of the year 1889, the greatest amount of capital of any season up to that date
had been spent in improvements.
FOREIGN COMMERCE AND SHIPS.
With the discovery of gold in Oregon the trade and business of the country not only took on a great revival and growth in every respect, but it also changed much in character. Prior to the discovery of gold in California there had been but little money or trade in Oregon, and that was confined almost wholly to the population existing here and largely dependent on the sale of furs and the wants of the incoming immigration from the states. The gold mines of California made at once a demand for Oregon lumber, the first that was ever shipped from this country; and also a demand for Oregon flour and fruit. On this point Scott's history remarks :
"From 1849 until about 185c;, and even later, the trade in Oregon produce and lumber became exceedingly remunerative. One of the ship captains who made it a great success was Couch. He arrived on his third trip from Massachusetts at San Francisco in 1849, with the Madonna, and sold what lumber he had on board at the fabulous price of six hundred dollars per thousand feet. Five hundred dollars a thousand was for some time the regular market price. The Madonna came up to Portland and thereafter made regular trips under command of Captain Flanders now of our city. Stimulated by the great demand for lum- ber, mills began to spring up along the lower Willamette and a heavy export trade was continued. Lot Whitcomb and Captain Kellogg, at Milwaukie, operated a saw mill and regularly despatched vessels to the Golden Gate, carrying their own lumber and also that of other mills, for which they received a hundred dollars a thousand as freight. The exact amount of lumber thus exported during these years is not known, but together with shingles, puncheons, poles, timbers, hoop-poles, shooks and staves, aggregated a value of many thousand dollars.
Under the stimulus of enormous prices and unlimited demand Oregon pro- duce began to be gathered likewise and sent below. Butter at two dollars a pound, beef at one dollar, wheat, potatoes and other vegetables, at correspond- ing figures, were eagerly brought from all parts of the Willamette valley and shipped at Portland or other points on the lower Willamette and Columbia. To meet this growing commerce, sailing crafts became multiplied, and steam communication was soon demanded. The Pacific Mail Steamship Company, of New York city, under the presidency of Aspinwall, had in 1849 sent the old Pacific through the straits of Magellan for Astoria, but she stopped at San Francisco. In 185 1 she was followed by the old Columbia, a side-wheeler of about six hundred tons, which reached the mouth of the Columbia river and stopped at Astoria, After this she made regular trips between San Francisco and the Columbia river, coming finally as far up that stream as St. Helens. In the latter part of the same year the Gold Hunter came up from San Francisco, tmd being purchased by the town proprietors and other citizens, first connected our city by steam with the outer world.
There was no product of our valley which met with a greater demand than the Oregon apple. Orchards were exceedingly few, and in 1850 to 1855 the trees were so young that even the total aggregate of the entire Willamette valley was not large. People from the eastern and middle states, who had been accus- tomed to this fruit, and in crossing the plains or sailing around the horn, or via the isthmus, when they had been compelled to live upon fried bacon or salt beef, with little or no fruit or vegetables, were ravenous for the beautiful red or golden apples that grew large and fair in the Oregon rain and sunshine. They were willing, especially if their belts were full of "dust," to give almost their weight in gold for the apples. A dollar apiece, and even five dollars for a big one, was a regular price in the earliest days. The first shipment was made from the nursery of Luelling & Meek, at Milwaukie in 1853. This was a consignment
