which yielded from twenty to fifty dollars a day. Nor were the mines the sole attraction of this region: the country itself was eagerly seized upon; almost every quarter-section of land along the streams was claimed and had a cabin erected upon it,[1] with every preparation for a permanent residence.
About a dozen men wintered in the Powder River Valley, not suffering cold or annoyed by Indians. This valley was found to contain a large amount of fertile land capable of sustaining a large population. It was bounded by a high range of granite mountains, rising precipitously from the western edge of the basin, while on the north and south it was shut in by high rolling hills covered with nutritious grass. To the east rose a lower range of the same rolling hills, beyond which towered another granite ridge similar to that on the west. The river received its numerous tributaries, rising in the south and west, and united them in one on the north-east side of the valley, thus furnishing an abundance of water-courses throughout.
In this charming locality, where a little handful of miners hibernated for several months, cut off from all the world, in less than four months after the snow blockade was raised a thriving town had sprung up and a new county was organized, a hundred votes being cast at the June election, and the returns being made to the secretary of state as "the vote of Baker county."[2] The Grand Rond Valley had always been the admiration of travellers. A por-
- ↑ Ebey's Journal, MS., viii. 237–8.
- ↑ 'They assumed to organize,' said the Statesman of June 23, 1862, 'and named the precincts Union and Auburn, and elected officers. One precinct made returns properly from Wasco county.' The legislative assembly in the following September organized the county of Baker legally by act. Sydney Abell was the first justice of the peace. He died in May 1863, being over 50 years of age. He was formerly from Springfield, Ill., but more recently from Marysville, Cal. Portland Oregonian, May 28, 1863. At the first municipal election of Auburn Jacob Norcross was elected mayor; O. M. Rowe recorder; J. J. Dooley treasurer; A. C. Lowring, D. A. Johnson, J. Lovell, D. M. Belknap, J. R. Totman, aldermen. Or. Statesman, Nov. 17, 1862. Umatilla county was also established in 1862.
