the scenic gorge, now called Wallula Gap; winds still dreaded by every housewife in the city of Walla Walla, thirty miles away. The site had been selected as it was a strategic point for the trade with the Indians, and as it was above high water mark. No flood yet known in the river has ever reached it, not even that of 1894.
The earlier travelers referred to by Mrs. Whitman as having much less favorable travel conditions were Jason Lee and his associates in 1834. But let Mrs. Whitman tell the story.
"Sept 2 Have busied myself today in unpacking my trunk & arrangeing my things for a visit to Vancouver. Mother will
wonder at this & think me a strange child, for wishing to add
three hundred miles to this journey not from necessity but because my Husband is going & I may go, as well as to stay here
alone If we were obliged to go on horseback I think I should
not wish to undertake it, but we are going in a boat, & it will
not take us more time than six days to go there. A very agreable change & I think I shall enjoy it better than to stay here
alone. I feel remarkably well & rested, do not need to lounge
at all & so it is with us all. I can scarcely believe it possible of
myself but it is true. I feel as vigourous & as well able to engage in any domestic employment as I ever did in my life. Covered a stock yesterday for my first work here for Husband I
have not yet introduced you to the Lady of the House.[1] She
is a native From a tribe east of the mountains. She appears well
does not speak English but her native language & French The
- ↑ Mrs. Pierre Chrysologue Pambrun, of Cree descent; a frequent visitor at Mrs. Whitman's home during the next five years. Some of her great-grandchildren, now living, became students at Whitman College eighty years later.
