course of the river was such that a practicable communication could be obtained between it and the Umpqua through Smith River,[1] a northern branch of the Siuslaw. The exploration was conducted by N. Schofield. The object of the opening of the proposed route was to make a road from the Willamette Valley to the Umpqua, over which the products of the valley might be brought to Scottsburg, at the same time avoiding the most difficult portion of the mountains. But nature had interposed so many obstacles; the streams were so rapid and rocky; the mountains so rough and heavily timbered; the valleys, though rich, so narrow, and filled with tangled growths of tough vine-maple and other shrubby trees, that any road from the coast to the interior could not but be costly to build and keep in repair. The Siuslaw exploration, therefore, resulted in nothing more beneficial than the acquisition of additional knowledge of the resources of the country in timber, water-power, and soil, all of which were excellent in the valley of the Siuslaw.
Other explorations were at the same time being carried on. A trail was opened across the mountains from Rogue River Valley to Crescent City, which competed with the Scottsburg road for the business of the interior, and became the route used by the government troops in getting from the seaboard to Fort Lane.[2] Gold-hunting was at the same time prosecuted in every part of the territory with varying success, of which I shall speak in another place.[3]
- ↑ This is the stream where Jedediah Smith had his adventure with the Indians who massacred his party in 1828, as related in my History of the Northwest Coast.
- ↑ Deady's Hist. Or., MS., 25.
- ↑ Mount Hood, Indian name Wiyeast, was ascended in August 1854, for the first time, by a party consisting of T. J. Dryer of the Oregonian, G. O. Haller, Olney, Wells Lake, and Travillot, a French seaman. Dryer ascended Mount St Helen, Loowit Letkla, the previous summer, and promised to climb Mounts Jefferson, Phato, and the Three Sisters at some future time. He ascertained the fact that Hood and St Helen were expiring volcanoes, which still emitted smoke and ashes from vents near their summits. Oregonian, Feb. 25 and Aug. 19, 1854. The first ascent of Mount Jefferson was made by P. Loony, John Allphin, William Tullbright, John Walker, and E. L.
