Travelers' descriptions and assessments of the state of things.


    Reluctant is the first day of 1854 to let in the warm and cheering beams of the sun, heavy clouds of fog hovering over the hills and valleys, with the whiteness and almost the density of snow. Perhaps nature is a little ashamed to reveal to the sun of progress her many gentle acclivities, dotted with meager ordure, where a thousand fruits and plants of the temperate and tropical climes should eventually flourish. But,
    "High above the sun of glory glows," and ere long he shall scatter the mists of the morning, and the distant mountains shall at evening reflect the smile of his departure, and the winter flowers shall receive into their bosoms a ray of warmth and hope that shall cheer them through the long and chilly night till he comes on the morrow to add a new leaf or blossom to their poetical life. . . . 
    We have a climate so entirely different from that of the Atlantic coast that I think we may reasonably expect to ripen fruits and vegetables as dissimilar, and if Oregon was settled by a people accustomed to a like climate in another latitude our productions would be of quite another sort. We can as yet scarcely appreciate to what extent and diversity of natural production our climate is applicable, owing to the newness of the settlement, and the lack of enterprise in determinating on the capabilities of our soil and climate. He who lives twenty years hence I fancy will see a vast change in this respect. If there is a country in the world adapted to perfect independence, it is this.
    The settlers in this country are making considerable improvements on their claims, and you will no doubt hear next summer of some pretty handsome yields of wheat and other vegetables. I presume that there are not less than 3800 acres of wheat sown in this county the present season.
Douglas Co., Jan. 1, 1854.
Oregon Spectator, Oregon City, January 28, 1854, page 3


    GENTLEMEN:--After this long silence, I proceed to improve the passing moment by giving you a few items in relation to the Coos Bay enterprise.
    Two years have passed since first I found my way into this new region. A year and a half ago I told you of its existence, and of the progress I had then made in its exploration. The bay was here then--the stone coal was here--the white cedar timber was here--and the gold washers. But the resources of nature, like the marble in the quarry, lay dormant. The wild savage was the lord of the soil and the sea, and the white man was as unknowing to the place as its natives were to him. The scene is now changed. Five miles from the mouth of the bay Empire City is located, and before its wharf vessels are lying, discharging their freight and receiving their lading. Small boats are plying from it to all parts of the bay: and pack trains and wagons are loading at it with supplies for the gold diggings, which are only a few miles off. In a word, we have here a city which already presents the appearance of an active seaport town.
    You will recollect that I told you in a few years all this would come to pass. You then doubted it, and so did many others. When raising and forming Coos Bay Company, at Jacksonville last spring, I stated the same. I told them that all these resources were here, and I showed them specimens. They believed it only in part. I told them what would be the result of a settlement here; but they doubted my predictions. Yet they tried the experiment, and the result has exceeded the expectations of all. Indeed, the Coos Bay and Coquille country present at present the most fruitful field of enterprise anywhere to be found on our great western border. The bay is large and beautiful--the climate is salubrious--the soil unusually productive--its resources for superior white cedar timber, and for stone coal of excellent quality are unsurpassed--while it is here that the northern extremity of the California and Rogue’s River coarse gold range terminates. As a mining region there is, in our opinion, no field in which the laborer is at once so richly rewarded for his toil, so comfortably situated, and so readily and cheaply furnished with supplies, as in the Coos Bay diggings.
Shasta Courier, Shasta, California, March 4, 1854, page 2


    We gather the following mining news from our latest exchanges. From the Mountain (Yreka) Herald:
    SALMON CREEK.--Miners are doing well on this stream.
    KLAMATH RIVER.--Miners at Hamburg and other places on this stream, from whom we have recently heard, are making good wages at present.
    SCOTT RIVER.--This river has yielded largely since September, 1850. A friend writes from Scott's Bar that some of the bank claims have paid first-rate this winter; among others those of Galahan & Co., Warney & Co., and Hill & Co. Messrs. Neal & Co., working a hillside claim above the Tennessee Bar, have been making some fine strikes lately. Operations had been impeded by bad weather and high water. Many miners who had left to seek winter diggings had returned.
    HUMBUG CREEK has yielded well every season. It is thought that it will yield as much gold this summer as it has any one season since the first.
    DEADWOOD CREEK.--The new diggings on the main creek below the junction of Deadwood and Cherry creeks have proved to be very rich; and in that vicinity there will be a large amount of gold taken out this season.
    GREENHORN CREEK continues to pay good wages. The diggings are tolerably extensive. Most of the water which we now have for mining purposes in the Yreka diggings comes from this stream.
    YREKA DIGGINGS.--Placer diggings, the richest and most extensive ever discovered north of the Trinity range of mountains. The prospective yield will be immense in comparison with the past.
    As yet there has none of these mines been worked except with the scanty proportions of water from Greenhorn and the gulches afforded in the wet season. There is an area of country from Greenhorn Creek to the Shasta River, a distance of about six miles by about one in breadth on an average, all of which, with an abundance of water for sluicing, will pay largely. This will afford work for many thousands of men for many years.
    We have at this time a fair prospect of a good supply of water from the Shasta River, through the Yreka Water Company's flume, within one year from the present time. The sawmill will be in operation in a few days, and the flume will be commenced shortly thereafter. When this work is completed we may confidently expect to see all kinds of business more flourishing, and money more abundant, than at any time since the discovery of Yreka Flats in March, '51.
    BARKHOUSE CREEK empties into the Klamath west of Yreka, is newly discovered, and thought by many to contain extensive diggings. This summer will, however, prove the matter, as there are many miners at work at present on that stream.
    INDIAN CREEK.--There are several streams of this name in the north, on all of which gold has been found, but not in sufficient quantities to pay over $2 to $3 per day to the hand.
    COTTONWOOD.--Placer diggings next in importance to those of Yreka, and unsurpassed for richness by any in the country. They derive their water from Cottonwood Creek by means of two ditches. There is a large area of auriferous deposits in and about Cottonwood which are being worked at present to good profit.
    JACKSONVILLE.--The mines in this vicinity are rich and extensive. Want of water has prevented extensive working. The enterprise of bringing the waters of Applegate Creek to these diggings has been long talked of, and will eventually be accomplished.
    ROGUE RIVER.--The bars are auriferous, but few have been worked advantageously.
    SAILOR DIGGINGS.--Extensive placer diggings, supplied with water from Illinois Creek by two races.
    ALTHOUSE and Sucker creeks are of considerable mining importance. The former yielded largely in places last summer, and will be worked successfully in the bed of the stream the coming season. The latter is generally bank diggings.
    NEW DIGGINGS.--A correspondent, writing from Jacksonville, Oregon, says that new surface diggings have been discovered near Fort Lane, which bid fair to prove rich and extensive. The miners there are doing exceedingly well, better than has been done since the first discovery of gold in Rich Gulch, some two years ago. It is thought this region has not been fairly prospected. Rich diggings are said to have been discovered on Rogue River, below the "ferries," and several gentlemen of Jacksonville have gone to visit them.
Sacramento Daily Union, March 27, 1854, page 2





    FAT PASTURES.--The Oregon correspondent of the Maine Farmer remarks that the native grasses which cover the face of the country in Southern Oregon are of the most nutritious kinds, and cattle that have made the journey across the plains, and were reduced to the last stages of leanness, will become in the course of six or eight months, on grass alone, so fat as to render even moderate locomotion a positive annoyance. This may seem tough to the farmers of the East, who are obliged to pursue a long course of stall feeding to prepare their stock for market.
The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., June 7, 1854, page 1


    Trinidad, in 41°10', about 12 miles below the mouth of the Klamath, is a small port, open to the south winds, but deep, and possessed of an excellent anchorage. The town had its origin in the Gold Bluff excitement in the fall of 1850. The bluffs lie between the town and the mouth of the Klamath, but is not wrought now. The place has no great resources. It is regularly visited by the Oregon steamers.
    Crescent City, in 41°45', is on the south side of Point St. George, which juts out about three miles west into the ocean from the general nearly north-and-south line of the coast. The harbor is small, shallow, rocky, open to the south, and possessed of poor holding ground. Vessels have to lie about half a mile from shore. The harbor might be made secure by an expensive breakwater. There is a rich but small mining, farming and lumber country in the vicinity; but the place cannot rise to much importance, unless, as is said to be fact, a good road can be constructed to the mines in the Rogue River and Klamath valleys. The Oregon steamers stop at Crescent City regularly.
    Port Orford harbor, in 42°45', is open to the south, but is deep, of good size, and has a good anchorage. There are a few mines in the vicinity, but no tillable land, and the prosperity of the place must depend on the possibility of constructing a road to the Rogue River mines. The Oregon steamers touch regularly.
    Coos Bay, in 43°30', is small and secure, but the bar has only 9 feet water. The coal mines are as yet the chief resources, and they are prospective in their character. The Umpqua River has a bar of 15 feet at its mouth, but inside the water is deeper, and the protection from the winds excellent. The town of Scottsburg is some distance up the river, and is accessible by means of a small steamer.
"Seaports of California and Oregon," Daily Alta California, San Francisco, July 15, 1854, page 8


    We have received a long and highly interesting letter from Judge McFadden, of Oregon, which we shall lay before our readers next week.
Washington Examiner, Washington, Pennsylvania, July 15, 1854, page 2


    MESSRS. GRAYSON & HART.--Gentlemen:--I had intended [to] furnish a second letter for the readers of the Examiner from the Pacific Coast before this; but the pressure of official engagements, and the excitement incident to a settlement, together with the labor of putting in a large crop, have, up to the present time, prevented me from complying with my own wishes. In my last, I promised you something on the subject of Oregon--her climate, agricultural capacity, and the inducements presented for immigration. It is somewhat surprising that so little reliable information is to be had in the States on the subject of Oregon. The party seeking for a home in the Great West, should he cast his attention towards this point of the Pacific Coast, begins to hunt up some reliable facts necessary to determine his intention; or, should he have concluded to come, then to settle the question as to what part of the territory he should come--whether to Willamette--the Umpqua, or Gold River Valley--(formerly called "Rouge [sic] River," from the redness of the banks but changed by the last Legislature to Gold River) but where to post himself with the required information is a difficulty not so easily settled. The people cannot have access to the report of Wilkes; an occasional letter from a friend in Oregon, which has managed to get into the papers, will sometimes throw a little light upon the subject. The newspapers of the territory have been so thoroughly engrossed in settling the great and absorbing questions connected with party politics that they, as a general thing, could not devote much space to this subject, so that as far as my knowledge extends, the intelligent immigrant has been unable to purchase a respectable treatise on the country in any book store in the States. I do not intend to supply the deficiency, had I the information necessary. I have not, at present, either inclination or time; but, having promised some of our friends something on the subject, I will occasionally give you what little light I can reflect--regretting that someone competent to the tasks has not, before this, imposed upon himself the duty--laborious, perhaps, it would prove, but certainly profitable to the country.
    Oregon Territory, as your readers well know, is bounded on the west by the Pacific Ocean, north by the Columbia River, and the 46 Parallel of North L. The settled portion of it, on the east by by the Cascade Range of Mountains, south by California. The principal rivers are the Columbia, Willamette, Umpqua, and Rouge or Gold River. The first, until a short time since, has furnished the only entrance to the heart of the country. The entrance is difficult, and sometimes dangerous, for sail vessels. They, however, are of such a character as can be obviated to a great extent by the construction of a lighthouse, buoys, signals, &c. When the government shall have discharged its duty to the interests of commerce in this quarter, and a good and sufficient steam tug shall be employed in towing in and out the vessels engaged in the commerce of this river, it will be entirely safe. With the ocean steamers, now engaged in running between Portland and San Francisco, but little danger is to be apprehended. The Columbia is a bold and magnificent stream--lined upon either side with high bluff hills--and the traveler is greeted with the sight of but little arable land. In ascending the river, the first object which arrests his attention is the venerable village of Astoria--bearing the name of a successful speculator of the Empire State, and immortalized as it has been by Irving, the traveler feels a peculiar interest when his attention is first directed to a few houses in the distance by some more knowing one with the exclamation, "That, sir, is Astoria!" It is a small village--the principal interest being, as I supposed from the indications, the lumber business. It is, also, a port of entry. It is still claimed by many that the place will be one of great commercial importance.
    There are several small towns on the river, between Astoria and Portland; the most promising is perhaps St. Helens--here a wharf has been erected by the Pacific Mail Steamship Co., and, I believe, they intend for the future to discharge their freight and passengers at this point. Should the traveler, in passing up the river, be favored with a clear sky, and be somewhat disposed to romance, here is certainly a fine field; he is, also, greeted with a very fine view of the celebrated mountain peaks Mount Hood and St. Helens. Hood is in Oregon, St. Helens in Washington. The Indians have a tradition that, at the Falls on the Columbia River, these celebrated mountain peaks were once joined together--that the "hias chuck," or big water, ran underground between them--that, upon a certain time, old Mount Hood, for reasons now not easily divined, became "hias sullix"--very wroth-- with his chere amie, and, in their struggles, the earth was broken up, and this mighty river of the mountains, from that time to this, has continued to separate their loves; and, although Helen has, from time to time, given evidence of contrition, and signified her discontent by volcanic jets of fire and flame, but Old Hood obstinately refuses to receive her to his embrace.
    I am assured, by close observers, that, at the junction of the Cascade Range, where the river passes through, there is strong evidence that this powerful stream did once seek its channel beneath the surface of the earth--that Nature, in her convulsions, has rent asunder the rocky barrier, and given an outlet to the Pacific ocean for this mighty stream of water.
    But, passing from the romance of the Indians to the matter-of-fact of civilization, we find ourselves safely landed in Portland. I was somewhat disappointed--expecting to see a larger place. There is a considerable amount of business done here, and I think the place gives promise of future greatness and commercial importance. It is emphatically a New England town. The citizens are enterprising and intelligent. I had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of many of them during my short stay in the place, and found them remarkably kind. From Portland, which is situated on the Willamette, I took the small steamer which runs from Portland to Oregon City, distant some eight miles. This is the oldest city in Oregon. The finest available water power of which I have any knowledge is here furnished by the falls in the Willamette. Oregon City has considerable wealth, and quite a heavy trade with the interior; but her future wealth and greatness is in her great manufacturing facilities. She is destined, in the future, to be the Lowell of the Pacific. The citizens are hospitable, and very obliging to strangers. I had the pleasure here of meeting with, and making the acquaintance of, Dr. John McLoughlin--whose long connection with the Hudson Bay Co. is familiar to your readers. He, some years since, severed his connection with the company, and has taken upon himself the character of an American citizen. He is an intelligent gentleman of Irish descent, although I believe a Canadian by birth. Much feeling was attempted to be excited against him for his alleged bad treatment of the early emigrants. The better opinion seems to be that he was much wronged; and, if reports speak half the truth, the conduct of some of the early emigrants--who were without the means of subsistence, and at the mercy of relentless savages, except as they derived the means of subsistence and protection from the company's agent--was not very creditable to them. An effort has been made to deprive him of his land claim--a most valuable one, being the site of Oregon City--but justice and right are likely to triumph. I, also, had the pleasure of meeting, in this place, J. K. Kelly and S. F. Carter, both of whom are Pennsylvanians. One represented the district in the Council, and the other in the Legislature. I had the pleasure of spending 3 days, whilst here, with Gen. McCarver, whose residence is some two miles distant from the city. He has been engaged for some years in the nursery business, and I assure you I was much gratified in the inspection of his fruit. His apples took the premium at the Fair in San Francisco. I think it would be hard to find any one of the Atlantic States which will surpass Oregon for her delicious fruits; and, more especially, apples and pears. It is said peaches do well. I can see no reason why they should not. Fruit trees are much easier cultivated here, and commence bearing fruit much sooner than in the States. The pear tree here commences to yield about as soon as the apple, and, tasking what little horticultural knowledge I possess, I think such is not the case in Pa. There are several very fine nurseries in the Willamette Valley, where almost every species of tree and variety of fruit are cultivated. The business has proven very profitable, and the recent demand for the supply of the California market has been so great that nurserymen are tasking their energies to supply the market. The Willamette Valley is by far the largest valley in Oregon; and, to say the least, is a most beautiful valley, and possesses great agricultural capacity. All the best lands in the valley have been appropriated, and to get anything of a desirable claim now is out of the question, unless a big price be paid. All the early emigrants in this valley hold each a section of land, or 640 acres. Under the Donation Act of Congress, no legal sale can be made of this land until after a patent issues; consequently, the purchasers are under the necessity of securing title by residence and cultivation for four consecutive years, or, by the amended land law, after a two years' residence, and the payment to the government of $1.25 per acre. This donation--intended originally for the advancement of the interests of the country--works badly, and will paralyze for years the energy and enterprise of the citizens. Now that all the desirable claims have been taken, Congress should at once pass a law giving to the settler the option of paying $1.25 per acre and taking his patent at once, or securing his title under the Donation Act. This would do more to advance the interests of this country than anything else. As it stands now, the emigrant pays from $500 to $1000 for a land claim, and, by virtue of his purchase, he secures merely a possessory right, and is under the necessity of securing title by an actual residence of from two to four years. It is to be hoped, however, that this present Congress will do something. The Willamette River is navigable for steamers up to Marysville, from the falls, some 140 miles; and, in high stages of water, perhaps still higher up. The stream has a rapid current, and requires engines of great power for small steamers.
    The climate of Oregon is delightful. The winters are exceedingly mild--barring a couple of weeks of cold weather, from which no great inconvenience would arise if a little preparation were made for it. The wet season is certainly not very pleasant, and is apt to produce an unfavorable impression upon one who has not experienced any of her clear sunshines and balmy atmosphere. Many vegetables may be grown the year through. The heat during the spring and summer, from ten o'clock to two, is quite as great as in Pa., and I think perhaps, greater; yet, about 2 P.M., we have what is called a sea breeze, which makes it delightful. The nights are the finest in the world for sleep--cool and pleasant. It must have been on nights such as we have here that Sancho Panza was induced to give utterance to the ejaculatory petition, "Blessed be the man who invented sleep."
    Passing up the valley, at its head you cross the Calapooya Mountains--a kind of backbone dividing the Willamette from the Umpqua. The Umpqua is a most singular country to be designated as a valley. It is a succession of small valleys surrounding small buttes, as they are called here (with us, in Pa., hills). Some of these are exceedingly beautiful, and one desiring isolation can here be favored to his heart's content. It is fast filling up with an enterprising class of settlers. For grazing purposes, it cannot be surpassed, and to the raising of stock is the attention of the people principally directed--although I believe the country, at least some portions of it, is well adapted to the raising of grain. The principal difficulty which they will have to encounter in this department of labor, will be to find a market. Northern California and Southern Oregon will be able, in a year or two, to supply the demand, or nearly so, within their own limits from the produce of their own farms. In addition to this, for the supply of any deficiency, the Umpqua will find a strong competition in the importations by way of Crescent City; yet, in either case, every pound of flour packed to this market will cost, for packing alone, seven and eight cents. This gives to the farmers of Gold River Valley the control of the trade, so far as they may be able to supply it. The people of the Umpqua Valley have an outlet to the Pacific by way of the Umpqua River. The harbor gives promise of being a good one. Should such prove to be the case, and the ocean steamers put into that port, it will open up a great thoroughfare through the Umpqua and Gold River valleys to Northern California. White I am now writing, a company from California are here making the necessary arrangements for a line of stagecoaches to run from Gold River Valley to Yreka, in California. This will be extended either to Scottsburg, on the Umpqua, or to Crescent City, a port on the California coast.
    Gardiner, I believe, is the name of the town at the mouth of the Umpqua, which is regarded as the port of entry. Col. [Collins/Colin] Wilson, one of our Washington County citizens, was appointed Collector for this port, under the Administration of Mr. Fillmore. I learned, as I came down to this valley, from Jesse Applegate, that prior to his return to the States, he intended visiting this section of Oregon; but immediately upon my arrival here, I was informed he had taken his departure for the States. He is spoken of most kindly here by all with whom he became acquainted; and, perhaps, no man ever left the country who occupied a higher place in the affectionate regard of his friends than did Mr. Wilson, as a gentleman and as a faithful public officer.
    In my next letter, I will have something to say of Gold River Valley, the most beautiful, and by far the most desirable of any which I have seen on the Pacific Coast.
    In my last, I spoke of the strong penchant of our people here for more sea room on this coast. The Walker Expedition you made familiar to your readers. The expedition, wild and adventurous as it was, with all the arrangements illy digested, has proved, as everyone who knew anything upon the subject, anticipated it must--an abortion--yet it may be regarded as a premonition of what public feeling is here upon the subject. The last mail brought me the proceedings of the state Democratic Convention of Pa. The result is what I anticipated--with Bigler, Black and Mott--all good men and true, the good old party in Pennsylvania can't do otherwise than triumph. Black, whether as a gentleman or a jurist, is a man of whom the Democracy of Pennsylvania may well be proud; and Bigler has faithfully and honestly discharged the duties of his position. That he may receive the endorsement of the great Democratic Party of Pennsylvania, on the second Tuesday of October next, is the earnest desire of every true friend to the party.
    Respectfully and truly yours, MAC. [O. B. McFadden]
Washington Examiner, Washington, Pennsylvania, July 22, 1854, page 2




    Before the signal gun had called our passengers on board from Crescent City, the fog had so lifted from the sea and land as to reveal the ship at her anchorage and the points and forest trees of the shore both north and south. A fine country appeared to open toward the mountains, while here and there the house of a farmer dotted the skirts of the forest along the beach to the south. To the north, one rock after another stood out to sea, both to warn and guide the mariner among the sunken reefs that lie in wait along that shore.
    Fortunately for us the fog remained lifted long enough to enable us to pass between one of those reefs and the shore, soon after rounding the point that shut the city from our view, thus saving a circumnavigation of several miles. But hardly had we made the last rock which served as a pilot through the reef, when the cloudy curtain dropped again around us, completely shutting out all view of the shore. In three hours, however, the curtain was again opened, and the first mountains and bluffs, receding vales and wooded ranges of Oregon burst upon our view.
    The sudden clearing of the sea and shore was soon accounted for by the northwest breeze that freshened rapidly into a gale of wind, driving fog banks far behind us. But the scenery along the shore relieved us of the sickness into which the plunging of our ship would have hurried us. Off Rouge [sic] River (improperly printed Rogue) we clearly discovered, near nightfall, the tents of miners encamped on the beach, the golden sands of which they are engaged in washing. The character of the people at the settlement, as we learned from a passenger, abundantly sustains the misnomer by which the river is commonly called. We wondered not, when we saw its isolated location, and knew that not a woman blessed the place with a home, nor a preacher with a Sabbath.
    About eleven p.m. we came to our anchor off Port Orford. The steamer had been expected, and a night fire that had been kept burning for her guidance into port was still burning near the beach. Our signal gun was answered from the shore by the bursting of a pine log, the pioneer gun of Oregon! Soon a lighter from the beach was receiving freight from the steamer, while boatloads of shoremen boarded us with news from the mines! The town was deserted, and gold excitement at its height! The El Dorado had at last been found! We said nothing, but laughed in the dark as "Gold Bluff" loomed up in our memory, and Trinidad town lots, once sold at a premium, revived on the ear! [The writer in the previous installment had visited Trinidad, then a ghost town.]
    We awoke next morning in the fog again. Before noon, however, its gradual lifting revealed the shore, dim in the distance, and a sail to seaward, bound in to the Umpqua--a great relief to the tedium always experienced the day before a voyage ends. The shore, as we approached it during the afternoon, presented the same range of densely wooded hills, occasionally relieved by an opening of green, and occasionally by a deep winding valley that marked the course of a small mountain stream. Not a house, nor a fence, nor even a curl of wigwam smoke betrayed one dweller in the solitude. But the track of the red man could be traced in the vast leafless and almost limbless forests, scathed and destroyed all along the coast by his mountain fires. The track of a thousand storms, too, and the deep impressions on the tumultuous waves could be traced in the bold bluffs that lifted themselves up to their violence, and in the isolated or associated rocks, of every shape and size, that had been worn and ruptured from the shore.
T.D.H., "Letters from Oregon," The Pacific, San Francisco, August 11, 1854, page 2. The three-part letter began in the July 21 issue, and concludes on August 25.


    The length of the following communication would preclude its appearance, did it not contain a vast amount of interesting information in relation to the coast north of us, which will render it valuable as a matter of study and of reference. The communication is furnished by N. Scholfield, Esq., a surveyor and geologist of well-known ability and scientific attainments:
    On returning from a few months residence at the Umpqua River and its vicinity, in Oregon, during which time I have traveled from two to three hundred miles along the coast, and have also made some incursions in the interior, I propose to give our readers a sketch of some of the geological and mineralogical features of the portion of the coast visited by me, as well as some practical observations relative to the beach gold washings, which occur along the shore in occasional deposits throughout the whole distance.
    I left San Francisco in February last, on board the steamer McKim, bound for Coos Bay, but, encountering very rough weather, and experiencing severe gales, we were tossed about for eight or ten days, and considered ourselves fortunate in reaching Crescent City, about one hundred and fifty miles south of our destination. Here a few of us procured mules, and proceeded up the coast by an unfrequented trail, through a country which, till recently, had been totally uninhabited except by Indians, and these were now in a state of excited hostility on some portions of the route. Here, then, our journey begins. I need not trouble you with the incidents of our travel, some of which were fully sufficient in interest and excitement for our own amusement, but will pass to the visible portrait of this "terra incognita."
    Crescent City is situated on the southerly side of a low promontory extending from the great Coast Range; the extremity of this promontory forms Cape St. George, and consists of table land, elevated some fifty or sixty feet from the surface of the ocean. This table is underlaid by igneous unstratified rock, which appears mostly in boulders, as shown by the bluffs where they have become denuded by the disintegrating action of the sea, and by boulders composing a reef extending outward. On the north side, this promontory consists of low sands, and in the interior is a shallow laguna of considerable size. The southerly side, at the site of the town, consists of low timber land, scarcely elevated above the possible reach of running tides, or such as are always remembered in old countries by the "oldest inhabitant."
    Looking southerly, we see the mountain gorge, where the Klamath debouches to the ocean, some ten or fifteen miles distant, and the "gold bluff," of notable memory, some ten miles further, while Trinidad Head, about forty-five miles, appears dimly in the distance.
    Traveling north, after leaving the low promontory, we pass along narrow borders of table land, with swelling hills in the rear, and occasionally mountain spurs and ridges come down to the shore, rendering some of the passes extremely difficult. Several large streams occur, which can only be passed by ferrying or swimming; rocky boulders occur all along in the bluffs, and frequently extend a considerable distance to sea. The rock is of an igneous character, basaltic trap and conglomerate occurring with little variation. In the beds of the streams which we passed are great varieties of pebbles, including quartz, gneiss, and many other varieties. This characteristic holds, with little variation, to Port Orford, about thirty miles northwest from the mouth of Rogue River, or, as it is now called, Gold River, by authority of the Oregon Legislature.
    From Port Orford reaching some ten miles and including Cape Blanco is mostly table land, some portions of which has rather an undulating surface; continuing north some twelve miles are low sands extending some miles inland, but from thence to the Coquille River about three miles is a recurrence of the table land; this also continues with a little variation about ten or twelve miles further or near to Cape Gregory. This is a high bold cape with reefs of rocks; the rocks in this vicinity are mostly stratified sandstone. After passing the Cape we arrive at Coos River or Bay, passing which the geological features are suddenly changed; a sand beach, with low sand formation back, extends twenty miles to the Umpqua River and continues twenty miles further to the Siuslaw, extending also about eight miles further to the high promontory whose western verge forms Cape Perpetua. Here then for a distance of about fifty miles we have passed by a hard sandy beach; unbroken, save by the rivers above named, with not a solitary rock on the shore or visible in the sea for the whole distance. This sand formation extends inland, varying from one-fourth of a mile to three miles.
    At Cape Perpetua is a recurrence of the igneous unstratified and conglomerate rock, which continues to a point about three miles north of the Alsea River, being about twenty miles north of Cape Perpetua. At this place the sand formation recurs and extends about twenty miles, beyond which another mountain range comes down and terminates at the sea shore, forming "Cape Foul Weather." The above is a hasty panoramic glance of the appearance along the shore; looking inland, these characteristics become all merged in one general confusion of mountains, peaks and ridges, whose only system or symmetry consists in their total irregularity. This feature holds through a width of from fifty to seventy-five miles, when the country becomes more open and is variously carved and chiseled into mountains and valleys, here exposing the bright color of the precious ore to the delving of the hardy miner, and these spreading a green carpet, profusely studded with fragrant flowers, inviting the repose of the industrious husbandman and careful herdsman.
    Where is a fitter place than this for the development of man's noble destiny? Where the peaks of the mountain, by his side, like the spires of a church point heavenward, directing thither his nobler aspirations. Let him but ascend to the summit of one and he sees in unmistakable characters in the next the word Excelsior! Let him ascend this also and he sees repeated beyond and around him Excelsior! Excelsior! With this motto photographically impressed on his soul his destiny is certain.
    Recurring to the Pacific shore we find at various places along the beach deposits of gold, commingled with gravel and sand; this gold is mostly in fine scales, and always accompanied by black sand. The richest deposits yet discovered are those in the vicinity of Gold River, the Coquille, and Cape Blanco, at which places especially the former two, for miles in extent along the beach, which in some localities yield liberally to the persevering efforts of the miner.
    And beside these localities gold in small quantities and in fine particles, technically called "the color" exists all along on the shore, from Cape St. George to the Alsea River. I have found it at the Coos, the Umpqua, and the Siuslaw rivers, and in the vicinity of the Alsea. It is known to exist further south than the limits of my examination, and I have no doubt they extend further north.
    These deposits are found from one to three feet below the surface of the bench between the ebb and flow of the tides, and are covered at such depth with refuse sand and gravel. The gold thus deposited exists in a stratum of sand and gravel of an inch or so, to one or two feet in thickness, underlaid by a bed of blue clay or of hard gravel.
    Much speculation has existed among miners and others relative to the source of this gold, and the manner of its deposit; some have supposed it to have been carried out of the adjacent rivers in fine scales, with the sand, and thrown on the shore by the upheaving of the waves; others, that it is thrown up in like manner from the bed of the ocean, where they suppose there exists an inexhaustible supply; others still, suppose it to be deposited in some way by the washing of the bluff, for these deposits are in nearly all cases found opposite such bluffs, which are the termini of disintegrating table land; but they have not been able to show why it should exist in such quantity in deposit, when it is known that although gold is found to be extensively dispersed through the different strata of the bluff, yet the deposit in any given area is many times greater than all which exists in an equal area through all the different strata of the bluff from the surface downward.
    The explanation I offered and theory I advanced some months ago, in a communication more ample than this, embracing a greater variety of detail, and designed for publication elsewhere, is substantially as follows:
    It being admitted, as observation shows, that fine gold, though sparsely scattered, exists in most or all the strata composing the bluffs, which in nearly all cases exist opposite the deposits; I imagine that by the action of the waves at the foot of the bluff; at extreme high tides, the bank is undermined, and the crumbling portions deposit the heavier particles of gold at the base; and by the agitation caused by the rolling surf the sand and gravel on the surface become disturbed, and the heavier particles of gold and black sand settle to the lowest accessible points among the lighter sand and gravel of the beach thus disturbed, which is usually in contact, or nearly so with some stratum too unyielding or too low to be thus disturbed by the waves; and as this process proceeds continually, that deposited at one period near the base of the bluff will after a lapse of ages, by the recession of the bluff, be found at considerable distance therefrom; which, on account of the slope of the beach, although at first deposited at some depth, is now become exposed to the direct action of the surf, which action forces it up again to extreme high water line, where the agitation again causes it to become embedded as before, and hence as this action continues through a long succession of ages, or during the destruction of a large extent of land, we have deposited the gathered wealth of all the disintegrated land for unknown ages, laved and accumulated by the rolling action of the waves; and that which was once scattered as the winds is in this manner collected by Nature's mechanical laboratory for the use of man. How grateful ought the successful miner to be, to the power which has thus so diligently collected and kept in store for him this deposit.
    These deposits do in all cases, and, I imagine, can only exist consequent on the disintegration of a stratified formation; secondary, as composed to the primal range. For although it should be shown that gold exists among all the materials composing the hills and mountains; yet the accumulation could only be effected on a stratified bed of a sufficient consistence and uniformity, and at a suitable depression below the flow of the tide to receive and hold the current deposit and accumulations. These qualities cannot exist in an unstratified formation; for in such case, no uniform bed would be formed to receive and retain it, but the gold first deposited would become in a manner indefinitely commingled with the accompanying gravel; and if by continual agitation it should not at first be caused to descend too far, it would by the subsequent action--as it should be nearly exposed by the slope of the bank, become again so disturbed as to seek and acquire a lower station, and would so continue. Hence no accumulation could exist; and no more would exist in any given area on the beach than formerly existed in an equal area in the superior strata of the bluff. The stratum containing the gold deposit is usually found underlaid by a bed of blue clay, or gravel, or hard sand, which bed is always an original stratum and base of the bluff. The deposit seldom approaches nearer than eight or ten feet to the angle of the bluff; nor does it often continue fully to the line of ebb tide.
    The deposits in the vicinity of Gold River extend about two miles south and nearly eight miles north, with occasional interruptions by rocky bluffs intervening. The table bluff, on the south tide, is low, not exceeding ten or fifteen feet--the land being sandy for a mile or so back, and nearly destitute of soil; but that on the north side is from thirty to eighty feet high, and covered with a soil of rich vegetable mold two feet deep, underlaid by a substratum of clay. Below this is gravel and sand alternately, with occasional rocky boulders. On the beach are many large oval-shaped pebbles of gneiss, measuring from two to five inches across and from one to two inches thick, being originally deposited from the bluff. Some of the mining claims here yield rich returns. Evidence exists that a large extent of table land has here yielded to the encroachments of the sea; for extensive reefs of rocks, such as are exposed by the bluff, extend in some places many miles at sea.
    The deposits in the vicinity of the Coquille River are in many respects similar to those just described, and are of equal or greater richness. They commence about two miles south of the river, where the beach is considerably interrupted by rocks, and extends, with some few interruptions, for about twelve miles north. At a distance of five miles from the Coquille is Randolph City--a mining town of about one hundred houses. Here the bluff is about sixty feet high, and its stratification, observed by me, is as follows, viz:

	1st	Soil sandy loam	1 foot deep
	2nd	Clay and sand alternating	15 feet deep
	3rd	Sand and fine gravel, reddish and gray	15 feet deep
	4th	Sand with some gravel	12 feet deep
	5th	Peat, which could be divided in flakes like bark	2 feet deep
	6th	Sand, yellowish and bluish clay	2 feet deep
	7th	Hard indurated gravel, conglomerate with iron oxide	2 feet deep

    The peat bed or stratum No. 5 extends nearly a mile in the bluff, and in some places is three or four feet thick; and where the peat terminates it is replaced by blue clay, which is from four to eight feet thick.
    Here in the peat stratum, and in the blue clay are the remains of a forest, buried some fifty feet below the surface. These consist of the trunks and limbs of trees lying horizontally, the stumps and roots in their natural positions in the blue clay or peat, which was originally the soil on which they grew; large trees and stumps several feet in diameter, in a tolerable state of preservation, are numerous. On the beach are immense numbers of blocks of petrified wood, partly rounded by attrition. These I found, on examination, are the debris of the fourth and fifth strata in the bluff. A great variety of pebbles, including all the prismatic colors, and many of them translucent, are lying on the beach, also deposited from the bluff. The components of the bluff at Cape Blanco are mostly similar to those at Gold River, except that there is a stratum of sea shells high up in the bluff in some places. Some of the deposits here, though more limited, have yielded extremely well. The washings at Port Orford are of this formation.
    It is asked where was this fine gold derived, and how was it originally disposed in the bluff or table land where it is known to exist? We may ask, at the same time, how and when was this table land formed; what convulsions or what event caused whole forests, swamps, and hillocks to be buried at a depth of some fifty feet by alternating strata of gravel and sand? Was it at a certain period of the earth's history that these shores, that these mountains and hills were submerged, were lost in the ocean, and then by the hand of Omnipotence taken up and rinsed, as man would rinse a fleece, suffering the washings from a thousand hills to be gathered in horizontal strata, as planes in the valley? Was it by recurring surges of the great, the mighty deep that these shores, these hills, were submerged and reclaimed? Then, indeed, we may suppose the gold, as it may have had an anterior existence among the hills, should accompany the other disrupted integrals, and become a component of the table lands, and of the deposits thereby imposed.
    Our inquiry is no removed but one step further. How was it originally disposed among the hills? Did it originally exist in solution, or in combinations, as with quartz, distributing itself as other gross materials, and afterwards set free from its solvent or matrix? or was it thrown up by internal convulsions from the bowels of the earth, distributing itself in golden flakes, as snow on the hilltops and in the valleys? Each may answer according to his fancy, or may still remain in doubt.
    North of Cape Perpetua is a bluff and beach, similar in many of its features to that at Randolph. A forest is here, in like manner, buried some thirty feet beneath a superincumbent mass of gravel and sand; a stratum of peat, three or four feet thick is exposed in the bluff; black sand is abundant on the beach. Gold exists here, but it is extremely fine--scarcely more than microscopic. The accumulation has not taken place here as in other places referred to, either on account of its extreme fineness or the lack of a proper stratum for a bed. The gold, which was "prospected" by some experienced miners from the gold beach at Randolph, at my suggestion, is found more generally diffused in the sand, but is immensely finer. It was deemed to be impracticable to work the beach profitably at present; but with cheapened labor and improved machinery, it may be done. All the beach gold I have yet seen north of Cape Gregory is extremely fine like this above described. Let it not be supposed that because gold is so generally diffused along this part of the Pacific Coast that profitable washings exist „on all places on the beach, or that their occurrence is only accidental. These only occur at such locations where a stratified formation has been disintegrated, and a suitable substratum for a bed exists, and a beach is formed thereon. I would as soon look for gold at the foot at the table bluff at Cape St. George, or that at Point Conception in the south, as at Cape Blanco, if a proper beach and suitable circumstances for its collection existed at those former places.
    I have only glanced at subjects of geological and mineralogical interest of which this portion of the coast is fruitful. Copious indications of coal exist through all this section; a vein has recently been struck about three miles south of Gold River. Large fields of it exist between the Coquille and Coos rivers. Indications are abundant on the Umpqua and Siuslaw rivers. Lead ore is reported to exist at the Alsea River. Having been employed by residents of Empire City and Coos Bay to make a reconnaissance of their coal fields with a view of connecting them with the city and bay by a railway, I found the distance of the outcropping of one of the principal veins to be about three miles from the city, and at an elevation of about 249 feet above the wharf at that place, and moreover a highly practical route for a railroad with a descending grade to the bay. The coal veins, which vary from two to ten feet in thickness, run horizontally through the bluff, and are miles in extent. Some veins of the coal are immediately on the bay, but those referred to above are considered the most pure and valuable.
Daily Alta California, San Francisco, August 26, 1854, page 2

    THE ROGUE RIVER COUNTRY.--A correspondent of the California Farmer gives the following description of this, the finest portion of Oregon:
    Since my return I have paid a visit to the famed Rogue River, and if I had every gift of language, I could not find words to convey to you my exceeding delight. The river called Rogue River is a most beautiful sheet of water, commanding at its mouth a good and safe harbor for inland trade, abounding with immense quantities of fine salmon, and would afford not only the most accessible but the most lucrative salmon fisheries in this region. The lands adjoining and in the immediate vicinity of its entrance into the ocean are of the most valuable class for grazing and farming purposes. The winter, I am informed, is the most pleasant part of the year, and the heat not greater than a Maryland May.
    The timothy grows in common, together with luxuriant bluegrass and red top, which you well know render the lands of Kentucky so extremely valuable for grazing purposes. A visit to this place is worth a trip across the Atlantic.
    You would be surprised to see the herds of the most beautiful cattle that luxuriate upon the gentle slopes of the hillsides, so burdened with fat as to render them dull and sluggish; and what is most remarkable, they become fat and fit for the market in 6 or 8 weeks after being taken from the drove. The lands which I have alluded to are government lands, and can be secured by the preemption law; and for a very small expenditure, certain points can be secured to control a very extensive range of grazing country.--[John S. Webster.
Sacramento Daily Union, February 13, 1856, page 2


Wabash Express, Terre Haute, Indiana, October 25, 1854, page 1


    The report of T. P. Robinson, surveyor of the Crescent City-Yreka Plank and Turnpike Road, is published in this issue, and it being lengthy, we extract the following from it: The topography of that section of this county lying between the sea coast on the west, the Siskiyou Range of mountains on the east, the Klamath River on the south and Rogue River on the north, is such that a casual observer would consider a route for a road through it to be an entire impracticability. The great barrier is the Siskiyou Range. It is the southern continuation of the Cascade Mountains in Oregon, and forms the divide between the waters of the Klamath on the south, and Rogue and Smith rivers on the north. Yreka is the most promising inland town in the northern part of the state. It lies in nearly the same latitude with Crescent City and about sixty or seventy miles east. The entire length of the road to be made is 39.30 miles. The greatest elevation reached is 3567.25 feet above high tidewater. The total cost of the road is estimated to be $82,618.80.
Del Norte Record, Crescent City, December 31, 1892, page 1




    In the autumn of 1854, while on a business trip to Southern Oregon, I was overtaken by ex-Judge Pratt, on his way to Jacksonville to get acquainted with the people, as he intended to become a candidate before the Democratic convention to be held in the following spring to nominate a delegate to Congress. As I was for Lane and knew pretty well how he stood in the estimation of the people in the southern counties, I ventured to suggest to him that he would encounter much opposition in that section. He, however, nothing daunted, believed that he could readily overcome it. He was a man of rare qualities, a good lawyer and a learned judge. He was very proud and dignified, a fine talker and a very entertaining man. He was readily the peer of the foremost men of the territory, and by many regarded the superior of all. We stopped at the Robinson House, kept at that time by its proprietor, Dr. Robinson, who was a Whig. He treated his guests with great courtesy and much consideration, as his name was well known and he had been much in evidence in the papers of that day.
    I left the judge with the host, with the request that he introduce him to persons who might come into the hotel, which he promised to do, and I went out to see some people on business. On returning to the hotel later, I found the judge busily engaged in "making his canvass." He stood before the bar, a thing he was never known to do before in Oregon. He was arrayed in a faultless suit, including a silk hat and a high shirt collar. In the parlance of the times, he wore a "stove-pipe hat" and a "biled shirt with a stake-and-ridered collar." His boon companions were miners in their rough garb, ranged along the bar on both sides of him. The judge was a good talker, and he was giving them the best he had for the occasion, and they were listening with apparent interest. As soon as they caught his drift, however, they looked at each other knowingly, as they were ardent admirers of General Lane, having met him during the Indian war of the year previous. One tall miner reached down to his boot, drew out a long knife and took the silk hat off the judge's head, saying, "This stove-pipe is too high by a j'int." Suiting the action to the word, he slashed it into two parts, and slapping the parts together, put it back on the judge's head. Pratt took this all in good part, and set up the drinks, which at this juncture was the only thing in order.
    Pratt had long, curly hair, black and glossy. The miner's next performance was to cut off a lock, saying as he did so that it was the "puttiest ha'r he had ever seed," that he must have just one lock for a keepsake, and that he hoped no offense to him, as he loved him. With that he threw his arms around the judge and gave him a good hug. With a wonderful exhibition of good nature and tact, Pratt took it all pleasantly. This somewhat nonplussed the miner, and if he had any further designs upon his victim he evidently abandoned them, as he remarked, on putting away his knife, that he would not take off the top rail of his "stake-and-ridered" collar.
    They bade each other good night and parted, apparently the best of friends. The next morning I complimented the judge upon his successful entrance upon his canvass, and he seemed to be very well satisfied with the outcome of it. He had seen much of the world, but this was the first time he had seen this corner of it. He went over to Sterling the next day and then returned to the Willamette Valley.
George E. Cole, Early Oregon: Jottings of Personal Recollections of a Pioneer of 1850, 1905, pages 66-68


    OREGON.-- By the arrival of the Columbia from Portland, Oregon, at San Francisco, we have the following items of Oregon news up to August 20. Great improvements have been made throughout Umpqua Valley during the past year. Sawmills, grist mills, and good substantial dwellings are being erected.
Illinois Daily Journal, Springfield, October 7, 1854, page 3


    ILLINOIS VALLEY, about forty-two miles from Crescent City, is some fifteen miles long and fifteen wide, and well adapted to agriculture. The valley is well watered and there are already a number of farms under cultivation, on which during the past summer an abundance of vegetables, melons and pumpkins have been raised. Here are also the mines of Sailor Diggings, to which water has been brought, in two ditches, at a cost of $75,000, and which are calculated to give steady employment to 1500 miners.
    ROGUE RIVER VALLEY is about one hundred miles by present circuitous road from Crescent City. We learn that in twenty townships 230,000 acres, or 360 square miles, have already been surveyed. Numerous valleys of lesser size, for instance Applegate Valley, embosom the gold-bearing confluents of Rogue River. This section, situated near the boundary line of Oregon, already famous for its productive mines, will at an early day become not less celebrated for its agricultural wealth. Jacksonville and Sterlingtown are at present the principal towns there.
"Agriculture," The Pacific, San Francisco, December 1, 1854, page 2


    THINGS IN GENERAL.--Notwithstanding there is a prevalent disposition on the part of some of those who sojourn among us to cry down everything in Oregon, and a proclivity to institute invidious comparisons between the old States and their nativity, and this new country, Oregon still continues to progress, as fast as any Territory which ever belonged to the Union.
    Oregon, very naturally, in the last four years, has seen many changes--and changes for the better in most instances. Four years ago people complained of the scarcity of merchandise, and the conveniences and comforts of life in the way of products of the farm, comfortable tenements and congenial associations. Then, gold was relatively plenty in our midst. Now, by the course and fortune of trade, the shining ore is not so plentiful as formerly, and the complaint is now grumbled forth that the money is all gone from the country. But is Oregon less prosperous now than then? Are her people less happy and contented? Is her population which has increased from 15,000 to 50,000 no permanent acquisition to the country?
    Four years ago one small river steamer, the Columbia, made a trip occasionally between Astoria and Portland, Milwaukie and Oregon City. This constituted all the steam power that then navigated the waters of the Columbia. Her place has been filled by not less than eight river steamers, five of which run daily on the waters of the lower Willamette and Columbia rivers. The upper Willamette has now three or four steamers on its waters where four years ago the row boat and Indian canoe constituted its whole navigating fleet. Then it was several days travel to Salem in open boats, or by land over bad roads, on jaded ponies. Now a day or so is only required to perform the same journey on board a steamer, or in a comfortable stage.
    Four years ago Southern Oregon, with the exception of Umpqua, was not settled. Rogue River Valley was an Indian wild. Since that time three large and wealthy counties almost like magic have sprung into existence, viz: Jackson, Douglas and Coos, while the other counties of the Willamette Valley have steadily increased in population and wealth. All Oregon needs is the development of her natural resources, as the above facts fully demonstrate.
    In former times, fortune hunters in great numbers, came here, not for a permanent residence, but to raise the "dimes" and return to the States. In past times Oregon has suffered injury from such policy, but since it has become to be understood that fortunes cannot be accumulated here in a day, the spirit of wild and reckless speculation has given way to a more rational and sound policy in business transactions, and it is better for the permanent interests of the country that this change has taken place. Hitherto Oregon has suffered from the fictitious value placed upon everything, with an idea entertained that no changes could affect them; and Oregon business matters are very much like a fever patient when the malady leaves him, weak, but out of danger. From a hasty general view of Oregon, past and present, which we have seen, we are inclined to the belief that Oregon was never, in all respects, so permanently prosperous as at present, though the money market be stringent, and a general disposition manifested by the "croaking" fraternity to find fault and cry the country down.--Times.
San Joaquin Republican, Stockton, California, December 22, 1854, page 2